The Gender Pay Gap – you really need to ask!

I recently read Katie Roiphe’s article on the gender pay gap – read it here:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/20/katie-roiphe-why-paid-less-than-male-colleagues  and it’s well backed up by any number of research papers: Harvard Business Review said that only 7% of woman asked for a higher salary at offer stage compared to a whopping 57% of men!

This crosses industry barriers too – actuaries may be a way away from the world of Jennnifer Lawrence, but even the arrow wielding super woman gets less than nearly all of the men in her movies as was exposed by the Sony leaks. What was stopping her from getting more – she said she didn’t want to come across as ‘spoiled’ or ‘difficult’ so she didn’t ask.

Roiphe argues that this is all part of the ‘rampant female self deprecating, the constant apologising’ – which we all may recognise. So why are we ‘trying to appear weaker, less competent, less confident, less powerful’?  Next time you’re in a meeting with your manager, just ask the question – the only person you need to convince that you deserve a pay rise, is you.