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Fortune: Women won’t achieve equal pay by following ’empowerment’ cliches

02 Apr 2019
On Equal Pay Day, you’ll see many think pieces explaining why now the time for women to be compensated the same as men.

Originally found at Fortune, by Nilofer Merchant

On Equal Pay Day, you’ll see many think pieces explaining why now the time for women to be compensated the same as men.

But women will never get pay equity if they try to do so by simply standing up for themselves. Instead, they need to work together to overthrow the system that entrenched pay inequality in the first place.

When Sheryl Sandberg’s popular book, Lean In, was first published, many of its core observations were largely accepted: Women are holding themselves back; they disengage before they leave the workplace; and they should be more authentic.

Earlier this year, an Academy of Management article challenged several false contentions from the book. For instance, women don’t “leave before they leave”: in fact, they typically work harder to stay in the workforce and unintentionally burnout as a result. And women—especially women of color (39% of the group studied)—are actually penalized for being authentic.

Continue reading original article at Fortune.


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