Dolly Babes and Leaders: a story of everyday sexism

Shoe manufacturer and retailer, Clarks, have found themselves in the middle of a sexism row for calling a girls’ shoe a “Dolly babe” and calling the boys’ equivalent a “Leader”. The Dolly babe range (which has since been removed from Clarks’ website) has provoked a Twitter storm, with the hashtag “EverydaySexism” widely trending. This latest blunder follows hot on the heels (pardon the pun) of one mum’s complaint a few weeks ago, when shopping at Clarks for school shoes for her son and daughter, that the boys’ shoes were all sturdy, comfortable and weatherproof, whereas the girls’ shoes had inferior soles, were not fully covered and were not well padded at the ankle. Presumably, Clarks believe that this difference is required because the boys need to be outdoors at playtime learning to hunt and gather, whereas the girls remain indoors learning to tidy the cave?

Whilst it’s pleasing that these gender stereotypes are being called out in social media, it’s surprising that somebody in Clarks approved the Dolly babe/Leader range names and that the Clarks’ designers see fit to perpetuate the sugar and spice/slugs and snails approach to gender differences.

I remember an experiment being run on the fascinating BBC One project, ‘Child of our Time’. When spoken to by a researcher, a group of parents were adamant that they had not influenced the behaviours of their toddlers who had all chosen themselves which toys they would play with; coincidentally, the boys all played with cars and lego and the like, whereas the girls played with dolls and prams. However, when put in a room with another parent’s child whom the researchers had secretly cross-dressed (with boys in pink and girls in blue), the parents tried to engage the children in play by offering them toys. You guessed it, they offered the children in pink dolls and prams and the children in blue cars and lego. It was an interesting experiment which revealed how early in life we begin to condition our children and impose gender biases on them.

In the light of these societal constraints and pressures, is it really surprising that a gender pay gap exists? The pay gap (which has nothing to do with equal pay, by the way) exists when the average pay of women in an organisation is lower than the average pay of men. As with all averages, the number is skewed by the statistical outliers; in this case these are the very low paid and the very highly paid. In many organisations, whilst there appears to be equality of opportunity at entry level with a 50/50 split between males and females, it is frequently the case that the males are the ones who have more successfully climbed the career ladder and have ended up earning the big bucks, thereby distorting the pay averages.

Now, there are more factors in play here than just the ‘Dolly babe/Leader effect’ which result in men climbing the greasy pole more easily than their female colleagues. Anecdotally, for example, many of my clients comment that women taking maternity leave is a contributing factor to the pay gap: if women either don’t return to work after maternity leave, or do return but choose to put their career progression on hold whilst they focus on being a mum, this will also contribute to a distortion in the average pay figures. Furthermore, I have read research which backs up the seemingly controversial comments of Sir Philip Hampton (co-chair of the government’s review into increasing the number of women in senior roles) that there is an ‘ask’ gap caused by a greater reluctance on the part of women than men to ask for a pay rise, or indeed to apply for a promotion.

Given the wider sociological challenges of #EverydaySexism, and the undeniable biological differences between men and women, is it unrealistic to expect businesses to try to close the pay gap? I don’t think so, although it is perhaps unreasonable to expect a quick fix. It is, however, important that businesses embrace the challenge of ensuring equality of opportunity for everyone at all stages of their career. Take the maternity leaver anecdote referred to earlier as an example: if a woman freely chooses to stop work to become a full time mum or to put her career progression on hold, all well and good; if, however, she feels that she has no choice but to do this because of her employer’s attitude to maternity returners, then the business is doing something very wrong. So, businesses need a strategy in place for identifying the pinch points for unconscious bias in their organisation and ensuring that they are addressed, for raising awareness of the challenges that are presented by everyday sexism, and for empowering everyone in the organisation, regardless of gender (or, indeed, marital status, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief), to fulfil their potential.

One thing is for sure: burying one’s head in the sand is not an option. The gender pay gap is a very hot topic at the moment and organisations that aren’t seen to be doing something to address it can expect to be mauled across social media.