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Women Think Equal Pay Will Be Solved In Their Lifetime

Women Who Code reached out to women to ask them personal questions about the gender pay gap. The results give insight into where they see the fight for equal pay heading. We're talking to Women Who Code CEO Alaina Percival about the findings.

Women Who Code hosted a survey for its members regarding equal pay in the tech industry. While equal pay has been a long-standing problem, they were seeking a more personal insight into the problem in light of Equal Pay Day, last month. “This survey was a statistical sampling of our community we wanted to get a feel about people’s thoughts on this disparity,” Women Who Code CEO Alaina Percival said. The results were overwhelming.

According to the survey, 94.8 percent of women believe that men are paid a higher salary for performing the same jobs. And 88.3 percent of respondents believe that women of color experience this discrepancy even more. And sadly, 60 percent of women answered that they feel the men at their current job are making more than they are.

Although the responses to these questions and others left an unsettling feeling for readers and the participants, the outlook is hopeful. The respondents were asked if they think the gender pay gap will be solved in their lifetime and 72.5 percent answered that they believe it will be resolved. Percival said that they will make this survey an annual event each year on Equal Pay Day. “When you have equal pay day it reminds us and companies out there that this is important and that this is something we should be tracking,” Percival said.

Percival is passionate about the issue. Her work through Women Who Code impacts the roles of women in tech. She saw the untapped potential of women in the field and ended up creating an integral part of the pipeline feeding women into the industry. In 2010, she left behind her project management job at Puma in Germany and relocated to San Francisco to create a platform to teach women to be a more powerful force in the field.

Percival founded Women Who Code in 2011 and turned it into a global non-profit in 2013. Their mission is to help to promote a world in which women are equally represented in roles such as engineers, data scientists and technical leaders or executives. “The tech industry is a great place for women and it will continue to grow immensely as more people enter the community,” Percival said.

Women Who Code is now the largest community for technical women in the world. They have over 100,000 members and on average host five free events per day around the globe to further educate and encourage women to pursue a career in the field.

More Equal Pay Survey Results

Total: 448 Applicants
Do you believe that men are paid more than women in tech?
Yes: 94.8%
Would you say that equal pay is your top workplace issue?
Yes: 24% No: 76%
Are you more likely to take a job at a company that follows transparent salary policies?
Yes: 91% No: 9%
Have you ever left a job because you found out about unfair pay practices?
Yes: 25.6% No: 74.4%
Do you believe that your company pays its male employees more than its female employees?
Yes: 60.2% No: 39.8%
Do you believe that there is a worse gender wage gap for women of color?
Yes: 88.3% No: 11.7%
Do you believe that the gender pay gap can be solved in your lifetime?
Yes: 72.5% No: 27.5%
To see how the gender gap is affecting female entrepreneurs, continue reading Lioness’s recent report.

About the author

Carling Willis

Carling Willis is a Junior English/Communication major at Western New England University. She is an animal lover, coffee addict and extremely knowledgeable in the TV show The Office. Carling hopes that whatever her future career brings it involves being a positive, happy influence on others.

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