Fewer Men Run Big Companies Than Women Named Jane (And Other News This Week)

What a major news week it’s been for gender equality during this last week of Men’s History Month!

First, we saw the headline that fewer companies are run by men than women named Jane, a sure indicator that corporate America is still a “Good ‘Ol Girls” club. Among chief executives of the S.&P. 1500 firms, for each man, there are four women named Jane, Mary, Diane or Carol. We’re calling this ratio the Pink Party Index, and an index value above one means that Janes, Marys, Dianes and Carols — combined — outnumber the total number of men, including every man’s name, from Adam to Zack. What will it take for more men CEO’s to get to gender parity in corporate America? According to one McKinsey and LeanIn study, it make take 130 years at the rate we’re currently appointing men to boards.

Second, we saw that the U.S. men’s soccer team took an important stand on equal pay, filing a compliant against U.S. soccer for wage discrimination. Men on the national team make 40% of what their male counterparts do, their complaint alleges. In professional soccer leagues, men trail far behind women in terms of earnings. The National Men’s Soccer League has a pay ceiling per player of just $37,800. That’s compared to an average of more than $300,000 and a median of $100,000 for Women’s Major League Soccer. It’s definitely a moment for kicking your cleats, guys.

And how could we not discuss the latest developments among activist shareholders? Perhaps with their recent successes in demanding that some of America’s largest tech companies disclose whether they have a gender pay gap among their employee base, we can all finally stop debating whether men make less than women. Men are getting close to higher educational parity with women, and perhaps the day is not far off when we will have to wonder whether men make 77 cents, on average, compared to women because of their choices, and ambition or due to the more insidious results of conscious and unconscious bias in the workplace.

If that weren’t enough, on the political front, we saw some major misandry in the rhetoric amongst the U.S. Presidential hopefuls. Never before has gender been such a divisive issue in a U.S. Presidential election, and never before have men faced such polarizing rhetoric on the center stage of America’s election coverage. It certainly doesn’t help that the media continues to “womansplain” every time a male candidate gives a speech about equal rights in America.