The movie
What Women Want was on to something when it came out nearly 20 years ago. In it, a hotshot playboy and advertising executive wakes up from an accident with the ability to read women’s minds. At first, he sees this as a curse, but his female psychiatrist convinces him that his gift could help his career: “If men are from Mars and women are from Venus, and you can speak Venusian, the world can be yours.”
This romantic comedy comes to mind as the jewelry industry grapples with how to get women to buy fine jewelry the way they buy handbags and shoes. “Women will think nothing of dropping $1,200 on a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, but not on a pair of diamond stud earrings,” says Victoria McKay, founder and managing director of the UK-based Women’s Jewellery Network (WJN). “We’re finding it hard to keep sales buoyant against other luxury products.”
But the jewelry trade is still led predominantly by men, and sadly, they can’t read our minds. McKay finds the lack of women in senior management to be a huge problem for the industry. “I’m not saying men shouldn’t be a part of the conversation, but women need to be a bigger part of it than they are now. We need more women in leadership [positions] who represent the people who buy the jewelry.”
While there’s limited data on the issues women face in the jewelry workplace, research by the Women’s Jewelry Association (WJA) suggests that they account for only about 30% of board positions. When industry legal consultant Cecilia Gardner asked CEOs of trade groups why they thought there were so few women on boards, the resounding answer was that they couldn’t find any. So Gardner, who is working with the WJA on its Gender Equality Project to improve gender parity in the trade, is trying to make it easier to do so.
“We are literally building a roster of women interested in serving, and providing the names to nominating committees of boards in our industry,” she says.
In addition to the need for greater advancement opportunities and representation, the industry is still behind when it comes to equal pay, stresses McKay. While the average gender pay gap declined 1.9% to 23% among 11 of the UK’s largest jewelry groups last year, seven of those companies actually showed a greater discrepancy than in 2017, according to an April article in
Professional Jeweller.
“It’s been 100 years since women got the right to vote, and we’re still arguing over issues like the gender pay gap, when a woman has to work harder than a man to attain what she’s got,” laments McKay.
Perception is not reality
Despite these figures, the prevailing perception among employers is that there are plenty of women in leadership roles, and that problems such as pay disparity, gender discrimination, sexual harassment and hostile work environments are not an issue in the trade. That’s what emerged from an independent survey that MVI Marketing conducted last fall for the Gender Equality Project, reports Gardner.
Employees painted a different picture in the study, but said that over 50% of the time, they felt uncomfortable reporting discriminatory incidents, citing concerns of retaliation or an impact on their future employment (see box, Page 28).
McKay, meanwhile, points to a number of issues women face in the workplace that she says will be everyone’s problem in the future, such as childcare support and flexible work hours. “Millennials, the biggest consumer block, are different than the Boomers, as they share things like childcare responsibilities and have a gender-neutral view. Men are just as likely to be impacted by barriers to this as women. We need [measures for] these things in place to benefit the workforce.”
Many states have extremely worker-friendly policies, including New York and California, where a lot of the industry is based, notes Tiffany Stevens, president and CEO of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC). “If someone is facing harassment, whether by a boss, coworker, or even a client or vendor, chances are they’re protected. California and New York also have instituted laws around parental leave, lactation and increased harassment protection, so whether as an employee or employer, it’s worth brushing up on those rules.”
Engendering support
“Part of the problem has been a lack of willingness by some women to acknowledge that these issues exist,” says McKay, who believes it’s incumbent on female business leaders to pay it forward and enable other women to walk in behind them.
While the WJA has provided mentorship initiatives for members over the years, the association wants to be more proactive. Phyllis Bergman, who headed Mercury Ring Corp. for 32 years and is a management consultant, agrees, stressing the need for a deliberate effort “to support women at all levels of the industry in their professional development.” While she admits that she has personally perceived things as better than the WJA survey suggests, she can still recall a time when women weren’t even invited to the 24K Club, a jewelry networking group in New York (she became its first woman president in 2003). “With each woman uplifted in leadership, it gets easier for the next,” she says.
Often, women can be their own barriers to success by not recognizing their value, says Ayelet Lerner, director of Lerner Diamonds. She cites the trouble she had starting a WJA chapter in Antwerp. “It was difficult to get a group of women together here. Women here are not used to being invited and considered in business. Women have to change that mind-set. Part of the challenge is getting women to acknowledge their own self-worth.”
While there are more than 1,600 diamond offices in Antwerp, very few of them are run by women, continues Lerner. She believes the situation is worse in wholesale than in retail. “In Antwerp, it’s heavily male-dominated. Just look at pictures from industry events, and you will get a clear picture of the landscape.”
She is inspired by female role models like her mother, Joy Lerner, who was one of the first women trading diamonds at the Antwerp bourse. “Everyone knew my mom as a fierce and passionate diamond buyer. When she had to become a member of the bourse, and this was back in the mid-’80s, she demanded a women’s toilet, as there was none.”
Lerner is also a fan of McKay and what she’s doing with WJN. Indeed, the group is expanding internationally, recently announcing 45 new women ambassadors from seven countries.
Community is a strong part of McKay’s vision for the WJN. “Women have friends for different things,” she says. “Friends to cry on, go shopping with, volunteer, and advocate. We want to emulate that philosophy in how we organize. By country, regionally, creating networks within networks.”
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2019. To subscribe click here.