Introduction
Gender and inclusion continue to be hot topics both in social spheres and in the workforce. Although women’s movements and social activist efforts have worked to narrow the gender gap in some areas – namely health and survival, and education – other areas seem unaffected. Worse yet, some areas seem to indicate a widening of the gap.
In this report, we examine how the language services industry stacks up to this index by zeroing in on:
- Gender pay gap and;
- Gender and/or sexual orientation discrimination
Information contained in this report
- TL;DR
- Global Gender Index
- Gender Pay Gap perceptions and reality
- Education, gender, and leadership roles
- Women in CEO and leadership positions
- History of gender and sexual discrimination
- LGBT protections within the USA
- Discrimination within the language services industry
- The culture of reporting discrimination
- Most prominent industry sectors with a culture of discrimination
- Moving forward – Proactive measures
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TL;DR – Executive summary
43 percent of men and 35 percent of women within the language services industry are “unsure” if they have ever discriminated against a fellow employee because of their gender or sexual orientation.
How does the United States define sex-based discrimination?
“…treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of that person’s sex. Discrimination against an individual because of gender identity, including transgender status, or because of sexual orientation is discrimination because of sex in violation of Title VII.” EEOC
There is still so much work to be done. Here is what your organization can do to take a more proactive stand against gender gap and discrimination:
- Change company culture in order to eliminate gender and sexual orientation stereotypes
- Continue searching for viable recruits until there is as equal a number as possible of male and female candidates
- Regularly gather data in an effort to open up healthy conversations about all form of discrimination
Now… On to the full report!
Gender disparity has been in existence throughout the millennia. Its presence has been felt on every continent and in virtually every sector. Despite national and international efforts, political gains, and social progress, the gender gap continues to hold on for dear life.
But is it starting to lose ground? While some contend that women’s achievements and grassroots movements throughout the decades have worked to narrow the gender gap, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Index 2017 seems to show a darker side.
The forum compared the latest average global gap of 32 percent to the results of 2016 and found that in fact, the gap had slightly widened:
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With 144 countries involved in their study, the World Economic Forum focused on four key areas that affect gender equality: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
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And while the gap seems to be significantly narrowing in educational attainment and health and survival, the same cannot be said for economic participation and political empowerment – two areas that affect a woman’s ability to professionally compete at an equal level with her male counterpart and advance her overall economic and political standing.
Economic participation and opportunity
With these disparaging results, and as a follow up to our article entitled, The feminine genius, we decided to run our own survey focusing specifically on two areas within the language services industry:
- Gender pay gap – perceptions and reality, and;
- Discrimination based on gender and/or sexuality
Gender pay gap – perceptions and reality
Chances are, you don’t have the foggiest clue what the person in the cubicle next to you makes…
Pay transparency has long been held as taboo. In fact, it is common for management to strongly discourage open salary discussions which makes gender pay gap a mystery to most. Unless you work for the local, state, or federal government with established pay scales, chances are you don’t have the foggiest clue what the person in the cubicle next to you makes – even if you started at the same time, on the same day, in the same year, and you do the same exact job.
We were curious about the gender pay gap within the language services industry, so we decided to investigate. We surveyed both men and women language services professionals and asked them whether or not they felt there was a gender pay gap within their organization – half of all those surveyed responded in the affirmative.
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We must point out that although the survey was open to both male and female professionals, 85 percent of responses came strictly from those who self-identified as female. Is this because males do not feel as impassioned or affected by the subject matter as do women? Do they feel a collective shame, or is there a possible ‘guilty by association’ complex? Do men tend to shy away from survey participation that deals with gender equality issues? These are difficult – if not downright uncomfortable – questions to both ask and answer, but the truth lies somewhere in the mix, and as the saying goes, the truth shall set us free.
Educational levels, gender, and leadership roles
There is a disproportionately low number of female CEOs and leaders within the language services industry…
Leadership roles within the language services industry are quite diverse. Ranging from titles such as CEOs and Chief Financial Officers, to directors, managers, supervisors, and more, there seems to be plenty of opportunity for advancement. So how are women measuring up to men when it comes to filling these leadership positions?
While it is widely known that women are very well represented within the language services industry in terms of positions held, what may come as a surprise, is that women do not hold a proportional number of the leadership positions within the industry – in fact, our survey indicates that there is a disproportionately low number of female CEOs and leaders within language services.
Interestingly, 87 percent of all male respondents reported that they held leadership roles regardless of educational level or years of experience, while only 64.5 percent of all females surveyed reported that they held leadership positions. When we consider that 85 percent of the respondents were female, this disparity becomes even more alarming since logic dictates that the more respondents, the more chances to report leadership positions.
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Only 32 percent of females with graduate degrees noted that they definitively held or ‘kind of’ held leadership positions within their organization as opposed to 93 percent of males who reported that they held or “kind of held” leadership positions regardless of their level of education.
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The higher the education, the narrower the gender-driven leadership gap
61.5 percent of females in leadership roles noted 10 or more years of experience. By comparison, 57 percent of males in leadership roles noted 10 or more years of experience.
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This statistic would seem to indicate a fairly level playing field among the sexes when it comes to promotional advancement based strictly on years of experience. However, when we compare the percentage of women and men in leadership roles who only have 1 – 5 years of experience, the playing field becomes a little less even:
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This gender-driven leadership gap becomes even more obvious when we compare the number of female respondents who reported not having a leadership role to their male counterparts who reported the same.
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Companies with women in top management positions prove more profitable
Although we are not at liberty to access actual salaries, this survey clearly points to a gender-driven leadership gap, and this in turn assumes that a gender pay gap is likely. If true, this represents a double-edged sword for both women and the industry at large.
A gender pay gap keeps women at a lower salary and limits promotional opportunities, but companies lose too. Several studies in recent years show that companies with women in top management positions prove more profitable.
One such study conducted by Nordea, the largest financial group in Northern Europe, is turning heads. During an 8-year span, Nordea studied 11,000 publicly traded companies around the world and concluded “… that on average companies with a female chief executive officer or a female head of the board of directors had a 25 percent annualized return since 2009, more than double the 11 percent delivered by the MSCI World index.”
History of gender and sexual discrimination
Need we go on? Although it seems that some of these sexist, derogatory sayings are fading into our collective past, there are others that still saturate social dialogue much too often.
The North American culture in particular has been saturated with words and phrases that, when closely examined, indicate male superiority over women. It cannot be understated that this kind of covert, subliminal messaging influences societal norms and values, as well as social interactions, relationships, and workplace protocol.
Of course, sexism is certainly not limited to North America, and it certainly isn’t just the result of the last few decades. In fact, as far back at 467 BCE, Aeschylus, the Greek author of “Seven Against Thebes” wrote:
"Let women stay at home and hold their peace."
To one degree or another, sexism has always been part of our global history, and although it is often thought of as a woman’s plight, men too have stepped forward in recent years to give quite a different take on sexism. Some men feel that there is a double standard when it comes to a man’s and a woman’s expected personal and professional conduct and responsibility, and some argue that they too, are sometimes subjected to discrimination based on their gender and/or sexuality.
And what about men and women who have felt discriminated against not because of their gender, but because of their sexuality? On a global scale, the LGBT community is arguably one of the most discriminated against demographics, and in the United States employment-related non-discrimination laws for the LGBT community are very slow in coming.
| Full LGBT non-discrimination protections | Some LGBT non-discrimination protections | Non-discrimination laws, but lacking gender identity protections | No LGBT non-discrimination protections |
|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | Utah | Wisconsin | Montana |
| Oregon | Indiana | New York | Idaho |
| Nevada | New Hampshire | Arizona | |
| California | Wyoming | ||
| Colorado | North Dakota | ||
| New Mexico | South Dakota | ||
| Minnesota | Kansas | ||
| Iowa | Oklahoma | ||
| Illinois | Texas | ||
| Maine | Louisiana | ||
| Rhode Island | Missouri | ||
| Connecticut | Arkansas | ||
| Vermont | Alabama | ||
| New Jersey | Georgia | ||
| Delaware | Florida | ||
| Massachusetts | Tennessee | ||
| Maryland | Kentucky | ||
| Hawaii | North Carolina | ||
| South Carolina | |||
| Virginia | |||
| West Virginia | |||
| Ohio | |||
| Pennsylvania | |||
| Michigan | |||
| Alaska | |||
| Nebraska | |||
| Mississippi |
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Indeed, there has always been – and continues to be – discrimination against gender and sexuality in the workplace but the fact that we are even having these open discussions indicates progress, albeit at a snail’s pace.
Discrimination in the language services industry
53.3 percent of females surveyed felt discriminated against because of their gender or sexuality
When we asked female respondents if they have ever felt discriminated against with regard to their gender or sexuality in all their years within the language services industry, their answers were almost split down the middle with slightly more answering in the affirmative. However, when the same question was asked to the male respondents, the vast majority claimed to have never felt discriminated against.
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When this question was turned around and the respondents were asked if they may have – either intentionally or not – discriminated against someone in the industry because of their gender or sexuality, the results were quite interesting.
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35 percent of females and 43 percent of males reported being “unsure” if they have ever discriminated against anyone because of their gender or sexuality.”
Not a single female indicated that she had definitively discriminated against anyone because of their gender or sexuality but 35 percent of females were “unsure” if they had. 14 percent of male respondents indicated that they had, in fact, definitively discriminated against a person because of their gender or sexuality, 43 percent of males absolutely denied that they had, and 43 percent were “unsure.”
From our own survey, it seems clear that professionals within the language services industry are confused. These respondents are by and large, experienced and educated professionals so how can so many be unsure if they had discriminated against anyone while at the same time, be so adamant that they had or had not been discriminated against? Where does the line become blurry, and why does it? At what point does flirting with a coworker cross the line, and at what point does a joke among colleagues about one’s private life cross over from harmless to intrusive, to outright discriminatory?
With such high numbers by both male and female respondents who answered that they were unsure, we set out to investigate how the United States defines discrimination when it comes to gender and sexuality.
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), defines “sex-based discrimination” as:
“…treating someone (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of that person’s sex. Discrimination against an individual because of gender identity, including transgender status, or because of sexual orientation is discrimination because of sex in violation of Title VII.” EEOC
It might be worthy of noting here, that well over 50 years ago, the United States’ Justice Department passed the Civil Rights Act, and Title VII of such act states that it is forbidden to discriminate on the grounds of race, skin color, religion, or sex.
But do these legal definitions provide more questions than they do answers? How is “sex” defined in this instance? Should “sex” strictly be interpreted to mean one’s gender or should it also include one’s sexual orientation? And what specifically does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act mean by “discrimination”? Perhaps the most important question though, is who is to blame for such slow-moving progress?
Well, everyone really. Discrimination is rooted in our collective history and in our global traditions and cultures. It has been in existence for so long, and oftentimes in such subtle ways, that long-term psychological effects set in. Victims of discrimination struggle with self-worth and dignity issues while perpetrators assume they have an unspoken permission to continue.
This in turn creates a pattern of not reporting discrimination. It perpetuates a hush culture, and everyone follows suit. And although most of the corporate world now proudly reports having discrimination policies in place, many employees still feel uncomfortable and vulnerable stepping forward, and rarely are the issues discussed in an open forum.
“Approximately 70 percent of individuals who experienced harassment never even talked with a supervisor, manager, or union representative about the harassing conduct.”
In its 2016 “Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace” study, the EEOC set out to uncover why so many discrimination incidents continue, even in the face of:
- Legal liability
- Reputational harm, and;
- Cottage industry of workplace compliance and training
The research not only found that “… approximately 70 percent of individuals who experienced harassment never even talked with a supervisor, manager, or union representative about the harassing conduct”, but that “… the least common response of either men or women to harassment is to take some formal action – either to report the harassment internally or file a formal legal complaint.” The most common reactions were to speak privately to family members or friends, avoid the perpetrator, or try to forget the incident even occurred.
When asked, respondents indicated any number of reasons to not report a harassment or discriminatory incident. The fear of retaliation, of not being believed, of being negatively judged and targeted as a “problem” by the human resources department, and even the fear of losing their jobs were all too common.
The following chart compares the number of actual discrimination and harassment charges that the EEOC has resolved in the last 3 consecutive years to the EEOC’s estimated total number of discrimination and harassment incidents.
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Moving forward
Discrimination in any form poses a significant barrier to both economic growth and social progress. On an economic front, it prevents companies from accomplishing maximum productivity levels and greatly limits a company’s ability to hire and retain the best and the brightest. On a social front, discrimination has the potential to not only damage a person’s confidence and self-esteem, but its residual effects spill over into all aspects of a person’s personal and professional life.
Workplace discrimination against one’s gender and/or sexuality seem to be the most prominent in three key industry sectors:
- Male-dominated industries
- Service-based industries, and;
- Jobs in which women in particular, are paid a low wage
Although the statistics seem grim, progress is being made. To be a part of the solution and not the problem, heads of companies have a responsibility to:
- Change company culture in order to eliminate gender and sexual orientation stereotypes
- Continue searching for viable recruits until there is as equal a number as possible of male and female candidates
- Regularly gather data in an effort to open up healthy conversations about all form of discrimination
Are you ready to step up? What can you do in your organization to make a positive difference in the language services industry? Let’s work together to be part of the solution, not the problem.
