No. CCXLII; April 28, 2016
THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:
I. Tech Companies and the Pay Gap
II. Showcasing Women in U.S. Currency
III. Youth and Digital Entrepreneurship
I. Tech Companies and the Pay Gap
Whether stung by ongoing press reports about Silicon Valley’s ‘hostile’ environment for women or the sheer need to recruit and to retain talent, well-known technology companies have been touting their internal audits indicating the lack of a pay gap between their female and male employees. Microsoft, Facebook, Intel have announced the results of their own assessments of their employees’ salaries showing pay equity in place. “For every $1 earned by men, our female employees in the U.S. earn 99.8 cents at the same job tile and level,” stated Microsoft’s HR Head Kathleen Hogan in a blog. (Source: “Tech Giants Tout Equal Pay for Workers in Same Jobs,” Washington Post, 4/13/16)
While a gender pay gap may be lessening in these companies, critics point to a position gap that shows a deeper problem: women hold only 23% of senior roles at Facebook and 17.3% at Microsoft. Tech career site Dice reports that men are much more likely to hold better-paying tech jobs than women. In the U.S., both at the state and federal levels, there is a move to address this issue. President Obama has proposed rules that require large companies to report salary data based on race, gender and ethnicity to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. California’s Fair Pay Act requires companies based in the state to prove they pay women and men equally for similar jobs. There is also a move among some investment funds to require companies in which they have holdings to show transparency in their salaries among male/female employees.
America’s ally across the pond, the U.K., is also now actively enforcing transparency in wages, beginning March 2016, from companies with at least 250 employees to help decrease the pay gap. The government estimates that equalizing women’s pay with that of men’s could add 10% to the U.K. economy by 2030 or $860 billion. (Source: “Remedies to Close a Stubborn Wage Gap in U.K. are Ready,” Women’s eNews, 4/21/16) At this year’s Global Summit of Women in Warsaw, June 9-11th, an entire session has been allocated to showcase best practices in addressing the continuing pay inequities that women workers face globally. What companies are doing to eradicate pay disparities among women and men will be shared. To find out more about the 2016 Summit, please log on to www.globewomen.org/globalsummit.
II. Showcasing Women in U.S. Currency
While countries as disparate as Japan, the U.K. and Canada have long depicted women in their currencies, the U.S. has been a laggard. However, after decades of entreaties by women’s groups, movie stars, and social media activists, the U.S. Treasury finally announced that the US $20 bill would now eject segregationist and slave holder Andrew Jackson and replace him with Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist who led slaves to freedom from the South to the North through the Underground Railroad.
In addition, the back of the $10 bill will have the images of the Suffragists who fought for women’s right to vote, while the back of the $5 will have images of civil rights leaders. Designs for these changes will not appear until 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment which gave U.S. women the right to vote, and will not go into circulation until a decade later. Regardless, the inclusion of women in U.S. paper currency is a much-needed acknowledgment of the roles American women have played in helping to build a more inclusive society. (Source, “Harriet Tubman Ousts Andrew Jackson in Change for a $20,” New York Times, 4/20/16)
III. Youth & Digital Entrepreneurship
Globally, women have become the engine behind small business growth, so that 30% of SMEs are now women-owned and growing. Young women, unlike their older counterparts, tend to develop more tech-based enterprises. The June 2016 Global Summit of Women will feature young women innovators from Poland in its Youth Forum.
One such achiever is sixteen-year-old high schooler Katarzyna Chrapko, who has won national and international recognition for inventing the use of infrared and low-energy light for noninvasive treatment of diseased organs through regeneration of tissues. For this groundbreaking invention, she was awarded the gold medal at Brussels Inova 2014, Taiwan Changua International Youth Invention Exhibition and Poster Contest in China 2015. (Source: Echodnia.eu, 10/28/15)
Another young innovator is Olga Malinkiewicz, whose goal is a world where the most advanced solar technology can be purchased by the meter at the supermarket, installed in two minutes without the help of a technician, and disintegrate at the end of its life cycle. A materials scientist and entrepreneur, Olga gave up her postdoctoral studies at the University of Linköping (Sweden) in September, 2014 to found the company Saule Technologies and pursue her dreams. To this end, this young woman focused on taking a mineral that could revolutionize the solar energy industry, perovskite, to the mass market. The promise of her invention has resulted in global investors knocking on her door. (Source: MIT Technology Review)
Bringing technology to the world of furniture design is Hanna Kokczynska, Co-Founder of Tylko, a company which created an app that enables consumers to customize and to visualize designer furniture based on the requirements of their space. Now operating in three countries, Tylko has plans to expand to other parts of the globe. Hanna, Katarzyna and Olga are at the cutting edge of change that will shape Poland’s future economy.
At the Global Summit of Women, a side event is a Hackathon that will enable young women to create tech-based business ideas within a 48-hour period. Winners from the Hackathon will be announced at the Summit’s Closing ceremony on Saturday, June 11th. To see a video from the Hackathon held in conjunction with the 2014 Global Summit of Women in Paris, click here.
Click here to see what else will be happening at 2016 Summit in Poland.
JOIN THE 2016 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN IN WARSAW, POLAND, JUNE 9-11TH AT THE WARSAW HILTON.
FOR DETAILS AND TO REGISTER, GO TO WWW.GLOBEWOMEN.ORG.
CLICK ON PHOTOS BELOW
TO HEAR FROM IWONA GEORGIJEW, PARTNER, DELOITE CENTRAL EUROPE AND DOMINIKA BETTMAN, CFO OF SIEMENS POLAND, BELOW ON WHY YOU SHOULD GO TO THE SUMMIT.
Iwona Georgijew, Partner, Deloitte Central Europe
Dominika Bettman, Chief Financial Officer, Siemens Poland
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