Could it really be possible that only the 7% of women attempts to negotiate a job offer, compared to the 57% of men? I’m asking myself this after reading an article written by Maria Konnikova and published on the New Yorker in which the data gathered leads to an embarrassing result, especially if we consider that the research was carried out in the US, where the job market usually pays more attention to gender equality if compared to Italian one.
I wonder what would the data reveal if we were to conduct a similar research in Italy: I guess it wouldn’t be good. The fact that in 2014 such data still persists tells us a great deal about the challenges that women have to face everyday, and not only in the workplace. It occurs in many other areas of life. It’s a situation that damages everybody, I’ve said it before in these same pages: in order to change, we need first of all to talk more about the successes achieved by women, both professional and not.
Increasing visibility – and media attention too – of these all-female successful stories could be a way forward, certainly not the only one. Getting used to not consider such visibility as pure rhetoric, also. And let’s not forget that while we are talking about the small number of ladies that attempts to negotiate a new salary offer compared to men, in the world almost half of working-age women is still unemployed.
The road to true equality is long and steep: we will walk it together. We need a great cultural shift, in which everybody need to do their part: not from tomorrow. From today.