What is the History of Gender Income Equality?


Levo has created a useful infographic that details the history of the gender income gap. There are some interesting quotes and facts throughout, just like the entire Levo website.


Takeaways:


  • In 1963 John F. Kennedy made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. Previously, women would earn 59 cents whilst men earned $1 for the same task.
  • Levo launched in 2012, with the aim to help young women's careers and work towards a future where there is no income or achievement disparity between men and women.
  • This year, more than 50% of households have women breadwinners.
  • If the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio continues, parity of pay between men and women will be met by 2058.
  • On average, women only earn 77 cents for every $1 a man makes.

RELATED: The Gender Gap: which of Paris or London is the friendliest to women bankers?


History_equal_pay

Transcript:


The History of Gender Income Equality


A brief history of speaking up

  • 1869: "Join the union, girls, and together say equal pay for equal work." - Susan B. Anthony
  • 1963: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate". - President John F. Kennedy. Kennedy signs the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which makes it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. At this time women made on average 59 cents for every $1 that men earned.
  • 1972: "Women are paid unequally. It's outrageous because they are kind of indentured when they graduate." - Gloria Steinem. Steinem launches Ms. Magazine, the pilot print run of 300,000 sold out nationwide in three days.
  • 1979: Women earn 62 cents per $1 earned by men, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • 2003: "You get in life what you have the courage to ask for." - Oprah Winfrey. Oprah becomes the first African-American billionaire; she will be alone on that list until 2013.
  • 2009: "Women still earn just 77 cents for every $1 men make. Those pennies add up to real money." - Lilly Ledbetter. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is signed.
  • 2011: "Just because there are parameters that have been set, doesn't mean that they can't be flown open." - Chelsea Handler (on negotiating a $25 million two-year deal with the F2 network)
  • March, 2012: Levo.com launches - The mission: help elevate and support young women's careers during the first 10 years of their professional success, while working toward our vision of a future where there is no income or achievement disparity between women and men across industries.
  • April, 2011: "Today is equal pay day, because today marks the day which shows how far into 2012 women must work to earn what men earned in 2011 in the US. This has real impacts for women not just each year but over their lifetime." - Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In is published the next year.
  • 2013: "Having it all means having the same work and family choices that men do." - Anne-Marie Slaughter. Slaughter gives a TED talk on "Can We Have It All?"
  • 2014:
    1. More than 50% of households have women breadwinners.
    2. "Women with college degrees may earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less over the course of their careers than a man at the same educational level, and that's wrong." - President Barack Obama
    3. The Senate revisits the Paycheck Fairness Act: "We want [equal pay] in our law books and in our checkbooks." - Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)
  • 2058: When men and women will reach pay parity IF the pace of change in the annual earnings ratio continues at the same rate it has since 1960.

 

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