Reference no: EM132875258
Eliminating the Gender Pay Gap: Gap Inc. Leads the Way- Case Name, from Harvard Course Pack
This case examines Gap Inc. as a trailblazer in gender pay equality and a focus on investing in gender equity. The husband and wife founders who opened the first Gap store in San Francisco in 1969 did so as equal partners and grew the company together in an era of limited female business leadership. The Gap's inclusive corporate culture helped grow the company into a global brand and publicly-traded company comprised of five divisions: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta, and Intermix.
In 2014, Gap Inc. made history by becoming the first Fortune 500 company to announce that it pays female and male employees equally for equal work across all its locations. Gap's leadership in equal pay and gender equality has been recognized in many ways, including winning the 2016 Catalyst Award.
Since Gap's announcement, attention towards equal pay by individual employees, companies, and governments continue to grow. In June 2016, thousands of men and women gathered at the White House for the first United States of Women Summit to discuss issues such as leadership, educational opportunity, and equal pay for women. At the conference, 28 companies signed the Equal Pay Pledge to take concrete actions, such as conducting annual pay analyses, to lower the national gender wage gap. - Background
Question
- Gender equality and women in leadership have been part of Gap's DNA since it was founded in 1969 by a husband and wife team. Most companies lack that sort of cultural heritage. For an organization without such history and that currently finds itself struggling with issues such as pay equity, is it possible to change company culture in a way that instills the value of pay equality? If so, what obstacles need to be overcome, and what organizational policies and practices need to be implemented, to bring about change?