Farrah F. sent us a link to an article on the website for Forward, a newspaper aimed at the American Jewish community. The article looks at the gender gap in pay at Jewish community organizations. According to the article,
…a Forward survey of 75 major American Jewish communal organizations found that fewer than one in six are run by women, and those women are paid 61 cents to every dollar earned by male leaders.
Incomes of leaders of the organizations they surveyed (data is from 2008 unless otherwise specified, and women are highlighted in blue):
The Forward’s survey was drawn from the most recent public records or, if that information wasn’t available, from the organization itself. The median salary for men was $287,702, while the median for women was $175,211, amounting to a ratio of 61 cents to one dollar.
More from the article:
Women comprise about 75% of those employed by federations, advocacy and social service organizations, and religious and educational institutions, but occupy only 14.3% of the top positions. Of the 11 female leaders identified in this survey, three are in interim roles.
In another article, Forward discusses family leave policies at Jewish organizations, finding that relatively few offer paid leave:
UPDATE: A few people have asked why I chose to post about these particular organizations. The short answer is: because that’s what I had. My interest here wasn’t in the religious aspect, but in the gender disparities in volunteer/community organizations; I suspect these same trends occur in a lot of similar organizations, not just Jewish ones. I wish I had info on a more general set, but I so far haven’t been able to find a study like this one, but for a wider array of organizations. If anyone knows of one, I’d love to post it.
Comments 17
mordicai — November 6, 2009
Insular religious groups with poor treatment of women?! Say it ain't so!
marc sobel — November 6, 2009
You might want to refine this to reflect Orthodox based organizations which have an acknowledged defined role for women as homemakers.
Philip Cohen — November 6, 2009
In the Church this been called the "stained-glass ceiling." Not sure what the Jewish term would be. Maybe the "glass mechitza"? (that's the thing that divides men from women in an orthodox synagogue. Unfortunately, we're always finding new places to identify glass dividers...
SELF DEVELOPMENT BLOG » Gender Pay Gap at Jewish Community Organizations — November 7, 2009
[...] (View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages) [...]
דוס 2.0 » פער המגדר בארגונים יהודיים בארה”ב — November 7, 2009
[...] Sociological Images (שהוא בלוג מעניין באופן כללי), מציג נתונים שהופיעו בכתב העת היהודי-אמריקאי Forward על חלקן של נשים [...]
Meems — November 7, 2009
I previously worked for a social services organization under the Jewish Federation in Los Angeles and have several thoughts, none of which defend the gender disparities displayed here.
1. Insular religious groups with poor treatment of women?! Say it ain’t so!
Judaism is not an especially insular religious group unless you are talking about specific Orthodox or Hassidic groups, and those are not the people running many of these organizations. So, the answer to this "question" is No.
2. These statistics are not all that different from national numbers, and really speak more to assimilation rather than any specific Jewish-originated discrimination against women.
3. Unfortunately, much of this disparity can be seen stereotypical gender divides in social service professions. For example, there are far more female than male social workers, so the workforce will be overwhelmingly female.
Does this gap need to be closed? Yes, absolutely. But I'm not sure it's about the organizations being Jewish in affiliation.
NoPeanutz — November 9, 2009
Many of the organizations listed are non-denominational or non-Orthodox.
Cranky Quix is Cranky « Reconcile — November 9, 2009
[...] I like Sociological Images as much as the next, uh, person who likes Sociological Images, but this is really rubbing me the wrong [...]
VinceP1974 — November 9, 2009
No surveys about how the Muslim Brotherhood and it's offshoots:
HAMAS, Al Qaeda, Muslims Students Association, CAIR,
pay their women?