Black communities must also take other tacks to confront and topple this problem, they said.
“The reality of racism means that Black women will be offered less,” said Dr. Jones-DeWeever. “In terms of fixing it, we have to have conversations about financial literacy and we also have a responsibility to educate our children about their power, worth and value and empowering them.” Ms. Brand concurred.
To date, she said, much of the equal pay movement has been focused on awareness building campaigns and encouraging women to effectively negotiate their salaries.
“While these are important steps, this is only scratching the surface,” Ms. Brand explained. “Getting to pay parity must also involve addressing the corporate systems and state and federal laws that need to change. As Black women we must unify and use our collective voices to push pay equality and the racial wealth gap to the top our agenda. Black women have always been at the forefront of the push for equality in our country, whether it was civil rights or social justice, we have been critical forces for change. The equal pay movement should be no different.”
Ms. Brand and Dr. Jones-DeWeever are called in frequently to consult with Fortune 500 and other companies. They said Black women should also be actively engaged in tackling the equal pay issue within corporate America by participating in employee resource groups at work and collectively guaranteeing that the companies they work for are held accountable for addressing these issues.
Black churches, sororities and fraternities and civil society and community organizations need to actively engage in the political process and pressure elected officials to advance additional laws designed to protect against gender discrimination and pay inequality, they said, and people also need to organize efforts and/or sign petitions to demand to push government to act.
But Nana Afiriyie echoed the trio’s belief that they expect little or no movement or support to come from the White House or Congress, which illustrates the importance of pushing for change on the state and local level.
“With the discrimination this administration promotes and advocates, I think things will get worse before they get better,” she said. “But we’re resilient. I’ve been fighting these people for a long time. We do a great job of making it with very little. Professionals make a penny and those who aren’t professionals make less, but we’re still standing.”