What can we do about it?
When we focus on the gender pay gap, we too often focus on “fixing it for women” by, for example, encouraging more aggressive bargaining or increasing incentives for transfers and long working hours.
But what if we instead focused on redesigning systems? We saw a glimpse of this future during the COVID-19 pandemic, where remote work becomes the norm. We know that the rise in remote work has coincided with an increase in the number of women applying for technical roles because it eliminates the need to relocate. This is a natural experiment that clearly shows how women’s participation increases when structural barriers are removed.
There are some other structural changes as well. The first step is to make flexibility the default rather than the exception. For example, instead of treating remote working as the exception and on-premises working as the norm, flexible roles should be designed from the beginning. The barrier is cultural, as the infrastructure for remote work clearly exists.
The next step is to ensure career mobility is no longer dependent on moving between companies. This has long been a question, and it betrays the value of being able to progress internally, for both employers and employees. This is beneficial for all employees, not just women, but certainly for those facing mobility constraints.
We also need to reevaluate our expectations for the hours we want people to work. We know that people increasingly value a good work-life balance, and that a good work-life balance does not negatively impact productivity. Extended working hours and constant availability do not reflect true needs as much as organizational culture.
Last but not least, we need to ensure equitable access to projects involving new technologies. Our research shows that exposure to these technologies is the key to getting ahead at work. It is therefore important that access to these opportunities is equitably distributed and not given to those who work long hours or are able to relocate quickly.
