This chart, from The Economist, is important.
It shows that men and women’s pay are pretty much even, right up until having children. But after having kids, women’s pay drops by 40%+. In many countries, it never recovers, even when the children are ready for secondary school
In our field – data and analytics – a lot of the discussion is around helping women feel empowered, reassuring them, encouraging them to speak up. But what women really need is parent friendly working practices.
Opportunities that allow them to be parents and still have genuine careers. And there’s no reason why it can’t happen. Analysts don’t need to be on the end of the phone all the time, they get loads done working from home, and so what if their hours don’t include the school run slot?
Marketing analytics as an industry can do better. At Magic Numbers we are genuinely parent-friendly in the way we work, everyone can work from home, and we flex hours around our families
