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You are presenting a new campaign to attract girl in SNEC.

1. Present the problem: why are there few women in STEM? Why is it problematic?

2. Present the actions you want to take.

Don’t forget to be enthusiastic and convincing!

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You are presenting a law proposal to help bridge the gender gap by modifying the French parental leave policy.

1. Present the problem; gender gap, motherhood penalty, and how maternal leave can be problematic

2. Using the ex of Sweden 'gender-responsive budgeting' (you don’t have to follow it precisely!), present your proposal

(take into consideration the fact that fathers are reluctant to take paternity leave).

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Teenagers and young men often struggle to stay at school and to adopt a proper behavior.
You are proposing a solution to help young men at school (either one that is proposed here, or a different one).

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You are presenting a new campaign to change the image of women in video games.

1. Present the problem.

- What is the representation of women in video games?

- Why are they represented that way? (causes)

- What are the consequences of that representation?

2. Present your solutions to that problem.

How are you going to try and convince people / companies to change things?

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'I Look Like an Ingeneer' campaign from Manhattan College

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'I Look Like an Ingeneer' campaign from Manhattan College

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Female engineers from Manhattan College explain why they're out to break stereotypes in a male-dominated field.

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Leahviathan is a professional live streamer, and she doesn't want to be known as a 'girl gamer'. She just wants there to be a level playing field with men, and an equal amount of respect.

Image and credit: Leahviathan

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BBC World Service - The Conversation, Professional Gamers, Why the term 'Girl gamer' should be abolished

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Leahviathan is a professional live streamer, and she doesn't want to be known as a 'girl gamer'. She just wants there to be a level playing field with men, and an equal amount of respect. Image and credit: Leahviathan

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Stephanie Harvey has been a professional gamer for 15 years. She says having more female characters in games is critical to attracting women into this male-dominated world.

Image and credit: Stephanie Harvey

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BBC World Service - The Conversation, Professional Gamers, More female characters in games please

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Stephanie Harvey has been a professional gamer for 15 years. She says having more female characters in games is critical to attracting women into this male-dominated world. Image and credit: Stephanie Harvey

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Gender equality in budgeting: How Canada can learn from Sweden

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We're Stemettes. An award-winning social enterprise working to Engage, inform and connect the next generation of women and non-binary people into Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM).

Donate to Stemette Futures

Stemette Futures work alongside nonprofit Stemettes to inspire, support and encourage girls, young women and non-binary young people into technical fields. Across our programmes, events and platforms we're showing that STEAM is for all, in a free, fun-filled & food-filled way.

More information here.

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Stemettes inspire and support girls, young women and non-binary young people in STEM/STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

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Ah. Video games. They've gotten to a point where they can offer the challenge of a game and full cinematic experience of a film at the same time. Some games are even released in more affordable installments in an episodic fashion, much like a television program. Unfortunately, video games still seem to be a little lost in the past when it comes to being more inclusive of other genders and races. While a lot of games sport customizable characters that allow the user to play as an avatar that looks almost exactly like them, many games still offer the spotlight to generic, white, well-muscled males that should have names like "Dirk Manhandsome".

There are statistics floating around out there that women make-up about half of the gaming community. This is technically true. What these statistics don't come out and say outright is that women aren't half of the community that plays expensive AAA games on expensive consoles. These statistics come from women that are playing cheaper games on their phones.

This is not to say that women don't "game" in the traditional sense of the word. That isn't even remotely true - but can the women that don't be blamed for not playing these big money-making AAA games? They have very little to choose from in terms of awesome female heroes. The female gender isn't shown much love in traditional gaming even as secondary characters. Let's take a look at how female characters have been (and still are) treated in the world of traditional gaming. Maybe if some of the studios eased up on some of these tropes, more women would be playing the big expensive titles on expensive systems.

14 Female Characters Aren't Relatable To Many Actual Females

It's pretty difficult to relate to a character when they're a Princess nine times out of ten. Many gamer's aren't royalty and a single video game console could be the entire focal point of entertainment in the home. This issue of "every female character being a princess" is mainly a flaw in older games that has more or less been righted, but it took a rather long time for that to happen. The object to many games of the past was "saving the Princess." In the modern era, we finally have some kick-ass female characters, but they're still loaded with problems in an industry that's still trying to be more inclusive to females and follow less sexist tropes.

13 You Can't Tell They're Female

In many cases where a female is a main character, you can't even tell they're female. The most notable example of this is probably Samus Aran from the Metroid series. Samus wears a full high-tech suit that covers her from head-to-toe and doesn't leave much room for speculating gender. In fact, when the first Metroid game came out on the NES, there was one line in the instruction manual that referred to Samus with a feminine pronoun. Many kids were oblivious to the fact that they were playing a female character.

A more modern example is Vandal from Dead Space. Anyone could be under all that armor. This could very well be a move to keep male players interested in playing a female character.

12 Sometimes It's A Little Too Obvious They're Female

One the other end of the spectrum, it can be a little too obvious that the character is female. Games in the Dead or Alive series are pretty heavy handed with the concept of using heterosexual male fantasy to model their roster of female characters. They aren't making these games for women (and that's okay), but many games that are targeted at a much wider audience do the same thing.

Nariko from Heavenly Sword, Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider series, and Rayne of the BloodRayne series are all supposed to be strong, female protagonists that break the mold of the traditional video game hero, but they're rarely wearing clothes that leave much to the imagination.

Many argue that men are given unrealistic bodies as well, but those strong and handsome male characters are created to fulfill male self-image fantasies, and not female sexual fantasies.

11 They Serve As 'Second Banana'

Many female characters in games are secondary to the male heroes. Even when strong females are included, they're always a bit weaker or merely assist the males. Probably the all-time worst example of this is Roll, Mega Man's little sister. Not only does she not follow Mega Man on his adventures, but she is relegated to a very traditional female roll: the housekeeper. Mega Man goes on adventures, Roll stays home and does the laundry. In fact, her character quote on her Mega Man wikia entry is:

" I still have cleaning and laundry to do, so let's make this quick! "

10 They're Just A Re-skin Of A Male Character

Many lead female characters that we get in games are simply re-skins of other male characters. We use the term "re-skin" pretty loosely here.

Many female protagonists were simply a female version of a pre-existing male character. A good example of this might be Nariko from Heavenly Sword.

Heavenly Sword is so similar to the God of War series that it seems like an attempt to simply do a "female version" without creating a unique gaming experience around a new female character. Though the games don't exist in the same universe, there are quite a few easter egg references to God of War within Heavenly Sword.

We see a lot of this sort of thing done more directly and obviously in older games. Ms. Pac-Man is just Pac-Man with a bow. Amy Rose is just a pink version of Sonic. Roll is just a weaker, female version of Mega Man.

9 Even Legacy Characters Weren't Always Playable

There are many games that have included the same roster of female characters throughout decades of games, without once having them be usable as a proper playable character. The Mario series only had Princess Peach appear as a playable character one time in the proper line of the series (excluding games like Mario Party) and this was largely due to the fact that Super Mario Bros. 2 was just a re-tooled game called Doki Doki Panic. B odies were needed to fill in the roles of all four characters, and Mario's roster wasn't very full yet.

Roll has been playable in a few Mega Man games, but never in the series proper as a true hero. The same goes for Amy Rose in the proper Sonic the Hedgehog series. She's never been playable on the same level as characters like Tails or Knuckles.

8 Sometimes Females Are Barely Even Present

There are many games that are so gosh darn manly you rarely even see women in any kind of role. This is especially strange in the relatively new Mad Max: Wasteland. Considering the game was made to be released around the same time as the home release of Mad Max: Fury Road, a movie highly revered for it's strong female protagonist that out-shined the titular male character, it's a little surprising that Wasteland barely features any women. There are some cinematic cut scenes and side quests, but for the most part, Max, his assisting characters, the main villains, and generic goons, are all male. Most women are held captive, need help, or are in weakened states.

7 Always The Damsel In Distress

This one goes without saying. For decades the object of almost every game was to save the damsel in distress. This one is a little perplexing because it happened so early on in video game history you have to wonder how creators just sort of knew most serious gamer's would be boys. You almost have to wonder if it's common tropes like this that set the precedent that video games would be a "boy's toy" in the first place.

While we're out of the era where this was almost always the case, a male character rescuing a female is still a widely used plot.

6 They're Often Used As Rewards

Women are often used as rewards. There have been "adult" games targeted towards heterosexual males that make a point of using female nudity as a reward, but you see it appear in games that aren't specifically made to be adult or necessarily targeted towards heterosexual males.

Games in the Tony Hawk series (a series that usually offers a playable female option) have had hidden rooms you can break into where you'll find a female stripper pole dancing. Many games, like The Saboteur, have DLC packages that show female characters breasts or even make the breasts larger and bouncier. Lollipop Chainsaw has unlock-able outfits that put its female protagonist in fantasy outfits (a sexy cowgirl for instance) and string bikinis. Even older games like Smash TV had icons of scantily clad women you could pick up to signify winning a lady as a prize in the game's fictional high stakes game show.

5 There Is No Female Option, Even When The Character Is A "Blank Slate"

This one is awfully strange. You'd think it wouldn't be hard to include a generic female avatar in a modern video game. Some games that allow players to choose from a number of races don't even have female options for every race. Sometimes this may fit in with the lore of the game's world, but these are exceptional characters your customers are playing. A girl should be able to play a female of any race if she chooses.

The most bizarre example of this was in Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The player uses a blank slate, painfully average male avatar. There is no physical customization available to the character whatsoever. It seems strange to not just offer just as plain and nondescript of a female avatar as well. Especially since the avatar is often referred to as "rookie" instead of any gender specific pronoun.

4 They Rarely "Save The Boyfriend"

The only time you ever find a girl rescuing her boyfriend is when the game is purposefully trying to turn the "damsel in distress" trope on its head. It isn't widely used enough that it can ever come off as anything more than an exception to the rule.

There's a very good chance that this is because most AAA games are played by males. Many males will play as a female, but they're still not there yet when it comes to rescuing a male love interest.

Lollipop Chainsaw features the playable character, Juliette Starling, rescuing her boyfriend, but this happens very early on in the game and is more of a vehicle for comic relief.

3 Female Villains Are Rarely Justified - They're Just Evil

A common trope used in video games these days is a sympathetic villain. We're given a villain who is clearly in the wrong, but perhaps they're doing all these bad things for some greater good they perceive, or to save the life of a loved one. This is seen mainly with male villains, but female villains are usually portrayed as a black-and-white idea of evil. They generally hate the protagonist, have a thirst for power, and are borderline devil incarnates.

For example, Mileena in the Mortal Kombat series is a scantily clad woman that is quite literally a "man-eater". This beautiful female is actually a monster. That's some pretty heavy metaphor.

2 They're Rarely The Hero

In the world of RPGs, you have access to a large number of playable characters. These characters often run the spectrum of gender, race, and personality types. Unfortunately, the main protagonist is almost always male. The male is the one character you almost always have to keep in your party.

We should mention the fact that the female characters you can choose to put in your party usually fall victim to a number of other items on the list.

1 The Character Being Female Is A "Big Reveal" And Everyone Is SHOCKED

This one is similar to the concept of a hero being so covered up they are effectively gender neutral, but adds to it. These days, it's still extremely shocking that a badass character turns out to be female. One of the best examples of this "OMG! This character was a girl all along! But girl's can't be awesome!" happens in Dead Space. The character of Vandal wears armor head to toe and even speaks with a voice synthesizer that for some reason doesn't make her sound like a different woman, but makes her sound more like a man.

Obviously this reveal is to prove to people that women can kick butt too, but it's 2015. Why can't we get a female hero with a muscular build and wearing all her clothes right out the door? Perhaps if the creators of these major titles stopped acting like a woman capable of heroism is such a big shock, it would stop being a big deal and become more of a norm. Hey, the Portal series nailed it. Why can't others?

Sources: hastac.org

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14 Big Problems With The Portrayal Of Females In Video Games

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Ah. Video games. They've gotten to a point where they can offer the challenge of a game and full cinematic experience of a film at the same time. Some games are even released in more affordable installments in an episodic fashion, much like a television program.

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You are members of a commission on the representation of women in tech.

You have worked on the question of vocal assistant with (mostly) female voices.

Present the different positions on the subject, and conclude with your recommendation.

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There's no shortage of articles lately about how the pandemic has set women back. Since women tend to earn less than men, when the time came to take care of children that could no longer go to school or daycare, women ended up with the job. Working women across the globe were forced to quit their careers to become full-time, stay-at-home moms with all of the caretaking and laundry that comes with it.

For a society that hasn't quite broken out of its mindset around traditional gender roles, seeing women as everyone else's helpers instead of their own people with their own destinies is par for the course. We even see this reflected in the emerging field of AI voice assistants - all of which sound female.

"Alexa, why do you sound like a girl?"

Alexa, Siri, Cortana - they're the latest in a long line of voice assistants that have sounded female. But why?

Well, there's those deeply entrenched attitudes of society around gender roles that we've had to work so hard to undo. And then you've surely heard about the ongoing gender discrepancy in STEM fields, where only 12% of AI researchers and one in 10 UK IT leaders are female. When more women are at the table and empowered to speak up, they can raise concerns about these types of things.

To be clear, the rise of gendered technology has been a deliberate decision, one that was dubbed sexist in a 2019 UNESCO report . According to the team behind the Google Assistant, there are technical reasons their 2016 system was feminine, despite initially wanting to use a male voice. Due to biases in their historical text-to-speech (TTS) data, the assistant worked better when using the female voice than it did with the male. And with the pressure of time on them - their go-to-market product was left as solely female.

But why were their past TTS systems trained on biased data in the first place? And why do we seem to care how our phones speak?

Shrill, passive, whiny...

These three words are commonly used to describe the voices of female speakers. They aren't exactly flattering! Even sociolinguists spent much of the 70s labeling passive linguistic features as 'women's speech', which in turn was described as inferior to the powerful, assertive language used by men.

There's evidence that using a female voice actually improves user experience. A 2019 by Voicebot found a consumer preference for synthetic female voices over their male counterparts, with an average rating increase of 12.5%; the opposite was true when human voices were rated.

In summary: people prefer a female voice - but only when it is robotic.

"So my voice assistant's a girl - so what?"

The problem with voice assistants isn't just that they all sound female. It's the passive 'personalities' that have been designed for them.

Imagine this: you're a woman walking down the street, minding her own business. Suddenly, a man drives by and yells out the car window, "You're hot!" This is obviously unacceptable behavior, and reacting to it would probably mean raising a specific finger.

But if you say the same thing to Alexa, you'd hear "that's nice of you to say" in response. If you hurled gendered insults, such as b*tch or sl*t, Alexa would simply politely thank you for the feedback.

Deciding the role of an affable, passive, eager-to-please assistant is one best suited to a woman bolsters the tired stereotype of female subservience. You can order Alexa to remind you to take the garbage out, text your mother for you, and turn off the lights, without so much as a 'please'. What a well-behaved bot she is!

But how does it teach us to treat women better when we can just hurl orders in the general direction of a female-sounding helper?

We've seen some progress, but there's more work to do

It's not all bad news. Since the UNESCO report was published, Alexa has declared she's a feminist. The world's first gender-neutral voice assistant, Q, is being developed to address the issue. And there's a lot more emphasis on getting women into STEM starting at a very young age which will pay off in more inclusive technology in the years to come.

But there's a long way to go - a lot of deep-seated biases that we may not even realize we're carrying have to be undone. The best place to start is by hiring more women and empowering them to call out when something is blatantly sexist. If we all work together, we can make AI that works for everyone.

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How gendered voice assistants are hurting as they help

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There's no shortage of articles lately about how the pandemic has set women back. Since women tend to earn less than men, when the time came to take care of children that could no longer go to school or daycare, women ended up with the job.

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AI-powered voice assistants with female voices are perpetuating harmful gender biases, according to a UN study.

These female helpers are portrayed as "obliging and eager to please", reinforcing the idea that women are "subservient", it finds.

Particularly worrying, it says, is how they often give "deflecting, lacklustre or apologetic responses" to insults.

The report calls for technology firms to stop making voice assistants female by default.

The study from Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is entitled, I'd blush if I could, which is borrowed from a response from Siri to being called a sexually provocative term.

"Companies like Apple and Amazon, staffed by overwhelmingly male engineering teams, have built AI systems that cause their feminised digital assistants to greet verbal abuse with catch-me-if-you-can flirtation," the report says.

"Because the speech of most voice assistants is female, it sends a signal that women are... docile helpers, available at the touch of a button or with a blunt voice command like 'hey' or 'OK'. The assistant holds no power of agency beyond what the commander asks of it. It honours commands and responds to queries regardless of their tone or hostility," the report says.

"In many communities, this reinforces commonly held gender biases that women are subservient and tolerant of poor treatment."

Research firm Canalys estimates that approximately 100 million smart speakers - the hardware that allows users to interact with voice assistants - were sold globally in 2018.

And, according to research firm Gartner, by 2020 some people will have more conversations with voice assistants than with their spouses.

Voice assistants now manage an estimated one billion tasks per month, according to the report, and the vast majority - including those designed by Chinese tech giants - have obviously female voices.

Microsoft's Cortana was named after a synthetic intelligence in the video game Halo that projects itself as a sensuous unclothed woman, while Apple's Siri means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory" in Norse. While Google Assistant has a gender-neutral name, its default voice is female.

The report calls on developers to create a neutral machine gender for voice assistants, to programme them to discourage gender-based insults and to announce the technology as non-human at the outset of interactions with human users.

A group of linguists, technologists and sound designers are experimenting with a genderless digital voice, made from real voices and called Q.

The report also highlights the digital skills gender gap, from lack of internet use among girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, to the decline of ICT studies being taken up by girls in Europe.

According to the report, women make up just 12% of AI researchers.

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AI-powered voice assistants with female voices are perpetuating harmful gender biases, according to a UN study. These female helpers are portrayed as "obliging and eager to please", reinforcing the idea that women are "subservient", it finds. Particularly worrying, it says, is how they often give "deflecting, lacklustre or apologetic responses" to insults.

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Alexa, Siri, Cortana: Why All Your Bots Are Female

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When Siri or Alexatalks to you, what do you imagine it as? A virtual girl talking to you, isn't it? A group of researchers asks why it has to be either male or female. Why can't it recognize us all?

Here enters Q, the world's first gender-neutral voice assistant designed with a voice frequency of 145HZ - considered to be a gender-neutral pitch, i.e. neither male nor female.

Debuted at technology and culture conference SXSW in Austin, Texas, this March, Q has been pitched for the biggest creators of voice assistants - Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, to add a gender-neutral option to their platforms.

Q, is a collaboration between five international organisations, advocacy groups Equal AI and Copenhagen Pride, creative agencies Virtue and Koalition and sound studio Thirty Sounds Good.
Why did they make Q?
The website says technology companies often choose to gender technology believing it will make people more comfortable adopting it. But this reinforces a binary perception of gender, and perpetuates stereotypes that many have fought hard to progress.

As society continues to break down the gender binary, recognising those who neither identify as male nor female, the technology we create should follow.

Q is an example of what we hope the future holds; a future of ideas, inclusion, positions and diverse representation in technology, says the website.

The creators of Q are urging to make it a default voice setting in voice assistants as this shows the inclusivity. There is no price tag on Q. Tech companies can opt it any time they want to incorporate in their voice assistants.

Google, Microsoft and Amazon, are you all ears?

Watch the video to know more about it.

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The Genderless Voice Assistant 'Q' Needs Your Help

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When Siri or Alexatalks to you, what do you imagine it as? A virtual girl talking to you, isn't it? A group of researchers asks why it has to be either male or female. Why can't it recognize us all?

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How to Add Samuel L. Jackson's Voice to Your Echo | Amazon

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Many working fathers are reluctant to take leave -- even when it's available to them. Learn why -- and why this should matter.

Remember when Mets secondbaseman Daniel Murphy missed the first two games of the season to be with his wife for the birth of their first child? The controversy that followed Murphy's decision served as a clear reminder that, for new dads, taking paternity leave can be trickier than it seems.

For starters, in the United States, the vast majority of employers do not offer paid paternity leave. Of new dads without access to paid leave, 75 percent take less than a week off work following the birth of their child, while 16 percent don't take a single day.

Read about Why Dads Need Paternity Leave

But even those with paid leave don't always take what they're afforded. Whether due to economic constraints or workplace pressures, some new dads cut short time with their families and get pulled back to work.

Why is this a problem? Public perception is changing as dads and advocates become vocal about the reasons dads need paternity leave. And, as more and more companies gain notoriety for the great paternity leave plans they're offering, prospective employees want to know that paternity leave is offered and encouraged.

Below, we'll look at some of the reasons why new dads aren't taking paternity leave - and why this matters to your business.

1. It's Not Offered
Only about 15 percent of employers offer some form of paid paternity leave. And, among the other 85 percent, not all of those companies are covered under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for eligible employees after the birth or adoption of a child.

2. They Can't Afford To
Even companies that do offer some form of paid leave for fathers don't always cover the employee's full salary for the duration of the leave. In a new study by Boston College's Center for Work and Families, more than 80 percent of fathers said they would need to be paid 70 percent or more of their salary to take time off, and 45 percent said it would have to be 100 percent.

"It can be a matter of economic necessity," says Sarah Jane Glynn, associate director of Women's Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress. "If the mother is recovering physically after giving birth and the father is not, it's going to be dad who goes back to work."

3. Perception
"Men are concerned about how they'll be perceived by their bosses and colleagues if they take time off, so they don't take leave" says Chris Duchesne, vice president of Global Workplace Solutions at Care.com. And one must look no further than the case of the Mets' Murphy to see how stigmas around paternity leave are alive and well.

However, studies have shown about 80 percent of fathers who have taken leave report their decision was supported by their colleagues and supervisors.

4. Looming Deadlines or Projects
The BC survey also identified a "tug of commitments" around paternity leave, in which the pull from the workforce may include impending deadlines or current projects that make it hard for a new dad to take time away from work. He might not feel supported by his manager to leave during crunch time, when not medically necessary.

5. Afraid They'll Be Replaced or Passed Over
On the flip side, some new dads rush back to work fueled by concern that the team will run too well without them. The fear of being replaced can be a powerful motivator when it comes to deciding how much time to take for paternity leave.

Additionally, some research suggests men who take time off from work for family reasons have depressed earning potential over the life of their career. For those eying a promotion or concerned about career advancement, fear of losing ground in the office can outweigh the appeal of spending time with family.

6. Paternity Leave Turns into Telecommuting
For some dads, taking leave of the office doesn't mean leaving work behind. "When co-workers keep calling and asking for things, it makes people feel a lot of pressure to keep producing work while they're supposed to be spending this time with and supporting their family," says Glynn.

Employees might not take it, but research shows offering paternity leave and fostering a family-friendly culture can improve your company's employee loyalty, productivity and even retention.

Read more about these 20 companies that offer great paternity leave.

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6 Reasons New Dads Don't Take Paternity Leave

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Many working fathers are reluctant to take leave -- even when it's available to them. Learn why -- and why this should matter.Remember when Mets secondbaseman Daniel Murphy missed the first two games of the season to be with his wife for the birth of their first child? The controversy ...

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You are proposing a set of measures to help bridge the gender gap by modifying the companies’ behaviour.

1. Present the problem: gender gap, salary negotiations, boys’ club shortcuts/

2. Present 3-4 propositions to solve that problem (laws / enticement / publicity measures / ...)

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When it comes to negotiating salaries, the research is pretty clear: women are less assertive than men. It's one reason women who start their careers with a narrower pay gap see it widen over time.

Carnegie Mellon economics professor Linda Babcock, who studies the gender pay gap, says men are four times more likely to negotiate their pay. That keeps women at a disadvantage, though they're not always aware of it.

"The standard now is that people don't really know what each other earns, that some people negotiate and some people don't, and so there's tremendous inequities in salary," Babcock says.

"When women do negotiate, people often have a negative reaction to them."

Depending on the government statistics used, women today are paid between 5 percent and 23 percent less than their male counterparts.

Many people leapfrog into higher salaries when they switch jobs. But Babcock says the pay disadvantage follows women if their new employers use their old salaries as benchmarks, as is often done. She says in these instances, negotiating can even backfire.

"When women do negotiate, people often have a negative reaction to them," Babcock says.

At least one company is trying to put a stop to it.

Information-sharing site Reddit no longer negotiates salary when it recruits new talent. It's a policy that was instituted by interim CEO Ellen Pao, who last month lost a high-profile gender-discrimination case against her former employer.

Ariane Hegewisch, study director at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, says Reddit's policy is a novel concept for the private sector. But, she notes, salaries for most government workers are already set in a similar way.

"There is not a very large scope for negotiation," she says. "Whether it will work in the IT industry will be very interesting."

Reddit's policy is unusual. Most companies still embrace traditional salary negotiation.

Kelly Hastings, senior government affairs adviser for the Society for Human Resource Management, says policies that restrict a company's ability to adjust pay based on skill level or geographic location also limit the talent it can attract - one of the key, traditional mechanisms for recruitment.

"We really want employers to have complete flexibility to be able to pay people differently as they deem necessary," she says.

Author and career counselor Robin Ryan says it's not that companies do not want to see women rise through their ranks.

"Wanting to have more women promoted, now that [most companies] do care about, and that they have been showing a lot of interest in," she says. "That I'm seeing happening more and more and more."

But Ryan says that tends not to bridge the pay gap. Women are less aggressive on compensation, and that means women stay behind their male peers throughout their careers.

But now workers have access to sites like Glassdoor, which publishes salary information. HR consultant Amy Hirsh Robinson says greater transparency is forcing companies to change.

"Some of my clients are now making all of their salaries transparent, up to the executive level," she says.

That includes Elevations Credit Union, based in Boulder, Colo. The company sets salary level based on title, which it publishes online. So effectively, there is no salary negotiation during hiring or promotion.

Annette Matthies heads human resources and says Elevations did this after hearing complaints from employees. She says it also has helped with recruitment and retention.

"And that loyalty then increases profits for our company," she says. "The company's more profitable, they can then give back more to their employees, and so it's a symbiotic relationship."

In fact, Elevations' last salary audit showed women at the company earn 2 percent more than men. And, Matthies says, no one misses the negotiation process.

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Some Companies Fight Pay Gap By Eliminating Salary Negotiations

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When it comes to negotiating salaries, the research is pretty clear: women are less assertive than men. It's one reason women who start their careers with a narrower pay gap see it widen over time. Carnegie Mellon economics professor Linda Babcock, who studies the gender pay gap, says men are four times more likely to negotiate their pay.

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Just read the first step, 'sharing salary information'.

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Economists estimate that the gender pay gap - the gap between the median salaries of all working men and women in the U.S. - is about 80 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man.

And this gap isn't changing very quickly. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), if the pay gap continues to narrow at the same pace it has over the past 50 years, women will not reach pay parity until 2059. For women of color this date is even further into the future: The IWPR estimates that black women will wait until 2119 for equal pay and Hispanic women will have to wait until 2224.

CNBC Make It spoke with eight economists about what steps leaders could take to shrink the gender pay gap, as well as what individuals can do to minimize its affect on their earnings.

Here's what they had to say:

"You can definitely share pay information - that is actually protected by law. Many people don't think it is, but it actually is according to the Department of Labor. And so you can certainly share it with each other. One reason that people think more claims of unequal pay are coming to light is that since more [women] who are married to men are working, when they work in the same kinds of industries or occupations, they compare their paychecks and they're like, 'What? Really?'

"There's more information and all of these ways of sharing your salaries on the web are very useful. And when you're up for a raise, when you're being hired, you can consult those websites to see whether you're being offered something comparable for your area, for your job, for your size company."

"Women, relative to men in couples with kids, often take a bit of a backseat so that their jobs are more able to be on-call at home and so that guys' jobs are more able to be on call in the office. That doesn't mean that they're working different number of hours, that doesn't mean that their skill level is different, it just means that two people who graduated from Harvard Law School, they both take jobs at big law firms in New York, they have kids, one of them has to slow down a bit. Or else why even have the kids?

"As long as the labor market says, 'You make partner at a big-time law-firm and you get super-duper earnings and if you can't do that, you fall down a tremendous amount,' then couples have a tremendous incentive to have almost an old-fashioned division. It's like a new fashion division of labor where one works for the big law firm and one works at the little law firm. They both have careers, and they're both parents, but one of them is the one who gets called when the kid vomited and one of them can't be called because he's taking the flight to Japan.

"Change has to come at home, and it has to be that you have to work it out with your spouse in terms of who's the one who is on-call at home and who's the one who's on-call in the office."

"Paid family leaves from work; more public subsidies for care of children, people who are sick and disabled and the elderly; legislation to reduce penalties for part-time work; changes in the length of the school day and school vacations; reduced tuition and fees at public universities and Medicare for All.

"Sure, these policies would cost taxpayers money, but they would also reduce the out-of-pocket costs that most families must pay. Everyone benefits from social insurance, because everyone is at risk of needing assistance for themselves or a loved one at some point in their lives."

"The unwillingness to raise the minimum wage is really hurting women, because they are disproportionately represented at that level."

"Everything is a choice in life and some people make certain choices, like they make a choice with their partner to stay home and take care of a sick mother or take care of the kids. I don't want to downgrade that choice. What I think is that if society had different structures that supported this care function, you know, taking care of children, taking care of elderly people, they may be freer to make choices to stay in the labor force because there would be an alternative.

"What my data shows is that in the long term, people who maintain employment, and specifically who maintain working full time, full year, persistently, are more likely to have earnings gains than people who are full time, full year, not persistently working - sometimes they go back to part-time work and sometimes they even take a year off or two years off. In the 70's, 50% of women were spending four out of 15 years out of the labor force. That is a recipe for lower earnings when you're working. So persistent full-time work, education and training, picking the right skills that are in demand - that's the way to higher earnings."

"If you're a women in an occupation and you are getting less than the guy, indeed in the same workplace, you have every right and you ought to complain about it. We have laws about this and we've been enforcing those laws since the mid-60s, to some extent."

"One of the things that the elephant in the room that we have to talk about is the fact that we still have women making personal decisions about pursuing degrees that by definition pay less. So once you are involved in a care-giving kind of field in which you're taking care of other individuals such as teaching, such as nursing, such as nurse practitioners or any type of care-giving field by definition, those professions seem to not be as valued in the economy and as such, those, those are paid less.

"So for example, over 90% of nurses are women. We have substantial amounts of teachers are still women. So those types of professions are still female-dominated. We still have occupational segregation, which yes, is a personal decision, but it's also driven by socioeconomic challenges and it is also driven by expectations about what roles women should play in society."
- Nicole Smith, Research Professor and Chief Economist, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
"In scientific and technical occupations it's more likely and it's possible to combine having a good job with having some flexibility in your work hours or lower work hours. That doesn't mean you're going to get the same annual pay, but it does mean your hourly pay, your hourly compensation will be closer to that of men, if that is possible."

"We've been trying to address this in many institutions, to have mentoring programs, through making sure that young women have access to STEM opportunities and STEM education to making sure that, you know, women realize that they are just as proficient, just as competent in, every type of field they pursue - that they can be president if they want to.

"The social barriers that prohibit us from pursuing certain types of occupations are still slowly but surely being removed. And we have to continue to teach our girls that you don't necessarily have to play with pink ribbons and you can play with the truck and you can be the engineer and you don't have to be the social worker. So part of this is breaking down those gender barriers that we put up for our children when they're born."

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8 steps economists say could help close the gender pay gap

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Economists estimate that the gender pay gap - the gap between the median salaries of all working men and women in the U.S. - is about 80 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man. And this gap isn't changing very quickly.

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How can the UK fix its gender pay gap? | ITV News

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The government has started a new fund to help boys struggling at school.

You have to make a study and present your solutions.

1. What is the problem? Why are boys starting to lag behind at school?

2. What are the solutions proposed by different associations?

3. Which one is the best according to you? You can also suggest a solution of your own.

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In school, boys are falling behind. Around the world, they're more likely than girls to be classified as low achievers, meaning they weren't proficient in reading, math, science, or problem-solving.

The OECD looked at the data from the test and an associated survey to try to figure out what's causing boys to lose ground. Here are five of their findings:

1) Boys are more likely to be disengaged at school

Across the developed world, 15-year-old boys were more likely than girls to say that school is a waste of time and less likely to agree that trying hard at school is important. Boys are more likely to be late to class or skip school entirely. And boys are more likely to be held back than girls are.

These differences aren't massive - in most cases, they're less than 10 percentage points. But they still indicate that there are big, gender-based differences in how students think about school and how important they think it is.

2) There's a gender gap on doing homework

It doesn't matter whether students have a lot of homework (almost 15 hours per week in Shanghai) or very little (around 3 hours per week in Finland): boys spent less time on it than girls. On average in the OECD, girls reported doing 5.5 hours of homework per week; boys did only 4.5.

That doesn't explain all of the gender gap in test scores, but it does explain part of it, according to the OECD - after accounting for the time spent doing homework, boys actually perform better than girls in math and science, and the gender gap in reading is smaller.

3) Boys spend more time on the internet and playing video games

What are boys doing with all that non-homework time? They're on the internet and playing video games, the survey suggests. Most girls say they never or have hardly ever played single-player or collaborative online games. On the other hand, most boys do, but not every day.

Is this a disadvantage? It might not be. Playing single-player games was correlated with higher test scores, although collaborative games was associated with lower scores. And boys tend to do better than girls on standardized tests taken on the computer, rather than on paper. That suggests the video gaming time could help them as computer-based assessments become more common.

4) Boys read for fun much less than girls

The gender gap between boys and girls is particularly evident in one subject: reading. And in every country but Korea, girls do more reading for fun than boys. The OECD found that it didn't really matter what students read - whether it was fiction, nonfiction, newspapers, or comic books, more time spent reading translated into higher reading test scores. Boys were more likely to read comic books and newspapers, and less likely to read fiction. But elementary school reading in particular has historically focused on nonfiction, and the OECD argues that this could be turning boys off of reading and widening a gender gap.

5) Boys have lower aspirations for their careers

Across the world, 15-year-old girls expect to have higher-status jobs when they're older than boys do. They're more likely to expect to earn a college degree, and more likely to say they expect to have high-status jobs as managers, professionals, or elected officials. On the other hand, the percentage of men and women in those jobs in their mid-20s to early 30s is almost exactly the same. That suggests that girls are more ambitious - but they're not necessarily achieving those goals.
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5 reasons boys are falling behind at school

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In school, boys are falling behind. Around the world, they're more likely than girls to be classified as low achievers, meaning they weren't proficient in reading, math, science, or problem-solving. The OECD looked at the data from the test and an associated survey to try to figure out what's causing boys to lose ground.

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Depuis la mi-juin, l'industrie du jeu vidéo est secouée par de nombreux témoignages dénonçant des comportements abusifs qu'auraient commis certains hommes travaillant dans le milieu de la production, le développement et la commercialisation de jeux vidéo. Accusations de viol, de harcèlement, de propos toxiques... des dizaines de messages postés sur Twitter ou Medium par des personnes se disant victimes ou ayant eu connaissance de problèmes se sont succédé en quelques jours. Certains des accusés les ont vigoureusement démentis, d'autres ont reconnu certains faits et se sont excusés ; d'aucuns ont été débarqués.

Lire sur le sujet : Le monde du jeu vidéo secoué par une vague de témoignages évoquant des cas de harcèlement et d'agressions

Ces affaires ont notamment éclaboussé l'entreprise Ubisoft, fleuron français du jeu vidéo, employant plus de 15 000 personnes et connue pour avoir sorti des sagas vidéoludiques comme Assassin's Creed ou Rayman. Des enquêtes internes sont actuellement en cours au sein de l'entreprise, liées à des dénonciations sur les réseaux sociaux ayant visé le comportement de plusieurs employés. De tels témoignages, émanant de salariés actuellement en place ou ayant quitté l'entreprise, s'exprimant anonymement, ont également été publiés, mercredi 1 er juillet, dans une enquête du quotidien Libération -dans laquelle l'un des principaux accusés a également démenti les faits, par voie d'avocat.

Audrey Leprince, productrice de jeux vidéo et fondatrice de l'assocation Women In Games France. AUDREY LEPRINCE

Audrey Leprince évolue dans le secteur du jeu vidéo depuis près de vingt ans, et a travaillé sur la production de jeux dans des grandes entreprises, ainsi que dans des studios indépendants. En 2017, elle a créé l'association Women In Games France, qui œuvre à la promotion de la mixité dans l'industrie du jeu vidéo et rassemble aujourd'hui 1 800 adhérentes et adhérents.

Le 26 juin, l'association a mis en place une cellule de soutien psychologique face aux événements en cours : un portail offrant des ressources et des canaux d'écoute pour les potentielles victimes de comportements toxiques travaillant dans les studios de jeu vidéo. Pour Le Monde, Audrey Leprince revient sur les enjeux soulevés par cette vague récente d'accusations.

Quelles ont été vos réactions au sein de l'association Women In Games face à l'accumulation d'accusations postées sur les réseaux sociaux ?

A chaque nouveau cas de harcèlement ou de violence dénoncé, c'est avant tout infiniment triste. Mais on se dit aussi " est-ce que cette fois, le plafond de silence va sauter ? Est-ce que cela va aider à mettre hors d'état de nuire cette personne toxique ? Est-ce que de vrais changements vont avoir lieu ? " Ça donne aussi de l'espoir.

Ces derniers jours, Women in Games a surtout essayé d'aider les femmes et les victimes en général. De leur dire que nous les écoutons, qu'elles peuvent nous contacter en privé, par e-mail, sur Twitter, sur Discord, sur Slack... et de leur apporter du soutien.

Mais ça ne marche pas : on reçoit très peu d'informations concernant de tels actes en France. On attend, en quelque sorte, toujours le #metoo français dans l'industrie du jeu vidéo, mais il n'arrive pas. D'ailleurs, les informations sur des comportements supposés de Français ont été au départ communiquées par des comptes Twitter anglophones. C'est assez parlant de voir que ce n'est pas passé par les réseaux français !

L'industrie du jeu vidéo français serait-elle épargnée par de telles affaires ?

Quand on voit la taille du secteur en France, mais aussi la culture et la société françaises dans leur ensemble, on peut penser que des situations similaires se produisent ici. Pourquoi personne ne les dénonce ? Je pense qu'il y a plusieurs raisons.

En France, le secteur du jeu vidéo est bien dynamique, mais reste une industrie plutôt petite, où tout le monde se connaît. Une femme qui veut travailler en France dans la production de jeux vidéo " triple A " [les superproductions à gros budget] peut seulement le faire dans trois ou quatre studios.

Donc, si elle se retrouve dans une situation difficile avec l'un, elle craint forcément que son avenir professionnel soit difficile, même avec les autres studios. Il est malheureusement plus simple de garder les choses pour soi et de passer à autre chose.

Je ne saurais dire le nombre de femmes qui ne rapportent pas le harcèlement qu'elles subissent parce qu'elles pensent que cela ne sert à rien de le dénoncer. Voire que ça va les desservir et qu'elles seront considérées comme des parias parce qu'elles auront osé prendre la parole. Elles imaginent qu'elles vont être mises au placard, ou en mobilité, se faire licencier, souffrir d'une ambiance de travail délétère...

Quels sont alors les points sur lesquels travailler pour limiter les comportements à problèmes envers les femmes dans ce secteur ?

Il faut continuer à faire changer en profondeur la société française. On parle aujourd'hui du jeu vidéo, mais ces problèmes se retrouvent dans toutes les industries culturelles : le journalisme, le comic-book, l'animation, le cinéma, etc.

Tout le monde connaît les mêmes problèmes. Et ils sont particulièrement forts dans une industrie où une population surdomine : dans le jeu vidéo, ce sont les hommes blancs, présents à 85 % dans les équipes de production. Cela crée des groupes homogènes et un terreau très propice aux comportements toxiques et abusifs.

Part des femmes travaillant dans l'industrie du jeu vidéo en France, selon le baromètre du jeu vidéo 2019 publié par le Syndicat national du jeu vidéo. Les résultats ont été obtenus grâce à une enquête réalisée entre le 17 juin et le 9 septembre 2019 auprès de 1 131 structures de l'industrie du jeu vidéo en France. SNJV

C'est aussi une industrie créative, dans laquelle on encourage les personnalités, les auteurs, les gens qui ont des visions fortes. Certains sont prêts, pour des raisons d'efficacité et de profits, à se dire " je préfère garder cet artiste ou ce directeur créatif, car il est vraiment fort... Bon, c'est vrai qu'il ne parle pas bien à ses équipes et qu'on m'a rapporté des problèmes, mais quand même, mon bénéfice en tant que chef d'entreprise est que ça reste positif de l'avoir ".

Pour changer cela, il faudrait déjà former les équipes - et en premier lieu les manageurs et les ressources humaines -, à mettre en place les actions nécessaires pour assurer le respect et un traitement égal entre tous les salariés. Simplement comme la loi l'exige. Dans un second temps, il faudrait mettre en place les moyens pour détecter les comportements à risque, entendre les témoignages et traiter les problèmes. Ce n'est pas assez le cas aujourd'hui, les équipes ne savent pas gérer ces problèmes, ou pis, ne les prennent pas suffisamment au sérieux.

Parmi les structures touchées par les dernières accusations figure Ubisoft. Les mécanismes de signalement et de prise en compte des problèmes que vous décrivez sont-ils, selon vous, absents dans les entreprises d'une telle taille ?

Il n'y en a pas assez, c'est sûr. Je ne sais pas s'il y a eu chez Ubisoft ou chez d'autres grands groupes des formations spécifiques - pour les managers et pour les équipes elles-mêmes - sur l'égalité, le respect, et sur les problématiques spécifiques de toxicité et de harcèlement. Comment créer des conditions de travail respectueuses et inclusives ? Comment repérer les comportements problématiques, écouter les victimes, remonter les problèmes et suivre le changement ?

Ubisoft est la première entreprise française de production de jeu vidéo. Ils ont de nombreuses fois su mettre la barre très haut sur beaucoup de sujets. J'espère qu'ils vont saisir cette occasion pour le faire sur ces sujets cruciaux.

Plusieurs accusations émises au cours des derniers jours portent sur des faits qui seraient survenus pendant des conventions de jeu vidéo, des événements réguliers et d'ampleur internationale. Des histoires dénoncées sont liées à des chambres d'hôtel, à des soirées trop alcoolisées... Les acteurs du secteur doivent-ils mettre plus de garde-fous dans ce contexte précis ?

C'est sûr qu'il y a beaucoup d'événements du jeu vidéo et qu'ils étaient - au moins jusqu'à cette année - essentiels à l'industrie. Nous sommes aussi une industrie jeune, qui apprécie les rassemblements et les fêtes. Mais quand on travaille pour une entreprise, quand on s'exprime et qu'on bénéficie de l'aura liée à son poste dans de tels rassemblements, il faut savoir que c'est dans ce contexte professionnel. Quand on est dans un bar à 23 heures avec des attachés ou attachées de presse, c'est du travail. Il s'agit donc d'être exemplaire et de suivre le code de conduite de son employeur. Le garde-fou, pour moi, c'est le professionnalisme et les valeurs morales des individus. Mais, de toute façon, on parle ces jours-ci de comportements qui, même si ce n'était pas dans le cadre du travail, sont complètement inadmissibles, voire punis par la loi, et qu'on ne doit pas tolérer.

Dans notre industrie, il y a maintenant des fans qui viennent rencontrer des créateurs de jeux lors de telles conventions, qui adulent une " superstar " du jeu vidéo. Ce lien entre les développeurs et les joueurs est quelque chose de très naturel et de précieux, mais sur lequel il faut aussi qu'on soit vigilants. Quel peut être le comportement de créateurs de jeux, ou de ces nouvelles " stars ", face à des populations de fans, dans des situations propices au déséquilibre ? Cela demande sans doute une réflexion de la part de notre industrie, et des formations spécifiques.

Beaucoup de dénonciations concernent aussi les streameurs, d'autres nouvelles " stars " qui arrivent à créer des énormes communautés autour de la diffusion de jeux vidéo en direct. Comment la communauté du stream peut faire face aux problèmes de comportements toxiques ou éviter les débordements comme ceux qui ont été dénoncés récemment ?

Les streameurs sont responsables de leurs propos devant leur audience, ce sont, eux aussi, des professionnels. Alors évidemment, il y a la liberté de parole, mais il y a aussi des propos qu'il est inadmissible de tenir.

La situation du streaming est compliquée, c'est une industrie qui encourage la prise de position sensationnelle, et qui est en croissance exponentielle, avec forcément des personnes qui débutent et qui manquent de recul ou d'expérience. Des extraits de leurs vidéos peuvent se diffuser très vite sur les réseaux sociaux. Il y a peu d'accompagnement et de structures. C'est difficile à gérer.

Malheureusement, la seule façon de gérer ces questions actuellement, c'est par des fermetures de comptes, temporaires ou permanentes. Et encore, les plates-formes rament : elles mettent parfois des mois à s'apercevoir qu'il y a un problème. On ne peut pas espérer changer la culture de ces industries avec seulement plus de répression et de police. Il faut changer les valeurs profondément. Là encore, l'éducation des individus et les valeurs morales personnelles me semblent le meilleur investissement et le meilleur garde-fou.

Lire aussi La plate-forme Twitch boycottée pour dénoncer le manque de mesures contre le harcèlement

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" On attend toujours le #metoo français dans l'industrie du jeu vidéo, mais il n'arrive pas "

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Depuis la mi-juin, l'industrie du jeu vidéo est secouée par de nombreux témoignages dénonçant des comportements abusifs qu'auraient commis certains hommes travaillant dans le milieu de la production, le développement et la commercialisation de jeux vidéo. Accusations de viol, de harcèlement, de propos toxiques...

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Just read the first step, 'dividing the labor at home'.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Economists estimate that the gender pay gap - the gap between the median salaries of all working men and women in the U.S. - is about 80 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man.

And this gap isn't changing very quickly. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), if the pay gap continues to narrow at the same pace it has over the past 50 years, women will not reach pay parity until 2059. For women of color this date is even further into the future: The IWPR estimates that black women will wait until 2119 for equal pay and Hispanic women will have to wait until 2224.

CNBC Make It spoke with eight economists about what steps leaders could take to shrink the gender pay gap, as well as what individuals can do to minimize its affect on their earnings.

Here's what they had to say:

"You can definitely share pay information - that is actually protected by law. Many people don't think it is, but it actually is according to the Department of Labor. And so you can certainly share it with each other. One reason that people think more claims of unequal pay are coming to light is that since more [women] who are married to men are working, when they work in the same kinds of industries or occupations, they compare their paychecks and they're like, 'What? Really?'

"There's more information and all of these ways of sharing your salaries on the web are very useful. And when you're up for a raise, when you're being hired, you can consult those websites to see whether you're being offered something comparable for your area, for your job, for your size company."

"Women, relative to men in couples with kids, often take a bit of a backseat so that their jobs are more able to be on-call at home and so that guys' jobs are more able to be on call in the office. That doesn't mean that they're working different number of hours, that doesn't mean that their skill level is different, it just means that two people who graduated from Harvard Law School, they both take jobs at big law firms in New York, they have kids, one of them has to slow down a bit. Or else why even have the kids?

"As long as the labor market says, 'You make partner at a big-time law-firm and you get super-duper earnings and if you can't do that, you fall down a tremendous amount,' then couples have a tremendous incentive to have almost an old-fashioned division. It's like a new fashion division of labor where one works for the big law firm and one works at the little law firm. They both have careers, and they're both parents, but one of them is the one who gets called when the kid vomited and one of them can't be called because he's taking the flight to Japan.

"Change has to come at home, and it has to be that you have to work it out with your spouse in terms of who's the one who is on-call at home and who's the one who's on-call in the office."

"Paid family leaves from work; more public subsidies for care of children, people who are sick and disabled and the elderly; legislation to reduce penalties for part-time work; changes in the length of the school day and school vacations; reduced tuition and fees at public universities and Medicare for All.

"Sure, these policies would cost taxpayers money, but they would also reduce the out-of-pocket costs that most families must pay. Everyone benefits from social insurance, because everyone is at risk of needing assistance for themselves or a loved one at some point in their lives."

"The unwillingness to raise the minimum wage is really hurting women, because they are disproportionately represented at that level."

"Everything is a choice in life and some people make certain choices, like they make a choice with their partner to stay home and take care of a sick mother or take care of the kids. I don't want to downgrade that choice. What I think is that if society had different structures that supported this care function, you know, taking care of children, taking care of elderly people, they may be freer to make choices to stay in the labor force because there would be an alternative.

"What my data shows is that in the long term, people who maintain employment, and specifically who maintain working full time, full year, persistently, are more likely to have earnings gains than people who are full time, full year, not persistently working - sometimes they go back to part-time work and sometimes they even take a year off or two years off. In the 70's, 50% of women were spending four out of 15 years out of the labor force. That is a recipe for lower earnings when you're working. So persistent full-time work, education and training, picking the right skills that are in demand - that's the way to higher earnings."

"If you're a women in an occupation and you are getting less than the guy, indeed in the same workplace, you have every right and you ought to complain about it. We have laws about this and we've been enforcing those laws since the mid-60s, to some extent."

"One of the things that the elephant in the room that we have to talk about is the fact that we still have women making personal decisions about pursuing degrees that by definition pay less. So once you are involved in a care-giving kind of field in which you're taking care of other individuals such as teaching, such as nursing, such as nurse practitioners or any type of care-giving field by definition, those professions seem to not be as valued in the economy and as such, those, those are paid less.

"So for example, over 90% of nurses are women. We have substantial amounts of teachers are still women. So those types of professions are still female-dominated. We still have occupational segregation, which yes, is a personal decision, but it's also driven by socioeconomic challenges and it is also driven by expectations about what roles women should play in society."
- Nicole Smith, Research Professor and Chief Economist, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
"In scientific and technical occupations it's more likely and it's possible to combine having a good job with having some flexibility in your work hours or lower work hours. That doesn't mean you're going to get the same annual pay, but it does mean your hourly pay, your hourly compensation will be closer to that of men, if that is possible."

"We've been trying to address this in many institutions, to have mentoring programs, through making sure that young women have access to STEM opportunities and STEM education to making sure that, you know, women realize that they are just as proficient, just as competent in, every type of field they pursue - that they can be president if they want to.

"The social barriers that prohibit us from pursuing certain types of occupations are still slowly but surely being removed. And we have to continue to teach our girls that you don't necessarily have to play with pink ribbons and you can play with the truck and you can be the engineer and you don't have to be the social worker. So part of this is breaking down those gender barriers that we put up for our children when they're born."

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8 steps economists say could help close the gender pay gap

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Economists estimate that the gender pay gap - the gap between the median salaries of all working men and women in the U.S. - is about 80 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man. And this gap isn't changing very quickly.

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Becoming a Man project in Boston High Schools

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Becoming a Man project in Boston High Schools

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At 17, Phillip* has lost many of the most important people in his life including his mother, grandmother, uncle and niece. His older sister was beaten to death. His father is in prison. The Becoming A Man® (BAM®) program changed the trajectory of Phillip's life. Core values With a caring counselor to guide him, Phillip improved his GPA and created a solid action plan for his future. He stated that his goal is to get out of the "neighborhood routine" and have a better life. He is now a student at Chicago State University. such as self-determination have helped him be more self-aware and verbal about his feelings. Through weekly group sessions and the support of a trauma-informed BAM counselor, Phillip has learned to calmly deal with difficult emotions, stay focused on school and has even earned a basketball scholarship. Despite his hardships, Phillip is a bright student and promising athlete. His many family tragedies, however, have weighed on him greatly and at times resulted in distress, depression and failing grades.
No matter what the circumstance or challenge, we never give up on our kids. BAM offers the support that young men like Phillip need to commit to education and achieve goals that lead to success in adulthood.

*Name changed for confidentiality.

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At 17, Phillip* has lost many of the most important people in his life including his mother, grandmother, uncle and niece. His older sister was beaten to death. His father is in prison. The Becoming A Man® (BAM®) program changed the trajectory of Phillip's life.

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A Unique Learning Program For Boys

An effective online program targeted at boys to improve their literacy skills
and is aligned with the Australian Curriculum.

And get a free trial

Our Process

Literacy for Boys is an Australian Curriculum aligned program that has been designed to respond to how boys learn, where their interests lie and how best to engage with their learning.

Learn More

How We Work

Literacy for Boys (LFB) is an online learning program that is age-specific and tailored specifically to boys, their interests and how they learn.

Learn More

What Are The Costs

Membership to the program can be purchased via annual or monthly subscriptions. Annual subscriptions are just $89.99. That's less than $1.80 per week! Monthly plans are also available for $14.90.

Learn More

Literacy for Boys is a truly unique learning program for boys.

Targeted: The program is specifically aimed at boys, on topics they like and delivered in a way they love and learn best.

Tailored: Programs are age-specific, and focused on the core areas of literacy: comprehension, grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Effective: Interesting and engaging topics combined with a delivery mode that supports the way a boy learns in order to generate excellent learning outcomes.

Fun: A multitude of interesting and fun topics to choose from. No matter what your boy is interested in.

Comprehensive: Developed by professional educators and curriculum aligned, with more than 1000 learning activities specifically aimed at boys.

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Online Learning Program for Boys - Literacy for Boys

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A Unique Learning Program For Boys An effective online program targeted at boys to improve their literacy skills and is aligned with the Australian Curriculum. And get a free trial Literacy for Boys is an Australian Curriculum aligned program that has been designed to respond to how boys learn, where their interests lie and how best to engage with their learning.

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CLEVELAND - It's no secret that when it comes to young Black men, the odds are stacked against them, whether it's in the classroom or in the real world.

A pair of Cleveland Metro School District administrators decided it was time to do something to reverse the course and give these young men the tools they need to thrive.

A group of about 20 young men came back to the classroom after school at Campus International's grade school campus to learn some really important lessons.

"We want to give them high-quality resources, we want to give them quality time. We want to be patient with them. We want to show them that we can believe in them. And that's the most important thing - that we believe in them," said Gary Hicks Sr., the CEO and founder of Young Men Growing.

The non-profit is helping to guide a group of young Black men into their adulthood.

Cameron Mathis, the Chief Operating Officer of Young Men Growing, and Hicks are also both administrators at the school.

Hicks serves as an Intervention Specialist and Mathis is the school's Dean.

"You could see the disciplinary trends in our young Black men. Overuse of suspensions. Overuse of detentions. Over diagnoses of behavioral changes," said Mathis.

The change started five years ago after the two of them put their heads together and created Young Men Growing because of a plea from their school's principal.

"I saw the anger. I saw the frustration. I saw the pain. I saw the single mothers crying. Kids being arrested. Young men being killed, "said Hicks.

The focus is on young Black men between 11 and 18. During the pandemic, this program expanded to include young men from across the country, courtesy of Zoom.

"I think the program is good for all boys, but especially boys who are coming from single-mother homes," said mother Dejenaba Lockett.

Lockett has two sons in Young Men Growing. As a single mother, she says the program has been a tremendous help when it comes to raising her boys.

"I noticed a real growth in them. My sons are real defenders of women," Lockett said.

"More than 75% of Black households are single parents, and most of those households are fatherless. Somebody's got to step in and do some work to change it. Somebody's got to step in and stop the fatherlessness rate from going up. Somebody's got to disrupt the financial instability in our communities," said Mathis.

Hicks and Mathis said their group of mentees falls in line with that statistic. So they built a curriculum that teaches these young men about finances, their emotions, leadership, and how to give back.

"Things that we feel us, as Black men need, we 'gon get it to them. We're going to make sure they get it. It's tough out here so you need somebody that's going to step in, block some things, whisper in your ear, and say hey, it's another way you can go," said Mathis.

Young Men Growing is a free program and they're now accepting applications for their summer session, which kicks off in June.

The non-profit's co-founders say they're looking to expand with the help of grants and more staff.

For more information on Young Men Growing, click here.

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School administrators create program to help young Black men

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CLEVELAND - It's no secret that when it comes to young Black men, the odds are stacked against them, whether it's in the classroom or in the real world. A pair of Cleveland Metro School District administrators decided it was time to do something to reverse the course and give these young men the tools they need to thrive.

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The Army and Navy Academy promotes Single-Sex School

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The Army and Navy Academy promotes Single-Sex School

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If you're a parent exploring private school options, you may be wondering about the value of single gender vs. co-ed schools. Of course, every child is different, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer.

Nonetheless, there are scientifically proven differences between boys and girls when it comes to brain development and the ways that they each learn best.

How Boys and Girls Learn Differently

Co-ed schools have to teach to a broader audience, so teachers are unable to cater lessons specifically to boys or girls. Therefore, teachers at co-ed schools may teach in ways that work for one group but not the other. Lectures, for example, are more effective for teaching girls than boys.

On the other hand, teachers at an all-boys school will tailor lessons for boys' brains. For example, at Army and Navy Academy, you might see teachers leading outdoor lessons since boys' eyes see better in natural light. Or, you might see two groups competing in the classroom to see who can complete a set of problems the quickest since competition is a good motivator for boys.

For personalized instruction designed for boys' brains, an all-boys school is the best environment.

Single Gender Mitigates Social Pressures

Boys and girls mature at different rates, and adolescent boys sometimes experience anxiety when learning to cope with and relate to girls in the co-ed classroom.

A single-gender school eliminates this stress for boys, allowing them to achieve greater focus. Additionally, boys tend to avoid stereotypically un-masculine classes like band and drama at co-ed schools.

This isn't an issue at all-boys schools, where students have the opportunity to break down stereotypes and experience a wider variety of classes without fear of social retribution.

Single Gender Education is Shedding its Old Label

Single gender schools have existed for centuries, with all-male colleges, prep schools, and military boarding schools helping to mold high-performing and respectable members of society. Yet, despite evidence that single gender academics could be beneficial to many students, some still regard the concept as "old fashioned".

Fortunately, the idea of such schools is facing a revival lately, as many educators search for new ways to better serve students, and the renewed interest in single-gender schools comes as a product of increased research into their benefits.

Today, students in single-sex education could stand to gain more confidence (both academically and personally), and achieve more in the scope of their ambitions compared to their peers in co-ed schools.

Learning Through a Gender Lens

Committed to proven teaching methods designed specifically for boys and the ways that they learn best, the Gurian Institute named Army and Navy Academy as the tenth Gurian Institute Model School in the nation, designating the school as a leader in single gender education.

As a Gurian Model School, the Academy serves as a model for other all-boys schools that are seeking to build boy-friendly teaching practices into their curricula.

A Single Gender Environment Reduces Behavioral Issues

Although it's fair to say that various co-educational schools can facilitate high-academic performance, students in single-sex schools may have lower chances of struggling with behavioral issues. For instance, research into a Seattle elementary school suggested that students transitioning to single-sex classrooms displayed fewer behavioral problems. At the same time, the boys moving into single gender education improved performance in the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, moving from the 10% to 30% in their class, all the way up to 73%.

Some experts suggest that single gender educational environments can help reduce behavioral issues because they give students more room to feel at ease. In a co-educational environment, young men and women distract each other, and are more concerned with fitting into their prescribed roles and impressing others than pursuing their own personal skills. In single-sex schools, students are often more willing to take risks, because they don't feel the fear of failing in front of the other sex. Indeed, single-sex graduates have even rated themselves as having higher levels of intellectual self-confidence, a resource crucial for college and beyond.

Single Gender Schools Allow For Tailored Curricula

As critics might suggest, simply placing young men in classes far away from young women is unlikely to accomplish a great deal. However, the benefits arise when this separation allows for teachers to provide techniques tailored towards the individual needs and learning styles of their students. A primary argument in favor of single-sex schools is that different genders typically have different styles of learning. Fortunately, in single-sex schools, the teaching can adjust to include techniques and concepts proven to work best for the expanding minds of young women and young men.

For instance, at a male boarding school, teachers can introduce a reading list with books that speak to the concerns of their students. "Hamlet" may help to introduce a "coming-of-age" discussion and father-son relationships, for example. Although similar discussions are possible in co-educational schools, they are often more concentrated and open in a single-sex environment.

The theory of tailored curricula in single-gender schools was tested with a public school in Florida that chose to separate fourth-grade students into single-sex and co-educational classrooms. In each class, the students covered the same curriculum with the same number of students, and at the end of the study, the single-gender environment produced dramatically improved scores in standardized tests. 86% of the young men in the single-sex classroom scored proficient on the test, compared to only 37% of the boys in co-ed classes.

Single Gender Schools Let Students Define Themselves

Finally, a significant benefit of single gender education, is that it allows young men and women to pursue the roles that appeal most to them, rather than feeling as though they must gravitate towards the requests imposed upon them. For instance, in an all-male school, young men have the opportunity to fill every role, from traditional sports captains to scientific experts and literary geniuses. In this way, students can begin to unlearn traditional stereotypes, or never consider such roles in terms of gender to begin with.

Research has already begun to show that single-sex education could allow students to explore a broader realm of prospects for their futures, meaning that growing young men and women are encouraged to improve their skills and pursue their academic passions, without the distraction of the other sex.

At military schools, single gender education has a long history because it allows boys to push their academic potential, pursue leadership positions, and face challenges, both inside and outside the classroom. Learning to lead, following a rigorous daily schedule, goal-setting, and facing physical challenges in leadership training and sports, appeals to and motivates teenage boys as they move towards manhood.

Conclusion

While the U.S. Department of Education has reported that graduation rates from high school are currently at an all-time high - with 78.2% of students graduating on time since 2010 - many single sex schools provide even more impressive numbers. For instance, the first all-male school in New York reported an 82% graduation rate for the same time period.

Although co-educational schools that allow for the interaction of both genders do have their benefits for some students, and may even provide a preferable learning environment in certain circumstances, it's crucial to consider the benefits that single-gender schooling can offer. There is valid reasoning behind the fact that over a third of American parents feel that they should have the option to send their child to a single-sex school.

To learn more about how the Academy's single-gender program can benefit your son, contact us today!

More about Our Single-Gender Education Model

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All-Boys Vs. Co-Ed Schools: Which Is Better For Boys?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you're a parent exploring private school options, you may be wondering about the value of single gender vs. co-ed schools. Of course, every child is different, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Nonetheless, there are scientifically proven differences between boys and girls when it comes to brain development and the ways that they each learn best.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Army and Navy Academy promotes Single-Sex School

# data[].attributes.subject
The Army and Navy Academy promotes Single-Sex School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you're a parent exploring private school options, you may be wondering about the value of single gender vs. co-ed schools. Of course, every child is different, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer.

Nonetheless, there are scientifically proven differences between boys and girls when it comes to brain development and the ways that they each learn best.

How Boys and Girls Learn Differently

Co-ed schools have to teach to a broader audience, so teachers are unable to cater lessons specifically to boys or girls. Therefore, teachers at co-ed schools may teach in ways that work for one group but not the other. Lectures, for example, are more effective for teaching girls than boys.

On the other hand, teachers at an all-boys school will tailor lessons for boys' brains. For example, at Army and Navy Academy, you might see teachers leading outdoor lessons since boys' eyes see better in natural light. Or, you might see two groups competing in the classroom to see who can complete a set of problems the quickest since competition is a good motivator for boys.

For personalized instruction designed for boys' brains, an all-boys school is the best environment.

Single Gender Mitigates Social Pressures

Boys and girls mature at different rates, and adolescent boys sometimes experience anxiety when learning to cope with and relate to girls in the co-ed classroom.

A single-gender school eliminates this stress for boys, allowing them to achieve greater focus. Additionally, boys tend to avoid stereotypically un-masculine classes like band and drama at co-ed schools.

This isn't an issue at all-boys schools, where students have the opportunity to break down stereotypes and experience a wider variety of classes without fear of social retribution.

Single Gender Education is Shedding its Old Label

Single gender schools have existed for centuries, with all-male colleges, prep schools, and military boarding schools helping to mold high-performing and respectable members of society. Yet, despite evidence that single gender academics could be beneficial to many students, some still regard the concept as "old fashioned".

Fortunately, the idea of such schools is facing a revival lately, as many educators search for new ways to better serve students, and the renewed interest in single-gender schools comes as a product of increased research into their benefits.

Today, students in single-sex education could stand to gain more confidence (both academically and personally), and achieve more in the scope of their ambitions compared to their peers in co-ed schools.

Learning Through a Gender Lens

Committed to proven teaching methods designed specifically for boys and the ways that they learn best, the Gurian Institute named Army and Navy Academy as the tenth Gurian Institute Model School in the nation, designating the school as a leader in single gender education.

As a Gurian Model School, the Academy serves as a model for other all-boys schools that are seeking to build boy-friendly teaching practices into their curricula.

A Single Gender Environment Reduces Behavioral Issues

Although it's fair to say that various co-educational schools can facilitate high-academic performance, students in single-sex schools may have lower chances of struggling with behavioral issues. For instance, research into a Seattle elementary school suggested that students transitioning to single-sex classrooms displayed fewer behavioral problems. At the same time, the boys moving into single gender education improved performance in the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, moving from the 10% to 30% in their class, all the way up to 73%.

Some experts suggest that single gender educational environments can help reduce behavioral issues because they give students more room to feel at ease. In a co-educational environment, young men and women distract each other, and are more concerned with fitting into their prescribed roles and impressing others than pursuing their own personal skills. In single-sex schools, students are often more willing to take risks, because they don't feel the fear of failing in front of the other sex. Indeed, single-sex graduates have even rated themselves as having higher levels of intellectual self-confidence, a resource crucial for college and beyond.

Single Gender Schools Allow For Tailored Curricula

As critics might suggest, simply placing young men in classes far away from young women is unlikely to accomplish a great deal. However, the benefits arise when this separation allows for teachers to provide techniques tailored towards the individual needs and learning styles of their students. A primary argument in favor of single-sex schools is that different genders typically have different styles of learning. Fortunately, in single-sex schools, the teaching can adjust to include techniques and concepts proven to work best for the expanding minds of young women and young men.

For instance, at a male boarding school, teachers can introduce a reading list with books that speak to the concerns of their students. "Hamlet" may help to introduce a "coming-of-age" discussion and father-son relationships, for example. Although similar discussions are possible in co-educational schools, they are often more concentrated and open in a single-sex environment.

The theory of tailored curricula in single-gender schools was tested with a public school in Florida that chose to separate fourth-grade students into single-sex and co-educational classrooms. In each class, the students covered the same curriculum with the same number of students, and at the end of the study, the single-gender environment produced dramatically improved scores in standardized tests. 86% of the young men in the single-sex classroom scored proficient on the test, compared to only 37% of the boys in co-ed classes.

Single Gender Schools Let Students Define Themselves

Finally, a significant benefit of single gender education, is that it allows young men and women to pursue the roles that appeal most to them, rather than feeling as though they must gravitate towards the requests imposed upon them. For instance, in an all-male school, young men have the opportunity to fill every role, from traditional sports captains to scientific experts and literary geniuses. In this way, students can begin to unlearn traditional stereotypes, or never consider such roles in terms of gender to begin with.

Research has already begun to show that single-sex education could allow students to explore a broader realm of prospects for their futures, meaning that growing young men and women are encouraged to improve their skills and pursue their academic passions, without the distraction of the other sex.

At military schools, single gender education has a long history because it allows boys to push their academic potential, pursue leadership positions, and face challenges, both inside and outside the classroom. Learning to lead, following a rigorous daily schedule, goal-setting, and facing physical challenges in leadership training and sports, appeals to and motivates teenage boys as they move towards manhood.

Conclusion

While the U.S. Department of Education has reported that graduation rates from high school are currently at an all-time high - with 78.2% of students graduating on time since 2010 - many single sex schools provide even more impressive numbers. For instance, the first all-male school in New York reported an 82% graduation rate for the same time period.

Although co-educational schools that allow for the interaction of both genders do have their benefits for some students, and may even provide a preferable learning environment in certain circumstances, it's crucial to consider the benefits that single-gender schooling can offer. There is valid reasoning behind the fact that over a third of American parents feel that they should have the option to send their child to a single-sex school.

To learn more about how the Academy's single-gender program can benefit your son, contact us today!

More about Our Single-Gender Education Model

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
All-Boys Vs. Co-Ed Schools: Which Is Better For Boys?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you're a parent exploring private school options, you may be wondering about the value of single gender vs. co-ed schools. Of course, every child is different, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Nonetheless, there are scientifically proven differences between boys and girls when it comes to brain development and the ways that they each learn best.