The good news is that parity on average seems to be a little closer in speaking than in other jobs. The bad news is that we are still not there. To learn what is up and down, we took 37.000 real speakers deals and assigned them to either female or male speakers. Then this happened.





(What women make as a percentage of men’s average fee):

Western Europe: 69%

Northern Europe: 107%

Northern America (US + Canada): 75%

The United Kingdom and Ireland: 85%





I could be tooting my own horn here (we’re in Denmark), but well done Northern Europe! In most territories, there is a bit of catching up to do. When we dug deeper, something else emerged.

The curious case of the United Kingdom

While it generally held in all surveyed territories that for every one female speaker, there were three male speakers. It also showed that women speakers get close to one in four gigs, meaning that there seem to be no - or only a very vague - discrimination from bureaus or customers. Women received an equal share of speaking opportunities. Notably so, it would seem, if you live on an island, to the immediate west of the European mainland and is of the anglophone persuasion.





(Women’s share of requests were as follows):

Western Europe: 26%

Northern Europe: 23%

Northern America (US + Canada): 22%

United Kingdom and Ireland: 33% (!)





That is quite a difference concerning the United Kingdom and Ireland.

I guess I was prematurely tooting the Scandinavian horn when I polished the Scandinavian halo: It doesn’t do the Northern European women much good that they’re paid well, when they get a smaller slice of the available-gigs-pie.

I have no exact explanation as to why we see the pattern we do in the UK, but note that these numbers fit the tip-of-tongue-titled World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2018 pretty well. The WEFGGR2018 is an interesting, but very long read, if you’re interested in these matters.

If you’re more into sunshine and ice cream (even if you know this is important), that is understandable.