Standing Their Ground

A few years ago, Lucy Marsh ’63 stepped to the forefront of an astounding battle for equal pay at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where she teaches.

In December 2012, the school’s dean sent out a lengthy memo. Buried within it was this sobering fact: Female full professors were being paid up to $16,000 less than their male counterparts. “I went to him to ask what he planned to do to correct it, and he said, ‘Nothing,’” Marsh recalls.

Not satisfied, she joined colleagues who had taken the case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In the aftermath, Marsh says she endured a smear campaign to discredit her, and many of her colleagues kept their distance. “Over the years, I felt as if I were poison,” she says. “Early on, people would whisper their support, and students—always students—would launch supportive petitions.”

Despite the backlash she faced, Marsh kept pushing forward, a larger mission guiding her. “I feel it’s my responsibility to do this in the hope that it will help other women in the job market.” Her persistence is paying off. In June, nearly two dozen faculty members sent a letter to the chancellors seeking an end to the hostile climate and endorsing Marsh and the other women named in the lawsuit. The trial is now set for 2018.

Across the country, women like Marsh are taking it upon themselves to change work culture and create more equitable environments. They aren’t waiting for their employers or corporations or the federal government to do it for them. They are tired of the unequal pay, the outright harassment, the absence of workplace mentoring and the unfair practices that punish women for their ambition or exclude them altogether. They see a better way—not only for themselves but for future generations of women—and are developing new workplace policies, forming support groups, creating incentives for women’s advancement, pointing out bias when they see it and joining forces with female colleagues and mentors to bring about change.

Sarah Winawer-Wetzel ’05 by Jessica Scranton

On the national legislative front, Sen. Tammy Baldwin ’84 (D-WI) and Rep. Niki Sauvage Tsongas ’68 (D-MA) have been staunch advocates and champions of policies that thwart gender bias at work. Both broke the legislative glass ceiling when they were elected: Baldwin in 2012 by becoming the first female U.S. senator in Wisconsin history and the first openly gay woman in the U.S. Senate, and Tsongas in 2007 by becoming the first woman in 25 years to be elected to Congress from Massachusetts. Both, too, have made gender equality a part of their legislative agendas. Baldwin has advocated for access to reproductive health care and cancer screenings for women and has introduced legislation to strengthen workplace regulations that protect women against sexual harassment and discrimination. She co-sponsored the Equality Act (2015), which would ban discrimination against LGBTQ Americans, and this year reintroduced the bill in the Senate. Tsongas co-sponsored the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and has served on the House Armed Services Committee, working on a host of issues such as preventing sexual assault in the military and ensuring that female soldiers’ body armor is tailored for women’s bodies and is not just a smaller version of men’s sizes. “From a practical standpoint, the Army spends millions training women; if we make them feel unequal or unwanted, they will leave the military and take all that talent with them,” Tsongas says. “If you can change the military, you can change a country.”

In many cases, women are seeking out other women in their organizations to find strength in numbers. “We tell women to do all these things, but it’s not enough when you work in a culture that is not conducive to women’s advancement,” says Terri Tierney Clark ’81.

In 2015 she launched Summit Leadership Advisors, a Phoenix-based consulting firm that seeks to both change the culture and advance women up the ladder.In fact, many women who have succeeded in moving into top corporate ranks have made it their mission to increase the number of women in leadership positions, from the executive suite to membership on corporate boards. “There’s nothing more powerful than women helping women,” says Pamela Craig ’79. While at Accenture in the early 2000s, Craig started a women’s executive leadership development program that assigned a sponsor to help 15 to 20 high-potential women from around the world maximize their talent and advance their careers. “Every one of those women had a better role within a year,” she says, “and the program is still going strong.”

Now Craig has turned her attention to increasing the number of women on corporate boards, where nationally women make up a mere 5 percent of board membership. “If I get a call to be on a board and don’t feel that I am a good fit, I try to pass it on to another woman,” she says. As a member of the Women’s Forum of New York’s corporate board initiative, Craig has ready access to a database of qualified women. Every year, the group puts on a Breakfast of Champions to honor companies that have increased female board membership to more than 25 percent.

Similarly, Christine McCarthy ’77, who in 2015 became the highest-ranking woman at The Walt Disney Company when she was promoted to senior executive vice president and chief financial officer, watches for ways to groom other women for leadership. Three years ago, for instance, she helped spearhead the Global Workplace and Women’s Initiative, which seeks to “create a pipeline for women to become senior leaders,” she says. The group, which is 25 percent male, focuses on programs to provide mentorship and sponsorship for talented women. “Our product touches people, and we want our leadership to represent all of those people,” McCarthy says of Disney. “We can’t have an all-male leadership because we entertain families, so we have to have a diverse point of view as a corporation.”

Pamela Craig ’79 by David Vaughan

Top-down leadership is critical for making change in large organizations. But meaningful change also flows up from more grassroots efforts, especially when women identify workplace issues that male leadership might not recognize. In 2014, when Sarah Winawer-Wetzel ’05, a senior project manager at a hospital, became pregnant, she began looking into her employer’s maternity policies. But figuring out what the hospital offered was difficult. There was no single source for the policies, and it took hours to track them down. “For example, there was a benefit that would allow a person in their third trimester to park in special parking spots meant for people with disabilities, but you’d only find that information if you knew it was listed under disability accommodations,” she explains. “Then, I got back to work and wanted to pump, and it took three calls to find out where the lactation rooms were and how to get into them.” To assist other new parents, Winawer-Wetzel worked with the hospital’s human resources office to create an “expectant parent toolkit” listing all relevant policies. “My favorite part,” she notes, “is that the toolkit is gender neutral and relevant to any kind of parent—including adoptive, foster, nongestational and transgender parents.”

These days, one of the biggest challenges women face is unconscious bias: being overlooked when it comes to mentoring, training or plum assignments; being talked over or interrupted by men in meetings; or working in chilly offices set to men’s body temperatures and wardrobes. Studies show that male bosses bypass women of childbearing age for promotions because they presume they won’t want the long hours and travel. Researchers at George Washington University found that men interrupt women 33 percent more often than they do other men. And office temperature settings are based on a model that uses the body of a 40-year-old man weighing 154 pounds as the norm, according to research conducted in the Netherlands.

Unconscious bias can be tricky to fight, however. Iris Newalu, director of Smith’s Executive Education for Women, recalls running a workshop for 30 senior-level men at a New York bank to raise awareness about the ways they may unconsciously exclude women. “Initially, they said, ‘We don’t have that problem here,’” Newalu says. “On the second day, we brought in eight female peers and asked them, ‘If the men could hear what you’re thinking, what would it be?’ The women said things like, ‘We work on a project with you, but you leave us out of lunchtime or afterhours conversations where decisions get made.’ The men came around and said, ‘You’re right, we didn’t realize.’”

Many women are beginning to recognize the value of joining with other women to make change or seek redress. “That’s when it’s best to run in a pack,” advises Craig. She recommends that women form groups—including a member of human resources—where they can build the community they may need to rely on for advice or backup. McCarthy agrees: “At Disney, women are very supportive of each other; we really have each other’s backs.”

That’s what Jess Wallis ’05 did at the library services company where she is a product manager. “I started a lunchtime discussion group of women in my company where we can talk about inequality, sexism and diversity issues in the workplace,” she says, recounting the story of one female colleague who, after being interrupted four times in a male-dominated meeting, stood up and said, “I’m going to talk now.” The lunch-hour group has been well attended, Wallis says, with meetings attracting 12 to 15 people (including a couple of Smith alumnae). In time, the group invited the head of HR to discuss potential changes at the executive level.

Linda Smith Charles ’74

Carrie Baker, associate professor of the study of women and gender at Smith and author of The Women’s Movement Against Sexual Harassment (Cambridge University Press), is watchful for changes in the wider culture. For instance, she notes that President Trump has proposed eliminating the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, the very agency that collects data on the wage gap. Nonetheless, individual states are taking action of their own. A new law in Massachusetts requires reasonable workplace accommodation for pregnant workers; New York is about to become the fourth state to offer paid family leave. “What’s happening [federally] has awakened a sleeping giant,” Baker says. “Women are organizing in groups, calling legislators to complain, using social media to speak out.”

The cultural changes women are bringing to the workplace are good for women, but ultimately they’re good for business. Studies show, for example, that greater diversity within a company results in higher rates of productivity. “When women stand their ground and change culture for themselves, they impact the entire organization,” says Linda Smith Charles ’74, who retired in 2014 as director of human resources for the Ford Foundation. “It creates a more cohesive workplace and a sense that the company is more equitable. It shows there is real respect in the workplace for everyone.”

Debra Michals is a frequent contributor on workplace issues and is the director of women’s and gender studies at Merrimack College in Massachusetts.

This story appears in the Winter 2017-18 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photograph by Julia Vandenoever ’96