You would think that when a woman finally makes it to one of the most prestigious tech companies in the world she’s be able to toot her own horn.

Well, think again.

I was disturbed to read an article in the New York Times today about Google’s inability to keep and promote women at the search engine giant. What got me perturbed wasn’t the fact that they were having trouble getting women to the corner office. Alas, that’s nothing new throughout the work world.

What got me crazy was their own internal research as to why this is happening.

Turns out, Google women aren’t stepping up and demanding power at the company. Seriously, women at the top of their careers games think they suck. (more…)

There’s some good news for job seekers who have been faced with financial issues, or have had brushes with the law.

Fewer employers are snooping into your criminal or credit background today.

Criminal background checks have become increasingly popular partly because technology has made it easier to dig up dirt and partly because hiring managers want any tools to help them weed through the many applicants, given the tight labor market.

But such reviews had a tendency to disproportionately hurt African-Americans and Latinos, according to many labor advocates. Not to mention the fact that lots of other job seekers from all groups who’ve faced unemployment, or underemployment, have faced money woes and may have had their credit histories impacted as a result.

Steps by the federal government and states to crack down on the practice have gotten everyone looking more closely at the process.

“Some of the decline in the use of credit checks may be related to measures put in place by state governments and municipalities, as well as increased attention to the issue,” said Mike Aitken, vice president of government affairs at the Society of Human Resource Management.

The organization just released its figures on such background checks and found:

More than one-half (53 percent) of respondents to a SHRM survey said they don’t use credit background checks in hiring. That’s an increase from 2010, when 40 percent of organizations reported not using credit checks, and from 2004, when 39 percent did not.

“Employers – through their HR professionals – are continually evaluating practices and programs. And this is no different,” Aitken said.

“We think employers are looking more closely at these practices,” he continued. “They want to ensure that any screening or evaluation tool used during the hiring process is related to the duties of specific positions and consistent with federal law prohibiting job discrimination.”

Amen to that.

I got a reality check from a friend on Facebook yesterday.

I had just finished a story on NBCNews.com yesterday about Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer and how she plans to balance her new gig and the new born she’s expecting in October, and after posting a link on my Facebook page a friend Kathryn wrote:

“Wow. I’m just really shocked that no one even mentioned the father. We don’t even blink when men return to work after having a child.”

She is so right. I wrote the story looking at her decision to take only a few weeks off after the baby comes, and her plan to answer emails from work right after giving birth. Many women, and men, got on her case saying she doesn’t know what she’s in for. (more…)

Can you bench press your weight? Some police departments in this country ask applicants to do this. This, among other physical aptitude tests, often keeps women out of the running.

A recent Justice Department lawsuit against a Texas police department claims such tests discriminate against women.

The government case against the city of Corpus Christi, Texas

“Challenges the police department’s use of a physical ability test for the hiring of entry-level police officers. According to the complaint, the physical test used by the city between 2005 and 2011 had the effect of excluding qualified women from consideration for hire as entry-level police officers and did not screen candidates for job-related skills.”

Cases like this get a lot of anger on both sides. Do we want our cops to be as strong as possible to fight crime, or have we created tests that have nothing to do with the job of policing, and keep out qualified applicants? (more…)

Are you gals ready for a rumble tonight?

A year ago this week, the Supreme Court decision to strike down a class action gender bias suit against Walmart had a sweeping and symbolic impact on women’s rights.

That ruling, and a host of other actions including moves by religious employers to derail contraceptive coverage for workers, a recent legislation defeat of pay equity legislation for women, and the rise in the number of pregnancy discrimination claims have all culminated into what many women advocates call a “War on Women.”

On Thursday, it was time to rally the troops, maintained Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, during a luncheon with a focus on stopping the war with more advocacy and also legislation to turn back the high court’s Walmart ruling.

“Who would have thought that in 2012, we’d be arguing over providing contraception for women, or debating the idea of equal pay,” Ness told a 1,500 member audience of mainly women gathered in the Washington Hilton including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who gave the keynote address. “Yet here we are.” (more…)

There are two new women in the boardroom of Italian automaker Fiat — Joyce Victoria Bigio and Patience Wheatcroft.

It’s great news, but don’t get all warm and fuzzy over Fiat. The company was pretty much strong-armed into adding women to its all-male board because of a new law that requires Italian firms to have at least one-third women board members by 2015, according to a story in the Wall Street Journal today.

Other countries, including Norway, have imposed such quotas and many have reaped the benefits of having more women voices in the big chairs. But it’s not even something that’s seriously considered in the United States, even though less than 20 percent of board seats are held by women at U.S. firms.

In fact, some firms won’t even consider women board members when asked by their shareholders to just think about more gals for board positions. (more…)

I wrote a story this week for Today.com on how the pay gap between men and women widens as we age, and I was struck by something an economist that was part of the study told me during an interview:

“Men are selecting to go into higher paying jobs,” said Katie Bardaro, lead economist for PayScale. Women, she said, tend to gravitate to jobs in human resources and nursing, while men go for the big bucks in finance and technology.

Why should these jobs pay more, I asked her.

“A lot of people complain, that if these were male-dominated jobs, they’d be paid more,” she explained, but “I can’t put a lot of basis in that argument.” She pointed to the fact that many jobs men go into are dangerous, requiring a pay premium as a result.

I wouldn’t say being a banker is dangerous, and she agreed. But, she noted, that more men tend to become construction managers.

In the end what we have is nearly half of society not making as much as the other half of society, and the problem only gets worse as we grow older. And I don’t know about you, something’s got to give.

Did you know women are more likely to be poor as they age? (more…)

It’s a question that comes up often and it came up yet again yesterday: “Can an employer ask a job candidate how old they are?”

A colleague of mine at MSNBC.com, economy reporter Allison Linn, got this type of question from a reader on Facebook and we both pondered whether it was legal or not.

My gut feeling was this was a no no under the nation’s labor laws, but it turns out it’s not that cut and dry. (more…)

If women stopped getting pregnant the world would eventually cease to exist. So why is it so hard to get equal rights for the pregos among us already?

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act was signed into law in 1978 but it seems that wasn’t enough to stop employers from discriminating against pregnant workers.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, charges of pregnancy bias have been hovering at the 6,000 mark since 2007.

“A few employers have forgotten, or never learned, that it’s against the law to discriminate against women because of pregnancy,” David Lopez, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s general counsel, told me earlier this year during a public meeting about the problem.

So, what to do? What about yet another law? (more…)

Sometimes a graphic is worth a thousand blog words: