Women History Month, Now What!?

I am sure for the month of March, you have and will continue to hear about the wonderful contributions from women to keep the world moving! Let's talk policies that can help economically empower women around the world! Let's keep pushing for policies through advocacy in which ever space you occupy. Together our voices can lead to policy changes.

There is a lot of space to introduce policies that will encourage and improve women's participation in economic activities. Because of development needs and wages, women's need-to-work differs across regions and nations, but even when personal working preferences are taken into account, policies can have a significant impact on women's hiring practices. In general, policies that seek to invest in health, education, financial inclusion result in promoting equal opportunities for women, and the infrastructure will help low-income and developing countries the most. Making investments in proper healthcare for females, particularly in developing countries, can have a significant economic effect. Women can access work at various levels and regions in developing countries that have made investments in the infrastructure by providing safe transportation, mobile networks, and safer highways. Mexico is an excellent example of this, having introduced public transportation buses which will be used only for the females to allow women to travel openly and safely.

In certain cases, improved infrastructure can lead to improved results in various other social metrics. For example, having sanitation facilities in India can help protect females from gender abuse, which can help in increasing attendance in the schools. Gender disparity continues across the world and can be seen in many forms. Enhancing women's empowerment is critical for economic development.

We can't address policies to women economic empowerment without addressing the obvious pay gap between black women and white women in America. Yes, I said it United States, lets be honest, after nearly 57years of the Civil Rights Acts, equal pay remain far fetch for many women especially Black women. Payscale report on Racial Wage Gap shows "Black women earn $0.97 for every dollar earned by a white man with the same job and qualifications. Black men see a pay gap of $0.98. The median pay for white men in the sample used was $74,500, thus the controlled median pay for black women is $72,300 – 97 percent of white men’s earnings in the same job". https://www.payscale.com/data/racial-wage-gap . Now that the obvious has been stated. While we wait on policies to be favorable to hard working women of color, we encourage learning salary and benefits negotiation before accepting offers.

Regardless where we find ourselves, speak up, start with yourself, self advocacy can help change policies that will impact others years to come. In lieu of addressing the benefits of economic empowerment of women, read about salary negotiation 101 in our next blog.