Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • June 25, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 11 FOCUS building their practices with the firm's full support. Our female attorneys also enjoy the social aspect of being sur- rounded by other successful profes- sional women. Q. Murtha Cullina has a "Women Ex- panding Business," program. What is it and why did the firm create it? A. We started Women Expanding Business (WEB) about eight years ago to encourage, promote and sup- port the professional development of women at the firm and in the broader business community. We host one or two events a year in each of our major geographic locations (Boston, Hart- ford, New Haven and Stamford) for our women attorneys, clients and friends. Some events have speakers, some are entirely social. But they are all won- derful opportunities to network and develop relationships with other suc- cessful professional women. We also have internal WEB meet- ings with the firm's women attorneys to discuss the unique issues affecting professional women. This not only provides encouragement and support to our younger attorneys, but helps them develop relationships with our women partners. Q. As a woman managing partner, what challenges have you had to overcome in terms of confronting gender bias? A. I have a tremendous support system, both inside and outside the firm, and have found most people to be extremely supportive of me in this role. Murtha is in its tenth year with a female managing partner, so any internal issues of bias that my prede- cessor may have faced are long gone. The biggest bias issue I have faced throughout my career, and that continues as managing partner with people outside the firm, is not mean- spirited but does reflect an unintend- ed bias about what a lawyer, law firm partner, or law firm managing partner looks like. Many times, particularly early in my career but still today, people as- sume I am not a lawyer. One example occurred at my first deposition. The lawyer on the other side stopped me after the first question and said — you can't ask questions, only a lawyer can ask questions. (He quickly realized his mistaken assumption.) As managing partner, this trend has continued. Nearly every time I tell someone I am the managing partner of Murtha Cullina they immediately ask — of the whole firm? I am asked this question so frequently my execu- tive director made me a T-shirt. It is a funny reminder that we should not make assumptions and that yes, a woman certainly can lead an entire law firm. Those numbers, according to PayScale Vice President of Content Strategy Lydia Frank, reflect an un- conscious bias that women often face in the workforce. "Research has shown that women are often penalized for negotiating and advocating for themselves in a way that men are not," Frank said, not- ing withholding salary history is often seen as a negoti- ating tactic. PayScale's research also found that the wide discrep- ancy between men's and women's pay may not be as bleak as the news headlines suggest. "When we hear about these [20 cent on the dollar] pay gaps, that's repre- senting [the average salary of] all men versus all women in the workforce," said Frank. "When we control for job title, industry, job level, geography, and years of experience, the high-level pay gap is 98 cents [for women] on the dollar." Even still, Frank concedes that gender inequities — including pay — exist in the workplace. The hope and expectation of policy- makers and women's advocacy groups in Connecticut is that the new measure, which passed the state legislature with broad bipartisan support, will help lessen the impact of unconscious bias around pay by eliminating salary history as a factor in the hiring equation. Employers must prepare Eric Gjede, a lobbyist with the Con- necticut Business & Industry Associ- ation (CBIA), which endorsed the final version of the bill that passed, under- stands and supports the intent of the new law, but sees the challenges it presents, especially for Connecticut's small businesses. "Small business owners often ask about salary history because they often don't know what a market dictates for certain positions, so they use the ques- tions more in line of a compensation survey," Gjede said. As of January, ask- ing for salary history in-person or on a job application could put Connecticut employers — from state agencies to businesses to not-for-profit organiza- tions — at risk of an applicant lawsuit. The biggest risk Gedje sees is people — particularly small business own- ers — not being aware of the legislation. "Small busi- ness owners are wearing multiple hats in their company and they [often] don't have the ability to keep up to date [with new laws]," Gjede said. CBIA is work- ing to inform employers about the new law and steps to prepare for it. Joy Chin, a partner with the law firm of Jackson Lewis, which special- izes in labor and employment law, says employers need to look at up- dating any employment application forms and any policies and proce- dures to make sure candidates aren't asked for salary history. "Employers must train their super- visors and recruiters about the new law because the [legal liability] for the law extends past the employer to a third party acting on behalf of the em- ployer," Chin said. "They still can't ask." While the new law may help narrow the gender pay gap, PayScale's Frank said these types of legislative maneu- vers are only one part of addressing a larger challenge that women face in the workforce — under-representa- tion in senior-level jobs. PayScale data, for instance, shows that between the ages of 20-29, 72 percent of men and 74 percent of women are in individual contributor roles, but by mid-career men are 70 per- cent more likely to be in VP or C-suite roles — and 142 percent more likely by late career — than women. This under- representation in the highest-paying jobs is another factor, Frank says, in the gender pay gap. Although a company's culture can have a dramatic impact on women's advancement opportunities and reten- tion, Frank says the growing number of salary history bans is a good first step. "It's really important to use market data to drive compensation deci- sions [versus salary history]," Frank cautions. "You can't take the bias out of people, but it's much easier to take the bias out of the process." What's the gender pay gap in Connecticut? In Connecticut, women make on average 83 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to the National Women's Law Center. Based on that math, women would need to work until age 70 to earn what a man does by age 60. Over the course of their career, the gender gap costs women in the state nearly $500,000, the National Women's Law Center says. Lydia Frank, Vice President of Content Strategy, PayScale Eric Gjede, Lobbyist, Connecticut Business & Industry Association Joy Chin, Partner, Jackson Lewis "It's really important to use market data to drive compensation decisions [versus salary history]. You can't take the bias out of people, but it's much easier to take the bias out of the process." Lydia Frank , Vice President of Content Strategy, PayScale More African-American women run startups, but funding still lags By Sara Ashley O'Brien CNN Money The number of African-American women who have founded tech startups has more than doubled since 2016, a new report found. Now for the bad news: They continue to have trouble raising money from investors. The report, called ProjectDiane after black civil rights leader Diane Nash, found more than 225 African-American women-led startups in the United States, up from fewer than 90. The report, which follows up on an earlier one, revealed that just 4 percent of all female entrepreneurs running tech startups in the United States are African-American women. Funding raised by those female founders was up 500 percent to $250 million from the previous report. But the average amount raised is just $42,000. By comparison, the average initial round of funding for all startups raised in 2016 was $1.14 million. On a positive note: The number of African-American female founders who've raised more than $1 million in funding — 34 — has increased nearly threefold since the last report. According to Kathryn Finney, the CEO and founder of digitalundivided, a nonprofit that supports minority wom- en entrepreneurs, the results show that many investors continue to miss out on opportunities created by African- American female founders. PHOTO | CNN

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