Here’s something scarier than Halloween if you are a young woman …

Did you know that within a year out of college that women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even in the same professions?

Christy Jones AAUW’s Director of Membership

That’s just one of the interesting comments about the wage gap between men and women made by Christy Jones, CAE, director of membership at AAUW, which has been fighting for women’s equity and equal rights since 1881.

MomstoWork asked her whether we needed to do more to lobby men about the benefits of equal rights.  Jones responded with this guest blog post:

Every time we talk about working through the system to get equal pay for women you have to wonder if we are preaching to the choir.

You figure women should know already about the inequity they experience, in pay, in job promotions, in caring for family members.

Shouldn’t we be focusing our attention on getting our message out to men, so that they will jump on our bandwagon and practice pay equity, open those glass ceilings and assume more of the caretaking burden at home?

I wish there was an easy answer here. It never ceases to amaze me how much women actually don’t understand the almost daily discrimination so many of us face.

When was the last time you actually discussed what salary you made with another man or woman at work?

This ban on discussion of pay is one of the last frontiers of silence. Some companies even use such a conversation as cause for firing, from what I understand.

When Lilly Ledbetter discovered (through an anonymous tip) that she was being discriminated against, she took action and started the long road which culminating with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed by President Obama in January 2009.

Now the Ledbetter Act’s been passed, many women think the fight for equal pay rights is over.

It’s not. The upcoming Paycheck Fairness Act actually goes much further to ending discrimination by:

• Creating stronger incentives for employers to follow the law
• Empowering women to negotiate for equal pay, and
• Deterring wage discrimination by strengthening penalties for equal pay violations, and
• Prohibiting retaliation against workers who ask about employers’ wage practices or disclose their own wages.

Maybe you think this doesn’t affect young women or those just out of college …

Sorry, research released 2007 by AAUW shows that within one year out of college, women working full time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field. Ten years after graduation, the pay gap widens …

By reaching out to educate and inform other women about pay equity, class ceilings, work-life balance issues which moms face every minute of every day –we become the key which opens men’s eyes to these issues. Last week, The Shriver Report, A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything (have you read it yet), brought a lot of media attention to the state of women in America today. A young colleague of mine wrote the blog post: Shifting Gender Roles: Men Join Women with Open Minds and Hearts, pointing out that while some men are joining women in caretaking roles, advocacy for equal rights and the like, our culture still isn’t fully accepting of a total shift to gender equity (if practice is any indication – a far more reliable trend indicator than words ever are).

Easier said than done. I firmly believe that women are our own best asset in this fight toward gender equity. If women are still not aware of the discrimination they face, how on earth can we even begin to broaden our reach to more men? We need to make others informed, women and men, and make sure to teach the next generation from the very beginning, that inequity, in any form, is not acceptable. And realize it takes a whole lot longer than anyone ever thought.

You can read more about women’s wages at AAUW.

Follow Christy on Twitter for updates on what President Obama is doing about equal pay, equal pay laws and other issues affecting women’s rights.

Photo credit: Photo shop halloween pumpkin by http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/294236800/ courtesy of flickcreativecommons license.