I read a Harvard Business Review article on Facebook yesterday (don’t judge) that gave a horrifying stat: if there’s only one woman in your candidate pool, there’s statistically no chance she’ll be hired. In the HBR series of studies, they showed that if you have one woman in a group of four candidates, she has a 0 percent chance of being hired. If two out of four candidates are women, her odds break even. To have a greater than 50/50 chance of being hired, at least three out of four of the candidates have to be women.
Three out of four.
That’s because humans, apparently, like the status quo. We feel comfortable with how things are. If more men are in the room, we believe more men should stay in the room. And vice versa. Change is scary. Consider the thought of a woman president: to choose one, we want to know that she’s not different from the norm. If she’s the only candidate, ever, there must be something wrong with her. She must be unhinged, unbalanced, and possibly brain-damaged, according to some.
Last night I had the privilege of attending D Magazine’s Best Docs party. It appeared to be an impressively diverse group based on race and gender, although for those whom I didn’t personally know or wasn’t able to read their name tags, I don’t know for sure if they were doctors or significant others.
But I did have a chat with one female surgeon, an incredible local talent. After we hugged and complimented each other’s dresses, I mentioned the HBR article.
“You know, it’s worse for surgeons,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“There was a recent Wall Street Journal article that shows the pay gap for women in highly educated professions is the greatest. Women physicians make 64 percent of what their male counterparts make. As a surgeon, I’d be thrilled to make 64 percent. My colleague, with the same job, makes more than two-and-a-half times as much as me.”
I looked up the study when I got home. As a lawyer, my odds were 79 percent. As an editor, they’ve actually increased to 87 percent. My sister, a middle school teacher, averages 92 percent of a lot less money.
The WSJ’s interactive graphic chart would be super cool if it weren’t so depressing.
To get to 99 percent? You’ve got to go down to a virtually unlivable wage. We should have all become fast food workers or truck drivers.
Dallas, here’s a thought. We spend a lot of time courting corporations with tax breaks and large land parcels and various other amenities. What if we could also boast one of the strongest medical (or fill in any other skilled profession) communities in the nation, because we paid the fairest wage to women and minority doctors and surgeons? That would be something worthy of a party.
