International Women's Day: Arianna Huffington says 'culture ceiling' needs to be addressed

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg

On International Women’s Day, Arianna Huffington says many businesses have a “culture ceiling” that needs to be addressed. 

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Friday, Huffington, the co-founder of The Huffington Post and founder and CEO Thrive Global, said that Thrive Global works with companies on issues of employee well-being. She said focusing on wellbeing “needs to be seen as a productivity multiplier” and is “incredibly important to allow women to advance.” 

“What stands out to me is that we need to pay more attention to the cultures in companies that make it harder for women to stay and advance because we have a lot of scientific data that shows that women respond to toxic stress and burnout differently than men,” Huffington said. 

“So in a sense, we have a culture ceiling that we need to look at.” 

Huffington also highlighted that flexible work options have been “great for women.” 

“We see more women participation in the workforce and that has a lot to do with the flexibility, that's available to them now because of remote and hybrid work,” she said. “The key is not so much where we work, but how flexible are our employers. That's what women need to navigate their lives.”

Huffington also noted that she feels the conversation around flexible working arrangements has been “settled.” 

“I think there are very few employers now who expect employees to be at work nine to five, five days a week. Flexibility has been more integrated into the expectations employers have,” she said. 

Not just a glass ceiling: Working moms on the 'maternal wall' that can stall careers

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

When Grace Adeniyi-Ogunyankin went into labour with her second child early, she was in the middle of grading her students' work.

“My closest friend was telling me to go to the hospital. My partner was like, ‘Let’s go to the hospital,’ but I’m like, ‘No, I have to finish this because once I have this baby, I don’t know how I’m going to do it,’” the Queen's University associate professor recalled.

“This is how wild it can be sometimes because you don’t want to feel like oh, I’m not doing my work.”

Adeniyi-Ogunyankin’s insistence on finishing her marking despite being on the cusp of one of her family's most important moments was a product of the pressure she and other women feel when juggling motherhood and their careers.

The challenges they encounter form what some call a "maternal wall:" the ways that negative perceptions of mothers in the workforce can block opportunities for career advancement.

For many, the maternal wall crops up when employers and peers start to doubt their ability to do their jobs because they're also raising kids.

A 2023 report from international non-profit Mothers in Science found one-third of women working in the sciences while raising children had their competence questioned by employers and colleagues after becoming a parent.

But the phenomenon is not contained to a particular field.

"It's shocking how prevalent it is," said Allison Venditti, founder of advocacy group Moms at Work.

You might assume there would be less of it in areas like health care, which have historically employed a higher number of women, but there are examples of it everywhere, she said.

It even affects women who aren't pregnant and don't have kids, Venditti said, because many see them as a "breeding horse" as soon they hit the typical child-bearing years.

"People are looking at you going, 'I wonder when she's going to have a kid,'" Venditti said.

"I've had conversations with the human resources person when people are looking at layoffs and whatever and they're like, 'Well, how many more good years does she have left?'"

If women have kids, Venditti said they are frequently become the "default" for childcare and housework, but their employers often view these responsibilities as a distraction from work. If the demands of child-rearing become too steep, mothers are commonly expected to put their careers aside.

"When couples are having these discussions about whose job to protect ... they're focusing on the person who's making more money and that is predominantly men," Venditti said.

Statistics Canada found women between the ages of 25 and 54 earned 89 cents for every dollar made by men in 2021.

Those who take time off for caregiving often find the wage gap is even larger because their absence can affect seniority and the opportunities open to them.

Some companies are trying to help with the challenges of motherhood.

Apparel brand Patagonia, for example, provides workers with on-site child care at its headquarters and one of its distribution centres.

Consulting firm PwC offers maternity top-ups for birth mothers, financial support for parents who adopt children, fertility coverage and parental leave coaching aimed at helping workers focus on their family while away and then return to work with their long-term career goals in mind.

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research reimburses individuals with a dependent under the age of 12 for costs associated with childcare when it holds meetings.

However, Adeniyi-Ogunyankin still sees hurdles in areas like research travel.

“If you're going to go away and do research, you can't just go there for a week or two weeks in order to get something substantial,” said Adeniyi-Ogunyankin, a CIFAR fellow who researches the politics of gender and neoliberal urbanism in two Nigerian cities.

"To understand the context, you need to be there for months at a time ... so that becomes challenging when you have kids."

She's contemplating what to do with her kids if she is able to travel to Nigeria. Plane tickets would cost $2,000 per child and she’d have to cover daycare fees to keep one of her kids from losing their spot.

But she's made her career and child care work several times before.

When she was interviewing for a job while one of her children was a few months old, she heard a common refrain: don’t let people know you have a child.

“I decided not to do that,” she said. "I was like, 'I have a three-month-old, so you need to schedule some breaks in for me.'”

She has brought her baby to presentations and dinners during the recruitment process. She figures it was more acceptable because she's in the gender studies field, but still argues "we don't need to make that part of ourselves invisible."

Jessica Metcalf, a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar who teaches at Colorado State University, agrees. She strives to be a role model for others aspiring to pursue academia and have kids.

Doing both means sometimes making "hard decisions" because "the reality is I can't do everything," she said.

"I have to do in 40 hours a week, what some people have 50 or 60 hours a week to do," she said, noting she can't catch up on work during the weekend because she has to care for her kids then.

"I always joke, if I was as efficient as I am now when I was in grad school, I would have finished in, like, half the time."

To manage the demands of work and motherhood, Metcalf hired a sleep consultant to smooth out her kids' bedtime so she isn't awoken several times in the night, and feverishly uses her calendar.

She sees signs that conditions are improving for working mothers. Her employer, for example, is exploring a pilot project which could offer financial support or temporary caregiving during research periods.

But supporting working moms can't come solely from small policy changes, Venditti said. It has to come from companies' operating ethos or from a new generation dramatically improving the work situation for the next one.

"When women run companies, when people start companies because of the way they were treated, magic happens," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2024.

How to avoid paying the pink tax on clothes, toys and other everyday items

Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press

When Amrita Maharaj-Dube goes shopping with her daughter, the five-year-old is instantly drawn toward all things pink and sparkly. 

But when unicorns and hearts make an item more expensive than one with dinosaurs or space ships, her mother draws a line.

"I started buying more gender-neutral colours for my children," said Maharaj-Dube, who also has an eight-year-old son. "The black, the greys, the reds, orange and yellow — colours that are a bit more gender neutral (and) both my son and my daughter can use."

Products marketed toward women and girls such as razors, shampoo and even children's clothes can cost more than their equivalent for men or boys, a phenomenon that's been dubbed the "pink tax."

"Pink tax was a term coined in the '70s to describe the difference in pricing between men's and women's products," said Calgary-based Janine Rogan, a chartered professional accountant and author of the book, "The Pink Tax."

Disposable razors have been a representative example for years — the same product was priced higher when it came in pink.

Some of that discrepancy has improved in recent years. Along with companies adjusting their prices to become more equal, some jurisdictions around the world have eliminated actual taxes on necessary health products such as menstrual pads and tampons in a bid to level the playing field for those who use them.

However, corporations and marketers still find ways to raise prices for products aimed at women and girls such as shampoos and lotions, Rogan says.

Maharaj-Dube says her daughter is often disappointed with her money-saving choices, so she's turned to a solution that works for her bank account and keeps her child happy: thrifting.

"I take her to the thrift store and (tell her), 'Hey, you can pick out whatever you want,'" she said. "It's at a fraction of the prices (and) I'm getting good value for money." 

Neighbourhood Facebook groups can also prove a helpful resource for swapping or buying young girls' hair clips, clothes or toys, said Maharaj-Dube, a corporate communications manager for a mental health and addiction treatment centre.

"We're all mothers and we're all feeling the pinch of these economic times," she said. "We're always trying to find ways to save money." 

Maharaj-Dube's efforts to stretch a dollar on products targeted at her gender go beyond fulfilling her daughter's demands. 

"I'll confess ... I'm in my late '30s and I (had started) investing more in skin care," she said. But she started noticing how expensive it can get if one adopts a 10-step skin care routine.

She resorted to do-it-yourself skin care, such as at-home turmeric or Greek yogurt face masks and aloe vera for her hair and skin instead of expensive facials.

"I've been changing my spending habits and not giving into the marketing powers of the skin care and beauty industry," she said.

Women often feel compelled to spend more on perfecting their physical appearance, but men don't typically face similar pressures. A man with greying hair is less likely to feel the need to dye it, for example.

Samantha Sykes, a senior investment adviser at Raymond James Ltd., said skin care products — targeted at women — tend to be priced higher than if they were aimed at men, such as men's facewash or face scrub.

"I tell people to go to a dermatologist for their skin care products as opposed to going to Sephora or Shoppers," Sykes said. "The dermatologists would have the same products and you can run stuff through benefits, and not necessarily pay that overcharge."

Other tips such as shopping from the men's section for razors or shampoo, or visiting a barber for a haircut if you have shorter hair, could help avoid the pink tax, she added.

Sykes said the pink tax follows women into their retirement years — when fixed incomes mean there is only so much money available.

"The pink tax is literally chipping away at their retirement savings because they're constantly being told they have to pay more for dry cleaning, for haircuts, for cosmetics, for toiletries and now, for (entertainment)," she said. 

Many old-school financial advisers don't explain how the pink tax might affect older women into their retirement, Sykes said. 

"I tell people: 'I'm not shaming you for liking the pink shirt and the pink tools and the pink shoes ... I'm just making sure that you are aware that you're being taken for a ride,'" she said. 

"That's OK if you can afford it."

 This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2024.