{"id":14743,"date":"2018-12-25T18:49:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-25T18:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=14743"},"modified":"2018-12-25T18:49:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T18:49:33","slug":"metoo-workplace-equality-and-the-wave-of-women-3-essential-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/metoo-workplace-equality-and-the-wave-of-women-3-essential-reads\/","title":{"rendered":"#MeToo, workplace equality and the ‘wave of women’: 3 essential reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bryan Keogh<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em> and Nicole Zelniker<\/a>, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that \u2013 for them \u2013 exemplified 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

The impact of #MeToo was arguably one of the biggest stories of 2018, beginning with the steady drumbeat of resignations of high-powered men accused of sexual misconduct<\/a> and ending with a record number of women entering the U.S. Congress<\/a>. In between, Americans wrestled with what gender equality really means in the workplace. <\/p>\n

1. Women in tech<\/h2>\n

One sector in particular that has struggled to achieve equality is tech, where men get 96 percent of all venture capital funding. Banu Ozkazanc-Pan<\/a>, a management professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, says Americans\u2019 strong belief that their country is a meritocracy is one the biggest threats<\/a> to it actually being so. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe meritocracy myth \u2026 means that women are constantly told that all they have to do to get more of that $22 billion or so in venture capital funding is make better pitches or be more assertive,\u201d she writes. \u201cThe assumption is that women aren\u2019t trying hard enough or doing the right things to get ahead, not that the way venture capitalists offer funding is itself unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Trouble in board land<\/h2>\n

Tech isn\u2019t the only space where women have a tough time breaking in. The highest echelons of corporate America \u2013 the boardrooms \u2013 are still out of reach for most women. <\/p>\n

In fact, barely 15 percent of the board seats<\/a> of companies in the Standard & Poor\u2019s 1500 index were held by women in 2014, up modestly from 9.7 percent in 2003, explain business and entrepreneurship professors Yannick Thams, Bari Bendell and Siri Terjesen. <\/p>\n

They looked deeper into the data on a state-by-state level to reveal some startling findings \u2013 and also point to some potential solutions that could increase boardroom diversity. Instituting quotas \u2013 such as the one California passed in 2018<\/a> \u2013 is one idea. Another is more training. <\/p>\n

\u201cMaking it into the highest echelons of a corporation is very difficult and typically requires opportunity for training and access to social networks, both of which are jeopardized when, for example, women suffer harassment on the job or incur a \u2018motherhood penalty,\u2019\u201d they write. <\/p>\n

3. What the \u2018wave of women\u2019 could mean<\/h2>\n

The year ended on a more encouraging note as a record number of women \u2013 over 100 \u2013 were elected to Congress. The question now is whether it\u2019ll make a difference in terms of policy, including those that would address the challenges posed by the #MeToo era. <\/p>\n

The past year doesn\u2019t offer much hope<\/a>, writes Elizabeth C. Tippett, a law professor at the University of Oregon. After a year of headlines involving sexual misconduct in a variety of industries, Congress has not passed a single bill, nor held a hearing \u2013 unless you count the Kavanaugh confirmation process, she writes.<\/p>\n

She suggests the new Democratic House treat the issue the same way Congress tackled the financial collapse of 2008. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust as brokers peddling subprime loans were enabled by bad business practices and regulatory gaps, employer indifference to harassment was made possible by out-of-date harassment laws that gave companies a free pass,\u201d Tippett explains. <\/p>\n

By holding hearings and gathering information, the new Congress could begin to treat the endemic workplace problems highlighted by #MeToo as the serious policy issues they deserve to be, she argues.\"The<\/p>\n

Bryan Keogh<\/a>, Economics + Business Editor, The Conversation<\/a><\/em> and Nicole Zelniker<\/a>, Editorial Researcher, The Conversation<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bryan Keogh, The Conversation and Nicole Zelniker, The Conversation Editor\u2019s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that \u2013 for them \u2013 exemplified 2018. The impact of #MeToo was arguably one of the biggest stories of 2018, beginning with the steady drumbeat of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":14739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[277],"tags":[3473,4118,5627,5384,832,272,2069,473,2103,2275,2239,1184,1031,5656,166,5658,1888,5231,13,2197,5655,2812,682,104,1797,5657,185,1738,5659,5660,1753],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14744,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14743\/revisions\/14744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}