Clyburn to Focus on Closing the Telecom Gender Gap
Closing the gender gap in communications and technology companies is a goal that Commissioner Mignon Clyburn plans to focus on closely in the coming months, she said at an FCBA luncheon Thursday. “Many of you have heard me speak about the staggering imbalances that exist between men and women when it comes to senior and leadership positions in the communications and technology space,” she said. “If there is any place where the benefits of full inclusion and economic and workplace parity should be organic, where the strength, and majestic beauty that makes our nation so envied by the rest of the world, should be reflected in all its glory, it is in our media, technology, and telecommunications companies, at all levels, including inside of the C-Suites and on governing boards."
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Corporations aren’t inherently against gender equality, but they need to take a more proactive position on it, Clyburn said in an interview. Women make up more than half the population, she said, but studies show that only 2.45 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women. In terms of top wage earners, women comprise 6.3 percent, she said. If things stay on the same course, it would take 47 years for women to be in parity with men in the workplace, she said: “There is a disconnect” and “we want to be, hopefully, the stimulators of taking those next proactive steps for enhancement and inclusion and equity."
Clyburn’s public awareness campaign will “take a number of shapes and forms,” such as conversations with CEOs during meetings at the FCC, and interactions internally there about what the agency is doing to ensure that “we're in tune with that,” she told us. “Wherever the opportunity arises, wherever I can see a window, you will hear me saying it now, henceforth and forever.” It’s really a question about company directors “being conscious about how their workplace looks,” she said.
Clyburn has been speaking with female CEOs, attorneys and others in the communications sector who have expressed the same types of concerns and desires as she’s focusing on, she said. Clyburn Chief of Staff David Grimaldi said it’s great when CEOs say back to her, “you're right.” A “thousand flowers can bloom from something like this with just another voice -- a prominent voice like the commissioner -- just saying to people, and nudging them, stating America is more than half female,” he said. “The companies and the content that they put out should mirror that.”