Originally Posted by JonLaw
Originally Posted by aquinas
An example of Canadian HR law in practice-- if you are an employer filling a job in a field with a historic demographic bias, you must actively enact policies that encourage the hiring of the "disadvantaged" group(s).

Having spoken with high-level HR professionals at several banks, consultancies, CPG firms, and governments, if an equally qualified male and female apply for most professional services roles, the female will get the job. Lucrative government work doesn't even rely on the notion of equal qualification--simply belonging to an underrepresented group and being somewhat qualified will get you the job.

In law, this seems to work to get the women into corporate/government (lower stress/lower pay) roles, leaving the male lawyers with the big law firms (higher stress/higher pay).

Exactly the same in management consulting, in-house C-suite succession, etc.

I suspect that's an issue of culture and similar-to-me bias in apportioning work once candidates are hired. Firms have to be unrelentingly systematic in promoting equalty of opportunity at all stages of employees' careers to achieve fairness across pay grades. Frankly, most firms just don't care. It's cheaper to be inequitable after hiring and just pay off settlements for lawsuits that surface.

There's also the reality that corporate law is absolutely crushing, so there's a self-selection bias at play among women (and men) aspiring to start families and actually spend time with their children. Whoever pulls down the most billables and drives new business gets his way.

ETA: I'm going to plug a helpful book here for managers interested in implementing equity based standards for talent development:

http://m.indigo.ca/product/books/be...988?ikwid=gary%20p.%20latham&ikwsec=Home

Last edited by aquinas; 06/05/13 08:56 AM. Reason: Book link added