Gender inequality rearing its ugly head in the workplace

In the latest list of Canada’s 100-most paid CEOs, only 2 of the 100 individuals are women. That is both surprising and ordinary. Not to take away from the other 98 CEOs’ success but the fact we are still talking about this—the fact that it is still an issue—in 2017 speaks volumes: women are almost always looked down on in the workplace because we are “emotional” and are therefore “incapable” of making hard decisions such as firing workers, etc.

According to a recent report by Rosenzweig & Co., only 8 out of the 100 biggest companies in the country have women as their leaders. There is no difference when it comes to CFOs or CTOs for only 42 women are in such positions out of the 526 positions at Canada’s biggest companies.

So who are the 2 women who made the list this year?

Linda Hasenfratz of Linamar Corp. and Dawn Farrell of TransAlta Corp. Both earn six-figure salaries.

Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.

When you look at age, experience and education, the wage gap between the genders closes. This is simply because becoming a CEO requires a lot or a few things—depending how look at it—which a lot of women don’t have due to lack of opportunities.

So what are these so-called requirements?

An MBA is at the top of the list. However, it was noticed that women who had MBAs in Canada were paid an average of $8,200 less than men with the same degree level in the first jobs in the corporate world.

At the end of the day, it left up to the owners and board members of companies to decide on hiring women as their leader. If not, this trend is not forecast to fade.