I came across a few articles yesterday centered around pay gaps between men and women. This is the 21st century, and still, women are not paid the same as men.

13.9%! From this number, the Fawcett Society also calculates the Equal Pay Day – the day of the year from which onwards women effectively work for free compared to men. Last year, it was the 9th of November. That’s basically two months of the year, or 2 out of your 12 wage statements… crazy.

More food for thought:

‘Marriage significantly depresses women’s earnings, and the arrival of children has an even stronger effect. Men, meanwhile, tend to earn more after having children, and studies show that’s because employers see mothers as less committed to work and fathers as doubly committed to breadwinning.’ (from this Upshot article)

And here’s the most crazy thing:

‘As women move into fields once dominated by men, average pay drops.’ This shows that there is something more fundamental than women not ‘leaning in’ – work done by women is valued less? Scary thought. The quote comes from this article, which is well worth your time.

Final thoughts for the day: we all need to work towards a work atmosphere where it is not the loudest and most confident (but not necessarily most competent) people to succeed. Instead, let’s make space for people (women or men) who think before they talk: [I] ‘am not comfortable giving an answer with confidence when I’m not actually confident in my answer. Fixing the dry cleaning is easy. Changing how decisions are made in business is hard.’ (Minnie Ingersoll in a Quartz article).