Reimagining the UK Gender Pay Gap in Tech

3DSGenderPayGap_Coventry

Chairing an employee awareness session about the UK Gender Pay Gap in Tech at the Dassault Systèmes office in Coventry (photo by Bernie Tanner).

On July 2019, I chaired an employee awareness session about the UK Gender Pay Gap in Tech at the company I work for, Dassault Systèmes. The event was very well received and I documented the experience in this LinkedIn article.

Below the material I created for the event: (a) Five myths and truths about the UK gender pay gap in tech, (b) the blue-sky thinking exercise to co-create our north star, and (c) the pre-meeting survey sent to all employees invited to the meeting.

Five Myths – and Truths – about the UK Gender Pay Gap in Tech

Blue Sky Thinking Exercise

Travel to April 5th 2021 and imagine you are reading the UK Gender Pay Gap Report issued by the company you work for corresponding to the period of 5 April 2019 – 5 April 2020.

1.- What is the median hourly rate for 2019/2020?

2.- What were the three key initiatives rolled out for that period to address the gender pay gap at the company?

3.- What are the next steps to reduce the gender pay gap?

Pre-meeting Survey

1.- Rate your agreement with the following sentence “I have a good understanding of the scope, key indicators, and impact of the UK Gender Pay Gap”.

  • Strongly agree
  • Agree
  • Disagree
  • Strongly disagree
  • I don’t know

2.- Have you read the company’s UK Gender Pay Gap 2019 (UK)?

  • Yes
  • No

3.- What is your goal attending this meeting on  “Five myths about Gender Pay Gap in Tech”? (Free text answer)

4.- What of the following terms do you associate with UK Gender Pay Gap? Check all that apply. 

o   Anger o   Guilt
o   Anticipation o   Hope
o   Anxiety o   Indifference
o   Bias o   Interest
o   Boredom o   Jealousy
o   Confusion o   Meritocracy
o   Contempt o   Optimism
o   Envy o   Pessimism
o   Curiosity o   Pride
o   Disappointment o   Rage
o   Disgust o   Relief
o   Empathy o   Satisfaction
o   Equality o   Surprise
o   Excitement o   Sympathy
o   Fairness o   Transparency
o   Fear o   Unfairness
o   Frustration

Further references

The capuchin monkey fairness experiment (1-min video)

The truth about the gender pay gap (3-min video)

Michelle Gyimah (Gender Pay Consultant – Equality Pays)

Technically Wrong: Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech by Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Gov.uk website to search and compare gender pay gap data

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

2 thoughts on “Reimagining the UK Gender Pay Gap in Tech

  1. Pingback: What women leaders want: A fresh perspective on retention strategies - Patricia Gestoso

  2. Pingback: UK Gender Pay Gap Awareness: How to broaden the conversation at the workplace | Patricia Gestoso

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