PayPal supports International Women’s Day with discussion on gender and pay balance
In celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) and in support of its #BalanceforBetter campaign, PayPal is releasing a video featuring women business leaders discussing their experiences and ideas on how to bring gender balance into the workplace and beyond.
PayPal’s executive vice-president for chief business affairs and legal officer, Louise Pentland, invited five female chief executives and business leaders to share their insights on how to create a more gender-balanced world.
Pentland talked to Heidi Zak (co-founder and co-chief executive officer, Third Love), Kara Goldin (founder and chief executive officer, Hint Water), Blythe Harris (co-founder and chief creative officer, Stella & Dot), Lisa Edwards, (senior vice-president of global boutiques, Benefit Cosmetics) and Yunha Kim (founder and chief executive officer, Simple Habit).
In the five-minute video, they discuss fundraising, diversity, taking risks and other factors that women entrepreneurs must take into account on a daily basis.
The video starts with a quote from Goldin: “People always ask me, all the time, ‘was it harder to raise money as a woman?’ My somewhat joke and somewhat serious [response is], ‘I’ve never been a man, so I don’t know'.”
In a release, PayPal noted women make up nearly half the American workforce and are steadily outpacing men in educational achievements and entrepreneurship, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the number of women-owned firms grew 45% between 2007 and 2016, a rate five times faster than the national average.
But female entrepreneurs face unique challenges that prevent them from moving forward: access to mentorship, funding and venture capital, and the worsening gender pay gap. As Pentland chronicles in a LinkedIn post from late 2018, finding women earn 49 cents to the typical men’s dollar, much less than the 80 cents usually reported.
Starting with IWD, PayPal is making a pledge with Free the Bid to support women in the film industry. The video was shot by an all-female camera crew and production team.
In support of IWD on 8 March, and throughout the month of March, PayPal is also highlighting female run businesses by sharing their stories at PayPal.com/IWD. For every eligible purchase made at select retailers, PayPal will donate $2 to causes that support women through 23 March.
Also, for the third year in a row, PayPal said it has achieved full pay equity in salary globally for women and men, as well as ethnic pay equity in the US.