On International Women’s Day, Helene Taylor from Jito hosted a Women for Women event to help inspire more female leaders in the travel industry. She provided this summary of her presentation to travelBulletin.
‘I organised the event with the view of helping drive more equality and address pay parity issues in the industry.
During my talk, I shared how growing up females are socialised to be beautiful to be pretty and to be body image conscious.
Surveys of school-aged young females show that more than 53% of young girls hate some part of their bodies and that is just tragic. For generations, females have been biologically programmed to admire tall, white, thin females.
Females often think if their thighs were a little thinner or hair a little shiner they would be happier – yet when you survey a group of models they will tell you that they are physically the most insecure females on the planet. Females are socialised to be perfect – and as a result develop the worst inner critic, and this inner critic impacts career growth.
In stark comparison, males are socialised completely differently — boys growing up are encouraged to climb to the top of the monkey bars and jump off, climb to the top of the bridge and jump off into the river. Males are socialised to be brave, to be bold, to take risks and fuelled with testosterone they climb the cliff and leap into the ocean.
As an executive head hunter I see how this translates into our careers.
Females gravitate towards jobs that are comfortable, where there is no risk while males gravitate to jobs with risk.
A male will view a job description of ten items and even if he can see five things he can’t do he will lean in and apply for the role. In comparison, a female will focus on the five things that she can’t do and not lean in.
It is no wonder we have less females applying for senior roles. And fuelled with testosterone a male will then negotiate, $5,000, $10,000 $20,000 more in salary – while in comparison a female will say she is lucky to get the job.
So, what is the solution?
Well, females can’t inject themselves with testosterone but they can learn to tell their inner critic to be quiet. Focus on the things they can do when reading a job description and be brave, be bold and lean in. They need to learn to sell themselves more and to negotiate for their worth.
It’s not a female’s job to be perfect – it is a female’s job to be human.
As a result of this problem I am surveying the industry to see if there is enough demand to organise training for females who want to become leaders – with the aim of helping build confidence, to learn how to sell themselves and how to negotiate salaries so we help the pay parity and equality in the industry, rather than hope this problem will solve itself.
I hereby call on all females to lean In and be brave, to help drive equality and pay parity in our industry.
I am pleased to report that as a result of this one day event several companies have already reported changes to their maternity leave policies, with the aim of helping more women return to the workforce or work from home.
Together we can make a difference and next year Jito will host a second International Women’s Day – Women for Women event which is expected to have over 1,000 attendees.
The Travel Corporation has been confirmed as next year’s principal sponsor, with Intrepid confirming it also wants to again be part of such an important industry initiative.
travelBulletin and the Business Publishing Group will also support the event which is expected to become a major annual fixture on the industry calendar.’
