For those unfamiliar with it, International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity; a topic that has caused much discussion in many circles, from the professional to entertainment world. The actress Michelle Williams, reportedly received less than $1,000 to reshoot certain scenes in, All The Money In The World, while her co-star Mark Wahlberg, earned $1.5 million for his reshoot, that was in 2018, however, she was speaking about it recently on the Graham Norton show so I felt it was topical. In fairness, Wahlberg donated his earnings to charity. Why this happens is never really explained so gets lost in all the noise.
Possibly, one of the elements that affect women is when they tend to be the primary caregiver and, not so much relevant when taking maternity leave, but chose to leave the workforce to raise our children, our salary can get stalled and our careers disrupted.
If we look at an example of a man & woman entering the workforce at the same time, a level playing field; the women takes extended leave to raise her family; when she’s returning to work her male counterpart is likely to have had an increase in salary and possible promotion, where she may now have to consider less salary and job status to get back into the workplace. Although I do understand from the employers perspective that the women may need upskilling etc which may be time consuming and costly.
It’s a very complicated matter, and runs much deeper than what I’ve tried to touch-on here and one that is very personal to each and every woman.
However, talking about this matters, and is making a difference, so we’ll celebrate the small but significant wins; it was reported earlier this year, PwC, Eir, Iarnród Éireann to name a few, have consciously made efforts to close the pay & gender gap and many businesses are building it into their policies. So, more of that please!
International Women’s Day 2023 is on 8th March and we’re delighted to have been invited to speak at the Intreo Navan event (along with other local employers) aimed at women returning to the workplace. I’m very much looking forward to meeting women from all age groups to discuss their opportunities and how Marsh Mackey Recruitment can help them make their own difference.
