How I went to American Centurion Lounge, a private space in New York for those who make over $1M a year

and found we were the only female group there

When my friend Arianna said she wanted to write her next piece for Fast Company about the gender pay gap, I told her that I’ve never experienced any bias myself. I figured it’s because I’ve never worked in a corporate environment here in New York. As an immigrant, I was still able to sustain myself being self-employed and never encountered any gender issues (or maybe I just didn't notice any?).

So that conversation popped in my head when I went to the Centurion Lounge by Amex on top of the observation deck, Summit One Vanderbilt, last week. When sitting at the bar and sipping our cocktail with my friend Anastasia, I looked around and saw we were the only women there. An hour later, as we were moving to another table, we saw that all the other parties were either male or mixed gender.

from my Instagram -@nchernikanyc

This Centurion Lounge is different from those at the airports and is mostly available for the Black card holders. Here is what I found on the internet about that card:

So I guess that’s something to say about the pay gap or at least about the difference of pastimes between men and women.

How did I get to the lounge?