New report shows gender pay gap won't close any time soon

Woman shouldn’t expect to be paid the same as men for a while, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.

The Global Gender Gap report, published this month, predicted wage equality will come in 257 years, based on how long it has taken for the wage gap to get where it is now.

Across the globe, on average, women make about 40% less than men, the report found.

The report measures global progress for women in categories including economics, health, participation in politics and education. It ranked 153 countries in the four categories. The U.S. dropped two spots from last year, falling to No. 53.

The report highlights worldwide gaps between men and women as a result of disproportionate access to credit, burden of household and percentage of the labor market.

For Jessie Ramey, director of the Women’s Institute and associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Chatham University, many of the report’s findings ring true in Pittsburgh. Ramey serves as chairwoman of the city’s Gender Equity Commission, which began in 2018 with the purpose of gathering data on intersectional gender discrimination and using it to create a five-year plan for improvements.

Ramey said women in Pittsburgh suffer from the same economic disparities described in the global report. Many are stuck in mid- to lower-level positions, dealing with wage stagnation and income inequality.

Equal pay has become a growing concern in Pennsylvania. Campus communities and activists have held Equal Pay Day rallies in support of better paycheck protection laws and other legislative measures.

“What’s really disappointing and, frankly, scary about this year’s report is the economic gap is widening,” Ramey said.

But to understand the full context of economic inequality in Pittsburgh, Ramey said, people can’t just look at gender — inequality must be viewed with race, age, disability and other classifications.

Junia Howell, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh who helped write the Gender Equity Commission’s first report in September, said this is the only way to understand the true scope of the problem.

“Gender cannot be divorced from other categories, especially race,” said Howell. “Yes, Pittsburgh has gender inequities, and these need to be addressed. But we must consider how these inequities manifest different across race, class, religion, etc.”

The commission’s report on Pittsburgh found that white women in the city make only 78 cents to every dollar of white men. Black women make only 54 cents to every dollar white men make. Other minority women make 59 cents to every dollar of white men.

In addition to pay, the Gender Equity Commission discovered that black women Pittsburgh were disadvantaged in areas including maternal mortality, employment, poverty and college readiness.

“It turns out that the thing we should be focusing on is black women’s economic inequality,” Ramey said.

Many American cities struggle to make incremental change toward equity. Ramey said the Gender Equity Commision’s report was the first document that put Pittsburgh in a national comparative framework, highlighting particular areas where Pittsburgh needs improvement.

This month’s World Economic Forum report, meanwhile, identifies more areas of inequality that can be viewed through a Pittsburgh lens, she said. The report mentions how automation in the workplace is disproportionately affecting women, something Ramey said Pittsburgh will have to address in its growing tech scene.

There are also brighter spots in the report.

Globally, women have made great strides in political representation. This is one area that is especially positive for Pennsylvania and for Pittsburgh, in particular, Ramey said. Women make up about a quarter of the state’s General Assembly, and Pittsburgh has made efforts to increase the number of women on boards and commissions.

Ramey said the new World Economic Forum report is an excellent source for research, and she plans to dive deeper into its contents with her students in the spring.