First of all, ladies, let me congratulate you. You are at a top-ranked university, getting a degree of your choice and having the time of your life.
But was that degree of your choice really your choice? Is the career you’re choosing really something you want to do? Did you choose your path because it was comfortable, or did you choose it because it was challenging?
Well, ladies, it is time to get uncomfortable. According to Fortune, the highest-paid male executive earns $350.7 million and the highest-paid female earns $38.6 million. That discrepancy is not just large, it is gigantic.
The fourth annual Study of California Women Business Leaders conducted by the University of California, Davis, found that in nearly half of California’s 400 largest public companies, not a single woman holds an executive officer position.
Girls, we need to break away and create a path. Gaps in wages, job positions and gender ratios within majors need to close. Our highest female enrollment on the campus continues to be in degrees of communication, education and family science. Don’t get me wrong – these are fantastic studies that offer endless possibilities, but how about we start enrolling in majors that are not expected of us because we are women?
Take a look around your classes and see how many men are in your classroom. If the number is low, take a second and try to figure out why. If you are in a study where your future career pays a lower salary than most, you are likely in a female-dominated field of study. I am not discrediting female-dominated fields, but if we agree that women and men should hold equal wages and have equal job opportunities, we need to address the issue of gender placement within education and the business world.
This year, women finally make up 50 percent of our business school, which contains some of the most profitable degrees and career paths. How we translate those degrees into high-paying and gender-equal careers is a current challenge for our generation. At this university, we have endless opportunities to network, intern and receive scholarships just because we are women.
Ladies, I challenge you to seek out these opportunities, to be heard, to show your capabilities and prove nay-sayers wrong. Not enough of us are taking advantage of the plentiful resources we have here at our 152-year-old establishment. There is so much history here – let’s make even more by breaking barriers, stepping out of our comfort zone and pushing ourselves to the front of the crowd.
Strive for excellence, fairness and equality; don’t settle for mediocrity, inequality or injustice. Know your potential as a woman and seek it. You owe it to yourself and to the women who have helped pave the way before you.
Don’t settle. Get it, girl.
Alex Gagne is a junior business marketing and public relations major. She can be reached at agagne@umd.edu.
