Whose Workplace Is More Equal Blue-Collar Or White-Collar Women

Whose Workplace Is More Equal Blue-Collar Or White-Collar Women We all hold assumptions about what certain jobs are like.Some professions seem exotic and glamorouswhile others appear to be chock-full of drudgery. One thing that reading thousands of womens jobsreviews at Fairygodboss has done is change some of my ideas about certain roles and employers. You may think you understand what life is like as a marketing manager or barista. Or perhaps you can imagine what life is like as a doctor or retail-cashier.But nothing substitutes forhearing directly from many of the women who live those realities.Thats when yourideas start to change.Last week, the Wall Street Journal published a report concluding thatwomen in white-collar, high-paying professions experienced a larger gender pay eu-agrarpolitik than women in blue-collar professions. Among the top 10 professions where womens earnings lagged behind mens,doctors, compensation managers and personal financial advisers were among those show ing the widest earnings gaps. This may have been surprising to some readers. After all, one might have thought that women in white-collar professions with years of training and educationwould be the least likely group of people to earn less than men.What else might be different about white-collar and blue-collar women when it comes to workplace experiences? We see that the gender pay gap is pretty much the opposite of what one might initially expect, but what about other aspects of gender equality, work-life balance, and discrimination? We recently conducted a casual straw poll among our newsletter readers asking them which group of women they thought faced more gender inequality at work. This is what they saidAplurality thought that gender inequality would be pretty similar across women in different professions but a close second group thought that women in blue-collar professions probably experienced more gender inequality at work. Very few thought that white-collared women fared the worst.We thought the topic welches interesting enough to commission asurvey to understand the differences between blue-collar vs. white-collar women. As a proxy for the two groups, we assumed that blue-collared workers were largelyhourly workers and white-collared workers were predominantly salaried. To be sure, there are white-collar professionals that may be paid on an hourly basis (e.g. consultants) and blue-collar workers who are unionized and paid on a salaried basis. While less than ideal,there was probably no alternative definition that would have perfectly captured these twocategories of workers.What White-Collar and Blue-Collar Women ShareWe found that both white-collar and blue-collar women reported similar rates of sexual harassment at work (approximately 20%), and 2/3 of both groups agreed with the statement that they would work even if they didnt have to for financial reasons. Encouragingly, about 80% of both thewhite-collar and blue-collar women we surveyed said th ey felt work-life balance was possible in their jobs.Fairygodboss Survey Question I have experienced sexual harassment at workFairygodboss Survey Question Work-life balance is a possibility in my jobFairygodboss Survey Question I would work even if I didnt have to.Thats where the similarities between the two groups ended, however.Differences Between White-Collar and Blue-Collar WomenGenerally, white-collar women were more likely to say they believed they received equal pay compared to their male colleagues.Fairygodboss Survey Question I believe that women are paid equally to men where I work.However, they were also less likely than blue-collar women tobelieve they had an equal shot at promotion.Fairygodboss Survey Questions Women are willing to berater me at work and Men are willing to mentor me.Or perhaps white-collar women believed they had difficulty getting a promotion because they simply didnt see many examples of other women in leadership. After all, as a group, white-collar w omen were less likely to be happy with the numbers of female leaders at their companiesthan blue-collar women.Fairygodboss Survey Question There are enough women in leadership roles in my company.When it came to accommodations for nursing mothers at work, you might thinkthat blue-collar women generally reported worse conditions than white-collar women. However,a surprising33%of white-collar women also said they didnt have a clean, decent place to pump. What was true is thatblue-collar women reportednot having sufficient time at work to pump (35%, compared to only 25% of white-collar women).You may have also assumed that some ofthe horror storiesabout unpaid, short maternity leaves or the inability to pump breast-milk at work were only prevalent among blue-collar, hourly workers. We can think of three examples of professions (in both female and male-dominated industries) where pumping breast-milk at work presents serious challenges.For starters, lets look at education. Teachers -- wh o are largely female -- often complain in their Fairygodboss reviews about the difficulty in finding a clean, decent place to pump at schools across America. Class schedules dont align well with a pumping schedule and its difficult to find space that isnt a bathroom at school, which is also clean and private.Weve heard similar stories among some of the most educated, well-paid members of our community. Consider emergency room physicians. Dara Kass, the founder of FeminEM recentlyshared with me how difficult it can be for female emergency physicians to find reasonable time and accommodations to pump breast-milk. It turns outthatthere are no easy, private places to pump in certain hospital settings, forcing doctors who are new mothers tofeel they mustchoose between pumping breast-milk for their babies and doing their jobs. Kass alsoexplained to me that it was therefore no surprise thatthe first hands-free pumping systemwas, in fact, designed by an emergency room doctor And of course, two weeks ago, we all got a glimpse into what life might be like for female pilots who have to contend with the logistical nightmare of scheduling a time and place to pump that is not an airplane or airport bathroom stall.What can one conclude then, about the plight of blue-collar versus white-collar women? On the whole, it seems to me that neither group has it tremendously better than the other. A womansjob circumstances -- as well as her specific employers policies and culture -- create awide variety of experiences. While one might assume there is a large class divide, the truth seems to be that women reallyseem to be in the same (or quite similar) boat, together.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women. Join us by reviewing your employer