We’ve now finished collecting responses to The Thin Pink Line Survey and are delighted to announce that the winner of the complimentary one hour coaching session has been selected at random from those who completed the survey. Of course, her identity will remain confidential but she’s been notified by email. Thanks so much to all of you who participated in the survey; we very much appreciate your candid and thoughtful responses.

One thing that many of you have identified as an issue in the workplace is the fact that we are still dealing with the gender gap in pay. Recently, here in the US, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law by President Obama. This important legislation restores the ability for women to sue when they have been victims of pay discrimination ─ but proving discrimination in a lawsuit isn’t easy. In Ledbetter’s case, the facts were clear; often they aren’t. If you feel you aren’t getting paid fairly, start by negotiating.

If you’d like more information about how to do that, take a look at the Resources Page on the Negotiating Women website for articles you can download.  If you want to build your negotiating skills,  take one of our e-learning courses.

TAGS: Equal pay, negotiating pay, Pay Disparity

Greetings to all of the new Thin Pink Line subscribers from Australia!  I’ve just returned from 12 days ”down under” speaking with 1200+ women in Sydney, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Darwin, and Cairnes.  My trip was hosted by the Australia Institute of Management (AIM), a top notch organization devoted to providing professionals with training, ideas, publications, research, and assistance to help them achieve their career and leadership goals.  Not surprisingly, our Aussie sisters share the same concerns as their U.S. counterparts for wanting to get their “corner offices” with less hassle, break the glass ceiling, secure work/life balance, and have their say without fear of being called the dreaded “b-word.”  As Maya Angelou says, “In the end we’re all more the same than we are different, my friends.”

Australians were very interested in what happened to Hillary, especially since their female acting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, is poised to lead their country in the not too distant future.  Australia is chock filled with other powerful women leaders making a difference in every aspect of society from the arts to securing rights for native aboriginals.

While there I met with the first quarter’s randomly selected winner of the Thin Pink Line’s free coaching session, Dianne Van Berlo (pictured here a bit fuzzy with yours truly).  Dianne at first declined the coaching session, thinking the distance would disqualify her, but you never know where we’ll show up and, as luck would have it, Australia was on the horizon.  We’ll soon be announcing the winner of the second quarter’s free coaching session so stayed tuned and, if you haven’t already, subscribe for daily updates!

TAGS: Aboriginals, AIM, Australia, Australia Acting Prime Minister, Australian Institute of Management, Australian Women, Julia Gillard, Maya Angelou

Dianne Van Berlo of Sydney, Australia.  Dianne is the first winner of the free coaching session with one of the authors from The Thin Pink Line.  Purely by coincidence I will be in Sydney faciliating programs with AIM (Australian Institute of Management) in mid-June and Dianne and I will meet for her session at that time.  If you’d like a chance to win a free coaching session with one of our authors, click on the link to enter at the top right corner of page. Winners are chosen randomly from among those who subscribe to The Thin Pink Line.  Good luck and congratulations, Dianne!

TAGS: Australian Institute of Management, free coaching session