Shhhh! Don't tell them why they chose March!

megb144
Mar 7, 2024
3 min read

March 2024

Welcome to the first Women's History Month!

By now, you've probably heard that March is officially Women’s History Month.

I heard this from my teen, who acted like it was old news, had always been so. I protested, then read the news and admitted I was wrong. My teen rolled their eyes.

The feelings I had were mixed. Sure, I'm happy to celebrate women as unsung heroes, but...in March?

Equal Pay Day

One reason March has become associated with women in this country is because of Equal Pay Day. Back in 1996 the National Committee on Pay Equity (a committee that first existed since 1979 as a volunteer group of – who else? Women!) calculated the date upon which a woman would have earned the same as a man had earned in the previous year. It turns out that at that time, women earned $0.77 for every dollar earned by men, landing Equal Pay Day on April 8th.

“Equal Pay Day” changes a bit, every year. In 2020 it shifted from April to March – a phenomenon noted by the news. In 2023 it was March 14th and in 2022 it was March 15th. In 2024 Equal Pay Day lands on March 12. The backward shift means that things are improving, but at this rate, it will take between 36-72 years at a rate of 1-2 days improvement per year for women to earn the same as men over 12 months. The National Committee on Pay Equity estimated in 2020 that it will take until 2059 for women to achieve equal pay. That timeframe extends over more than two generations of careers, and the implication is that my grandchildren – if female – will still suffer wage disparity.

I’m including a link to a 2020 article by the US Census that links to analysis of the pay gap in terms of other disparities, such as race, education, and occupation (including female dominant industries).

Equal Pay Day is March 31 – the Earliest Since it Began in 1996 (census.gov )

What does it mean to be chronically underpaid?

The implications of persistent, career-long pay suppression include the following:

· Reduced capacity to save for major expenses, including vacations or medical procedures.

· Reduced retirement savings.

· Prolonged repayment of debts, including student loans, car loans, and mortgages, resulting in higher total costs for borrowing money.

Many corporations forbid staff from discussing their pay with each other, and some even make doing so a fireable offense. This situation creates a blind space in which women may not even know how underpaid they are, until they leave. Two personal friends, both women, recently told me stories about how giving their notice led to learning they’d been underpaid. One was offered 30% more to stay by her longtime manager, who explained he now understood her worth. The other received a 50% raise at her new firm for the same job she’d been doing for years. These stories are so common, many women can tell more than one from their own experience.

Both of my friends felt angry and exploited…both calculated the years of low pay and felt dismayed at the lost income, compounded by their tenure. There was a very measurable cost, but the emotional toll was also high.

Are women worthy of a month of celebration?

Women have created, accomplished, led, fostered, nurtured, incubated, piloted, and in every other way innovated in every industry and market, across history. Like many minorities, the accomplishments of women have received less attention than they merit. I'm glad women are getting a month to celebrate just how amazing they are.

We are.

I just wish it were December.

Meg

P.S. Here's a link to a coloring page, offered free, from itwasneveradress.org. IWNAD-ColoringSheet-hashtag-TM-v1.pdf (itwasneveradress.org )

You can also click the image at the top of this blog to download the free poster from itwasneveradress.org. And finally, here is a YouTube video on the creation of the image. #ItWasNeverADress: The Story - YouTube

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