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Equality for Women in the Fashion World
By admins | February 5, 2009
J. Howard Miller
As many of you are aware, the fashion industry is extremely female dominated. From employees to consumers it’s a woman’s world, right? The truth is that the New York’s Garment Center, which is 82% women, is not at all female friendly. While in any factory or sample room the person sitting behind a sewing machine is, no doubt, a woman, the same can not be said for the boardroom. In the majority of NYC apparel companies certain departments like technical design, design, production and art are heavily female, while the high paying departments like sales, IT, finance, and executive positions are male dominated. Clearly there is a glass ceiling in the fashion industry. This should not be too much of a shock in a country where women make 77¢ on the dollar compared to their male counterparts. What is so unusual is this is happening in such a female dominated industry, and it goes beyond salary and title inequality. Other traditionally female industries are structured and have benefits specific to their large female workforce, but not ours. Unlike teachers, we do not get paid maternity leave, or like nurses, get flexible hours helpful to child rearing, or like many companies, there is no daycare in garment center businesses. Even benefits that are considered basic in most other industries, matching 401K’s are almost unheard of in the fashion industry.
Last week, president Obama signed his first bill, which was the equal pay act. Finally, we are moving forward and making pay discrimination an illegal and prosecutable offence. Over the course of her lifetime, the average American woman will make $523,000 less than her male counterpart. Here in New York, another bill by the New York State Pay Equity Coalition is in the works. In addition to equal pay, this bill will make it illegal to reprimand or fire employees for disclosing their salaries to co-workers. Many women do not demand the salary and raises they deserve because they are unaware of what a competitive salary should be. Women often feel that it is rude or pushy to ask for large raises and as a result often devalue themselves. We also consider it rude or nosy to compare salaries with co-workers, while men have no trouble bragging about how much money they make, women consider it impolite. By not discussing this issue we are missing the knowledge it takes to properly negotiate salary. Companies, of course, are aware of this; which is why they insist salaries be kept confidential, as this helps keep their payroll down.
As women we need to come together and unapologetically demand what is ours. We need to work together in our own companies to create more female friendly benefits and working environments. We’d love to here from you, any suggestions on how to improve our industry or about any specific problems women in your office are facing.
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Topics: Human Resources, fashion industry, garment center, new york | 12 Comments » 
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February 5th, 2009 at 11:24 am
[...] 39thandbroadway.com – We are fierce, fabulous, fashionable women; now show us our freakin money! [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
[...] Read some-more here: Equality For Women in a Fashion World | 39thandbroadway.com [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
[...] 39thandbroadway.com – We are fierce, fabulous, fashionable women; now show us our freakin money! [...]
February 5th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
What a wonderful article today. Are you sure you weren’t brought up by Betty Friedan or Gloria Steinem? They said all of these things in the sixties and so much, unfortunately, has just stayed the same.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Bravo, well done lovelies! About time this issue was discussed. Keep up the good work.
February 6th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
I always want to know what my co-workers are making, but feel it’s rude. So corporations encourage that kind of thinking? Grrrr. So happy both these laws were passed. Here’s a great picture of the signing: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/01/29/a-story-in-pictures/
February 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Excellent blog on the inequality of pay between the genders. The time is now for women to take control of their industry.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Well done, well written and way to go. It’s about time some changes were made.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Why don’t women working in the fashion industry receive the same kinds of benefits as those working in other industries?
Supply and demand. There are far more qualified, talented and hard working people who want these positions than there are positions. They don’t *have* to provide maternity leave (or sick leave or even health insurance) to retain people.
How many teenage girls dream of a glamorous job in the fashion industry? How many FIT and Parson’s students (not to mention those in the Human Ecology departments of 4 year colleges in po-dunk towns across the country) would do anything just for an unpaid internship to get their foot in the door?
And I can’t tell you how many thirty-forty something smart, capable, sharp, intelligent, design savvy women I’ve met who want to change careers and go into… drumroll please… fashion!
I hate to say it, but with the economy tanking and spending on fashion contracting and more companies going out of business, the employers left will be able to offer less and demand more.
For those of you who can hack it, I admire your tenacity.
February 9th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
[...] 39thandbroadway.com – We are fierce, fabulous, fashionable women; now show us our freakin money! [...]
February 10th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Thanks for the compliments everyone! Great picture FH. Hopefully change will come to our industry too. Claire, all excellent points, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves! Thanks for the support guys.
February 10th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I admire the spirit and intent behind the equal pay for equal work bill, but I wonder how it will be enforced. How do you define “equal work”? Equal in terms of quality, the number of hours worked, the productivity, the types of tasks done, the job title? As cynical as this sounds, I think a lot of companies could weasel their way out of giving employees their due salary by saying that the work ISN’T equal on the basis of something or other.