WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: WAGE GAP
ennifer Siebel Newsom is
passionate about several is-
sues, but perhaps none more
than the gender wage gap.
And she’s using her clout
as California’s first partner
and a celebrated documentary filmmak-
er — whose work and advocacy primarily
focus on cultural issues and empowering
women — to raise awareness.
Siebel Newsom has produced a
number of documentaries, including the
award-winning film, “Miss Representa-
tion,” which explores the underrepresen-
tation of women in positions of power
and influence in the United States, and
“The Great American Lie,” which high-
lights the underlying cultural causes of
inequality in America. “For me,” she says,
“it’s about waking people up to the insti-
tutionalization of these hierarchical val-
ues where we privilege the few and harm
the many, and those that are harmed are
often women and women of color.”
In partnership with the California
Commission on the Status of Women
and Girls, Time’s Up and the Califor-
nia Department of Labor & Workforce
Development Agency, Siebel Newsom
launched the #EqualPayCA campaign
in April 2019 and is leading the charge
to elevate the conversation as part of an
effort to achieve pay equity.
Thirteen companies signed the CA
Pay Equity Pledge at the start of the
campaign, committing to pay equity in
the workplace; that number has climbed
to 43, with a goal of 100 at the one-year
mark. Eighteen of the signers are compa-
nies with 10,000-plus employees, such as
Salesforce, Apple and Intel. Several small
and midsized companies have pledged as
well, including a Capital Region nonprof-
it, Children’s Home of Stockton.
All have voluntarily agreed to con-
duct an annual companywide gender
pay analysis, review their hiring and
promotion processes to reduce bias and
barriers, and identify and promote other
practices that will close the gap.
Gap slowly closing
Fifty-seven years after the Equal Pay Act
was signed into law by President John F.
Kennedy, women still earn substantially
less than men. The gender wage gap has
closed over time but at a glacially slow
rate — about half a penny a year in the
nearly six decades since the legislation
was passed. According to PayScale’s
“The State of the Gender Pay Gap 2019”
report, women earn just 79 cents (74
cents for women of color) for every dollar
white men make. The findings are based
on the responses of 1.8 million people
who took the salary survey. Research
estimates that the uncontrolled gender
wage gap — which compares the median
salary for all men and women, regardless
of job type or seniority — will not close
nationwide until 2070.
Siebel Newsom has her thoughts on
why. “I think it’s a combination of a lack
of education, awareness and enforce-
ment,” she says. “But I would also say
the root cause of this, historically, is that
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