Benefits March 5, 2002

Women Execs Still Hitting Glass Ceiling

March 5, 2002 - Human resources professionals may be more sensitive to their company's diversity responsibilities than in past years, but women trying for corporate advancement still bump their heads on a glass ceiling, a new survey found.
Reported by

The survey by the Financial Women’s Association found the senior level women complain about inequality in both their pay scale compared to men and their promotional opportunities.

Specifically:

  • 70% say women earn “somewhat less” or “much less” than men in base salary, and
  • 83% report that women get “somewhat less” or “much less” than men in performance bonuses

However, respondents also say they’ve seen:

  • improvements in offering flexible work schedules, mentioned by 48%
  • generally, a more diverse Wall Street workforce, listed by 42%.

One in five see an improvement in getting women equal pay for equal work, but 56% believe that goal is still a decade away to fully realize.
 
Those answering the FWA poll were generally optimistic about the future with three out of four predicting an improvement in the next decade in terms of women in senior management while 72% see more women getting appointed to corporate boards during that period.

More than 1,000 members of the FWA were surveyed in November and December of 2001.

Results of the survey are available on the FWA Web site .

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