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Closing the entitlement gap stitutional policies and informal practices that perpetuate
pay disparities and career outcomes for women. Employ-
Initiatives rooted in supporting diversity, equity and in- ees also need to listen to the stories their colleagues share,
clusion and celebrations, like International Women's Day, establish themselves as allies in support of change and
do a great job of shining a spotlight on and drawing at- understand that everyone plays a crucial role, including at
tention to the biases and specific challenges women in the executive level.
the payments industry experience today. While these are
helpful, companies across the industry need to display Enduring change doesn't happen in a day, but by working
their support and champion their female employees more together we can start to move to a place in society where
than just once a year. eliminating gender disparities becomes inherent and is
no longer a marker of progressive policy—it's simply the
Recent research from the American Association of Univer- norm, not an exception.
sity Women shows the clear and present impacts of the
gender pay gap, also touching on how career progression Payments is an incredibly exciting industry that employs
for women in the workforce is stunted by a number of fac- and attracts a growing list of amazing female talent and
tors, especially within high-earning industries, like pay- leaders, but we're not near the home stretch. By coming
ments. together to recognize and identify the lack of representa-
tion, we can put more energy behind breaking through
These ideas give more weight to topics in the gender eq- the barriers and creating an environment for women to
uity conversation, like the gender entitlement gap, or the thrive and bring the industry to new heights.
fact that many women feel less entitled to ask for pay rais-
es, promotions, professional support, and the ability to set
healthy boundaries between work and home life, regard- Paulette Rowe has led Paysafe's Integrated and Ecommerce Solutions
less of how well they are performing in their role. (IES) division as its chief executive officer since January 2020. She has
over 20 years' experience in the payments and financial services indus-
Understanding that an entitlement gap exists is the first tries and has served in leadership roles at Facebook, Barclaycard, Royal
step. Closing the gap is about sharing stories and being Bank of Scotland and GE Capital. Connect with her on LinkedIn at www.
honest enough to call out potential biases, including in- linkedin.com/in/paulette-rowe-9832a223/.