Its a bit difficult to determine if you are discriminated based on pay alone. First, there is suppose to be confidentiality in regards to one’s pay. Employers usually have a pay scale for any position based on experience and qualification. If I was the hiring person, I would do whatever I can to pay someone as little as possible for that position unless he/she can give me reason otherwise (being a minority does not necessarily generate more revenue for a company thus is not a reason for higher pay).

To simply say that being paid less for the same job and experience level is discrimination is a bit reaching unless your company is unionized, in which case your pay is then ‘posted’ and everyone knows exactly what everyone gets.

What I have seen is that there is a certain ‘art’ in salary negotiation during your job interview and, of course, the company status and economy have much to affect with salary leveraging or your negotiating ability.

Again because it is the Peninsula, its very difficult to say that a certain situation happened because it is discrimination.

Worse comes to worst, you can get lawyers involved, you can strike if you have enough people behind you, or you can fire your boss by going for a better offer.

And going back to your example, I think part of that equation is also that nobody has the exact experience and education. One person might be paid higher for the same job and similar experience level but perhaps there’s a certain job experience, side project/work, or education that merits someone being paid more. Also if the person comes highly recommended or have the right references or perhaps even the right connections would give this person an edge.

One more variable to consider is that many companies (and I definitely see it in my company quite often) will hire workers from their competition. Money will often be the mechanism to lure workers from their competitors to come work for them. In this case, those people will be paid much higher or given better compensations or perks to come work for them.

Is this fair? No! Is this discrimination? Really difficult to say for certain.

My point is that nowadays, living and working in San Francisco Bay Area, especially on the Peninsula, because of the diversity in the area, it is difficult to say that discrimination exists.

I, personally, have not experienced discrimination myself. And if there’s a set back, I don’t default to blaming discrimination as the cause of the situation. I continue doing my own thing, either thru working harder or smarter, educating myself more, networking, making friends as ways to get ahead in this very competitive market.

Just because you are consider yourself a minority and working in an industry (or perhaps just your company) where there’s only 20% women doesn’t automatically merit to call that a discriminatory situation. (Not to disrespect any incidents you may have experienced at work.)

I’m an chinese male in my 30’s working in an industry dominated by women – the real estate. I’m a sales person working in the support industry of real estate (so I’m not an agent). Majority of real estate agents are women (I’d say approx 65%). At my company and in our competitors, there are more women in the same position as I. Should I say that it is an unfair working environment? What if my female coworker got a promotion before I did? How do you draw the line to say that she’s more qualified and/or I’m being discriminated against?

How about this question…

You said that this a more progressive part of the world. So when do we stop thinking that there’s a possibility of discrimination and actually look at how qualified we are or what abilities we possess?

Again, aside from any personal experience you may have had, I don’t believe discrimination exists on the peninsula.

Also, not everyone is as open minded as you to respect a person as they are so being a minority is still an issue in many parts of America. I can’t say that everyone faces the same challenges, but in many cases being in a certain minority does make things harder.

Honestly I wrote this because I felt a lot of hate towards Chinese people in the current media. On the San Francisco Chronicle there are thousands of comments saying “go back to China” and more racist things. So I really felt that I had to address that you can succeed as a minority.

I get really tired of hearing about “minority” rights. *sigh* How about just rights. I don’t care what color a person is or if they are a female or male. If they do a good job then I have no issues. If they suck then it’s a different issue. But so many companies are afraid of being sued that sometimes people who just suck can’t be let go if they are a minority. All the “affirmative action” programs I believe are going to eventually backfire. Businesses won’t want to hire anyone and just won’t for fear of lawsuits. It just sucks.

Being a female in a male dominated business can actually be a huge benefit. In my industry (finance) females are actively SOUGHT out because there are so few and companies want to “prove” how diverse they are. It’s annoying actually. And I AM a woman.

I think your list should be titled “How to Succeed When You Are a Human” because every single person has challenges, can be offended, can be discriminated against for all kinds of reasons.

No society will ever be perfect. Maybe I don’t like red heads. Maybe a business I interview with doesn’t like fat white women. I guess I’d be out of luck. I’m not going to whine or sue over it. I will move on and keep trying somewhere else until I AM successful. That’s the beauty of this country. You aren’t forced or doomed to stay in one place. You can do and become anything you want.

Just the fact that you ARE a woman engineer in this world is an incredible accomplishment.