On this episode of Beyond the Report we’re taking a look at the gender pay gap. Danielle Ratliff is a single mother to three children. She has worked at the same company for nine years and In spite of her education, experience and hard work, she’s routinely passed up for promotion and raises by white men in her company.
“I took one of the least performing stores and I developed them. I trained them and made it one of the top performing stores,” Daniel says. “During this time period, I’m still asking about my career. What do I need to do to get me to the next level? There have been plenty of position that I’ve been passed over for by white males.”
Equal opportunity for women in the work place has been an ongoing fight. While we’ve made progress over the decades, the playing field has yet to be leveled.
Texas Tech Psychology professor, Lindsay Greenlee says, “Historically we’ve seen a lot of these women’s movements. We can go all the way back to the 1920s we have the suffrage movement. The most recent movement close to the #MeToo movement, was in the 1980s. But unfortunately in the 1980s it all died down and not a ton happened. That is what we might see now.”
She went on to explain that women in the U.S. earn 88 cents to every dollar men earn. But in Lubbock that statistic is actually worse. Women only earn 71 cents to every dollar, and for African American and Hispanic women, it’s even lower.
“The gentleman that hired me, he’s a white man. He had adopted black children so he could relate to black people, we just want to better ourselves. Give her an opportunity. I didn’t have a sales background but it was a sales position. And I started working up the corporate ladder,” Danielle says. “Is it difficult? Absolutely. There are double standards all the time.”
When she stands up for herself, she gets presumed as combative. Meanwhile her male counterparts, who act in similar, maybe even more aggressive ways, are viewed as passionate.
“In the workplace, women can be perceived as being aggressive, I’ve heard the term shrill used sometimes just for speaking their minds in the workplace, which means your presence in that workplace may not have as big of an impact as men,” Dr. Greenlee says.
“I would not only work my regular 6:45 am to 6 o clock at night schedule but I would go with other employees in the entire area and I would train them after hours.”
At one point, the entire area besides maybe two managers, had been trained by Danielle. And during this time opportunity for her own professional growth was never addressed by her managers.
Danielle recalls, “I then decided I am no longer going to invest my time and energy into a company that doesn’t reward it. That’s when I started my own business.”
Being a single mom has sparked a passion for helping single mothers in Danielle. In fact, she has recently taken in another mom who has hit rough times. We’ll meet her in an upcoming episode. But the business Danielle invested herself in is one aimed at helping struggling women find affordable housing.
Watch Danielle’s full story at BeyondtheReportLBK.com.
