Women Answer the Call
Today is International Women’s Day! Set amid Women’s History Month, this day shines a spotlight on advancements in the Women’s Rights Movement with a focus on issues of gender equality, pay equity, and equal rights.
In celebration of women's achievements in tech and telecom, we're taking a deep dive into the state of the tech workforce — and what it means for women.
Equal Work, Equal Pay
Historically, the workforce has seen gender-based gaps in wages and leadership representation. According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earn 83% of what their male counterparts earn, widening the achievement gap for women. In fact, Equal Pay Day, which falls on March 14 this year, was founded to represent how far into the year the median woman would have to work to earn what the median man earned the entire previous year.
Telecommunications, technology, and other STEM fields see an even wider representation and income disparity between women and men, especially in leadership roles. A 2021 Hired survey found that in tech roles, women were offered salaries that were 2.5% lower than salaries given to men for the same roles. In 59% of cases, men were offered higher salaries than women for the same role at the same company.
Stereotypes about career expectations for men and women abound, especially in highly technical fields, affecting early educational and vocational interest STEM fields. The National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) found that, although women represent 57% of bachelor’s degree recipients in 2014, they represented only 15% of computer science degree recipients. Growth in youth educational programs centered on STEM education and exploration can help encourage advancement in tech for underrepresented groups. The rise in tech and coding courses, such as Girls Who Code, Kode with Klossy, and our local organization The Geek Foundation help to upend negative stereotypes regarding girls’ abilities in technical roles.
Building the Foundation
Despite what the pervasive representation and pay gaps in tech and telecommunications suggest, women have been foundational to the formation of our modern communications systems.
When Alexander Graham Bell built the first telephone network in the 1870s, he hired teenage boys to serve as operators, connecting calls on the switchboards. The grueling work and particular customers led to Bell replacing the teenagers with women. The work was repetitive and fast-paced — one estimation puts operators answering 120 calls per hour for eight hours a day — and women were subjected to stringent physical standards due to the tight quarters and huge switchboards.
These early “Hello Girls,” as they were called, became a movement, employing more than 6,000 women by 1910. Collectively, they formed one of the earliest women’s rights labor movements, striking for better wages, meal breaks, maternity leave, and more. During World War II, many switchboard operators became part of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) joining the Women in Radio and Electrical Service, or WIRES, program. These women singlehandedly ran switchboards for critical wartime communications both at home and abroad and required discretion, secrecy, and multilingual skills.
To this day, women are pushing forward advancements in telecom and broadband. Founder of Cellular Pay Phone, Arlene Harris invented the application of cellular services, later helping create the first prepaid cellular service. Her achievements have paved the way for more advanced forms of connection, like 5G — a movement similarly spurred on by women. Meredith Attwell Baker, president and CEO of CTIA, is a leading force in testifying before Congress to expand network rollouts for 5G connectivity.
Within broadband connectivity, the C-Suite of leading providers like Charter Communications, Verizon, Brightspeed, Comcast, and AT&T are led by women from diverse fields of expertise, including finance, executive vision, marketing, and DE&I.
Recognizing the importance of visibility and recognition for underrepresented groups, technology and telecom channel organizations are celebrating female achievement in the industry through awards and lists such as CRN’s Most Powerful Women of the Channel. The 2022 list comprises 100 women who have been at the forefront of revolutionary technologies, improved partner and sales relationships, and new ways to address market demand.
Building the Foundation
Despite what the pervasive representation and pay gaps in tech and telecommunications suggest, women have been foundational to the formation of our modern communications systems.
When Alexander Graham Bell built the first telephone network in the 1870s, he hired teenage boys to serve as operators, connecting calls on the switchboards. The grueling work and particular customers led to Bell replacing the teenagers with women. The work was repetitive and fast-paced — one estimation puts operators answering 120 calls per hour for eight hours a day — and women were subjected to stringent physical standards due to the tight quarters and huge switchboards.
These early “Hello Girls,” as they were called, became a movement, employing more than 6,000 women by 1910. Collectively, they formed one of the earliest women’s rights labor movements, striking for better wages, meal breaks, maternity leave, and more. During World War II, many switchboard operators became part of the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) joining the Women in Radio and Electrical Service, or WIRES, program. These women singlehandedly ran switchboards for critical wartime communications both at home and abroad and required discretion, secrecy, and multilingual skills.
To this day, women are pushing forward advancements in telecom and broadband. Founder of Cellular Pay Phone, Arlene Harris invented the application of cellular services, later helping create the first prepaid cellular service. Her achievements have paved the way for more advanced forms of connection, like 5G — a movement similarly spurred on by women. Meredith Attwell Baker, president and CEO of CTIA, is a leading force in testifying before Congress to expand network rollouts for 5G connectivity.
Within broadband connectivity, the C-Suite of leading providers like Charter Communications, Verizon, Brightspeed, Comcast, and AT&T are led by women from diverse fields of expertise, including finance, executive vision, marketing, and DE&I.
Recognizing the importance of visibility and recognition for underrepresented groups, technology and telecom channel organizations are celebrating female achievement in the industry through awards and lists such as CRN’s Most Powerful Women of the Channel. The 2022 list comprises 100 women who have been at the forefront of revolutionary technologies, improved partner and sales relationships, and new ways to address market demand.
Pushing for Progress
The drive for increased representation and pay parity is, in its own right, a worthy cause. In addition to increased economic opportunities for women, diverse hiring and advancement practices lead to 50% higher profits and share performance when women are well represented in firm leadership, according to Gartner. “There is a plethora of correlational studies that show the more women you have, the more innovative the organization is, and the higher the productivity, the profits, and the revenue,” says Christie Struckman, a vice president within Gartner’s Leadership, Culture and People team.
At TierOne, we are always actively assessing ways to increase gender equity in the workplace. We are proud that women make up 30% of our workforce, with 50% of our department directors being women. Additionally, TierOne has committed to decline salary history reports for new hires. The practice of salary history reporting is shown to disproportionally affect women and women of color and lead to lower earnings carried from job to job, according to The National Women’s Law Center, especially when those roles are undervalued due to workplace discrimination, lower-paying occupations, or extended parental or family leave time.
Our parental leave policy applies to men, women, and genderfluid parents and can be customized in length to suit individual needs. Additionally, we have a reproductive care policy that covers the travel expenses required to access reproductive health care services unavailable in our home state of Missouri. While we are proud of how far we’ve come, we are committed to a constant evaluation and improvement of our internal gender equity efforts.
The path toward equal pay, discrimination-free workplaces, and holistic company policies is long and ongoing. This International Women’s Day, we are optimistic about the progress being made globally and pledging to continue to move the needle forward, especially within the tech and telecom industries that owe their achievements to pioneering women throughout history.
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