https://www.ft.com/content/62001b10-90de-11e8-9609-3d3b945e78cf
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It s for certain that not all people doing the same job are equivalently good at it 
Aye, very true, but in truth I think that gender pay inequality often happens because it’s the way it was, almost a continuation by default.
Modern businesses find that by paying staff according to value is the way to go, just the same as all investments the better return then the more it’s worth, then you have incentivized workforce.
The opposite is the case, one young girl that I know has a highfalutin job in finance, she accidentally found out that she was being paid less than male colleagues so she promptly cut her hours.
I know from experience that this young lady is good at what she does, now her company will receive less value and lose her potential when she inevitably moves.
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Interesting scenario @peterma - clearly she has a contract of employment and provided her decision to take this passive aggressive step falls within the wording of that contract, she is entitled to take it.
If not, she is breach of her employment conditions and would rightfully receive a written warning.
However the likelihood is that this would be taken as an opportunity to claim “Constructive dismissal” and instigate a tribunal event. She would likely get some recompense from the tribunal, although it is a long time since I went to one, they may decide that her action was partly to blame and reduce the award.
Naturally, this would prejudivce any future potential employer against treating her as “an equal” with someone who had never taken an employer to tribunal.
As a Freelance QS, I used to charge a slightly bigger hourly rate than PAYE employees get, because I have to cover “Sickness, holidays, NI”, etc etc.If I were a young female “freelance” I would need to decide whether I needed to charge a little more still, to cover “Maternity” requirement.
The likelihood is that I woud decide not to be “Self-employed” in this case and that I would get a “nice secure job” somwhere that the Employer would be forced to cover the costs of My decisions to have children.
However, it is currently illegal for that Employer to pay “more reliable” (male) employees a premium for this, so I see many smaller Offices and firms, with somwhat older females working within them.
Now life has reached a stage where I can relax a little and can now reduce my prices and take on a different type of clients; small builders, subcontractors and clients who feel they are being “abused” because they cannot afford a full-time QS. Generally I’ll charge them a fairly nominal amount to look through the documents, discuss the issues and form an opinion as to whether I can help them in a cost effective way or not. If the answer is in the affirmative, I’ll put together the claim for them, work out their Final Accounts" or whatever, write the correspondence and hopefully get them their money (Often considerably More than they thought they were due ! 
)
I am still as good as I was, but am happy to work for less and they get the advantage of my skills and abilities at a discount rate.
My prima facie opinion is that your “young lady” is playing a dangerous and as I said “Passive-Aggressive” game by taking her apparent actions - but of course I don’t know the full facts.
She already is disadvantaged by the perceived “threat” of “maternity absence” from getting an equal job in the private sector and if she is revealed to future “Employers” as a “trouble - maker” is liable to be offerred only second rate opportunities if any !
My advice to her would be to get the “better paid” job and leave, on the basis that if that was all the Employer thought she was worth, they were wrong. I would Not advise her to demand “Equal pay” or to take the action she has.
It could be worth her asking for a pay rise and pointing out her value to the firm, but unilaterally going “Part-time” (whilst I can see her Anger being assuaged by th eaction), cannot but harm her current credibility by casting doubt on her “commitment” and her future prospects as explained above.
I think for me this says it all:
The evidence is talked away like we see with climate change deniers who say 'The evidence is that
there is climate change, but we do not think it is valid’ and offer no facts to back this.
Just like farmers who use organic methods and have biodiversity to support wild flora/fauna around
their crops, so employers can use cultural diversity and engage with it rather than mistrusting it.
Organic farmers who really engage with conservation bodies know it is a lot of effort - applying for
grants, for example - but there is support out there if you reach out; similarly employers who really
want to tackle gendered attitudes at work can access training for staff and take steps to promote
schemes that help with cultural shift.
The cynics will say: businesses are about profit. Sure, but organic farmers who grow their businesses
manage to do so in an environmentally conscious way, so it is equally disingenuous to lay the obstacles
solely at the feet of profitability because where there is the will for change then there will be a way and
money will follow (not always, of course).
Companies are scared of change because they fear it may compromise profits: but, without change,
you will be phased out of the market. Some change is not positive, but gender (and ethnic) diversification
is certainly not some crazy experiment of social engineering and should be thought through as a serious
boost for a company’s profitability AT THE SAME TIME AS a company’s workforce balance.
That is clearly false - It’s the “Warmist zealots” who are incapable of offerring a mechanism or debate !
https://forums.babypips.com/t/climate-change-is-a-complete-hoax/30013
Come and tell us about it !
In her trade no tribunals, just a quick call to an agent - one person’s loss another’s gain I suppose.
Some of the tech firms are ahead of the curve, likely because their industry is relatively new.
Business is about profit. A company is exactly that - a company of people - a savvy business owner will look to maximize profit through that company of people, he will take no notice of gender, race, or any other physical aspect of his company, instead he will seek value, the higher the value the more he will remunerate.
I have found by experience that a shift happens, people know they are valued, they change from being a staff member to being a member of the company, as such they not only seek to give value but also to maximize company profits.
Again in my own experience I have found that old habits are often bad habits - habits that impair profit potential - it’s generally not a fear of change, more a lack of awareness.
Thinking of examples - High Street retail in the UK is suffering right now, this from the Independent 6 hours ago is the latest in a long list:
DIY chain said 1,500 jobs will go as it attempts to cut costs following years of declining sales and profits
Then I look at Aldi - Supermarket of the Year Award winner 2017, their site headlines:
The Focus of our Company is our People.:
They go on to say that with a workforce of 30k and plans for a further 35k within 2 years and add “it’s fair to say that people are our biggest and most brilliant asset.”
@peterma thank you for a balanced, well written point of view.
I think that the profit focus is a pendulum: a small business starts with low profit and a lot of time is given to clients, often unpaid, to try building a network and experience: as the business grows, less time is spent on people and more on thinking how to maximise/grow profits. When a crisis strikes and the business loses money, a lot more time is spent again on trying to woo people back to the business… The mid-point balance is ideal, but hardest to maintain, that is being profitable and also keeping true to the personal touch of a smaller business.
As a self-employed person I know how much interpersonal work I put in to keep customers and how even when profits run low you have to prioritise customers, not money, which seems counterintuitive but I find it cannot be stressed enough. Again, our personal experiences shape our beliefs about the world, so my attitude to business is very much based on my own experience.
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The forex market is free of discrimination against religion, sexual orientation, caste, creed and nationality. You can openly trade with any kind of currency pair. If you are not successful in forex, then please don’t question the integrity of the market place. I hope that you understand😊
You forget that the market is made of institutions and that institutions are made of people… And people form groups according to shared identity and a ‘right fit’.
This can be a strength but also a weakness.
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Looking forward to this!
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Really, traders should be concentrating on trading than trying to figure the gender of the market.
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That is one point of view; another one would be that anyone can be focused on their career / trading/ anything and choose to also engage with other issues that they feel are important to them.
A doctor who engages with political activism is not medically less able because they have a passion for something outside their work, for example; so it can be said for any professional who has a strong interest outside their work. There is more to life than work , work, work .
So, given that we can give our full attention to our profession but still want to engage with other issues outside work, is it so hard to imagine someone trading profitably and yet also having an interest in gender issues?
I think the two are fully compatible.
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Hi all,
A long time ago, while in my tenure at FXStreet, we covered a topic about women in forex before and after.
Find the link: Women in Forex – 5 years later – About FXStreet
It’s definitely worth a read.
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Thanks Ivan,
I remember looking at that a while back and posting this on my thread three years ago:
Cheers
Good work
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Hello all,
I juat wanted to say that female trader @CoinLady has a thread running about her trading progress
here, which you may like to read:
She is using the 3-Ducks system.
Happy Trading!
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Thanks for mentioning me @PipMeHappy but I feel like I’m not worth mentioning yet and might disappoint anyone who visits my thread haha. I’m just starting to demo trade, taking baby steps and baby pips.
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I can’t believe this is still running.
I am a male private retail trader. I’ve never worked in the finance industry. So far as I can see, there are no barriers to the entry of females into private retail trading. I guess the reason why more don’t do it is because they don’t want to. Fair enough, that’s their choice, whether I think its right or wrong.
One reason I would have hated working in the finance industry because it seems to me like its an elitist club full of the sort of “superior” people who would stab their own grandmother in the back for 50 quid. Or rather con some hard up retired Mum and Dad into buying something worthless they don’t need for 500.
So why would more women in the City or on Wall Street be a Good Thing? Sure, they personally might get a fat salary and a nice bonus, but I can only imagine the industry would recruit the same sort of scum as it does now, just of a different gender.
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