Holding Hands As We Forge The Chasm

By on April 27, 2012 in News 6

Suffrage UniverselNatalie Solidarity writes at Diatribe Media:

According to the Women’s Law Center, women face unequal pay for equal work, earning on average only 77¢ for every dollar earned by men, with African American and Latina women faring even worse. Legislative bills to strengthen the laws against discrimination are still in urgent need. Furthermore, depending on industry, women earn significantly less than the 77/100 that their male counterparts for working the same jobs.

Inequality is not a new trend. A comprehensive study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the gender wage gap can only be partially explained by human capital factors and so-called “work patterns.” The GAO study, released in 2003, was based on data from 1983 through 2000 from a representative sample of Americans between the ages of 25 and 65. The researchers controlled for work patterns, which include years of work experience, education, and hours of work per year, as well as differences in industry, occupation, race, marital status, and job tenure. With controls for these variables in place, the data showed that women earned, on average, 20% less than men during the entire period 1983 to 2000.

Even though the wage gap is explained away, let’s examine the factors in determining work patterns from a critical perspective. What does marital status have to do with how well one performs at her job? How does race determine value? There are a miniscule number of jobs solely based on possession of particular genitalia. The remainder should receive equal pay across gender lines, as we’re all humans with brains operating to complete functions of a specific goal. Furthermore, one can even inspect the structures which factor the explanations of disparity. In a subsequent GAO study in 2008, cleverly titled Women’s Earnings: Federal Agencies Should Better Monitor Their Performance in Enforcing Anti-Discrimination Laws, it was found that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor “should better monitor their performance in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.” When we explore this critically, we should remember how many women represent the population in governing structures. Women hold a mere 16 percent of seats in Congress currently. The U.S. Ranks 69th in respect to the percentage of women in government. Countries that have a higher percentage of women include Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uganda.

Read the full post at Diatribe Media

, , , , , ,

  • rileyrifle

    Another sad and unsurprising fact.

  • Tempo House

    Between this and the articles from the Good Men Project, it seems the radical feminists have staked their hammer and sickle flags on Disinfo’s shores. And, as usual, their citation of facts is selective. Moreover, the GOA study cited by Miss Solidarity says that discrimination “may” be a factor in the wage gap … it’s not a firm, concrete, irrefutable fact.

    Miss Solidarity also fails to mention that paying the sexes differently for doing the same job has been a Federal crime since the Kennedy Administration.

    A 2009 study by the CONSAD Research Corporation for the Dept. of Labor found that most of the so-called “wage gap” between the sexes is explained by VOLUNTARY choices, and NOT by discrimination. That is to say, men and women tend to value different things in the workplace, and their different choices result in wage differences (e.g., women tend to prefer better fringe benefits and lower wages, while men want higher overall wages and fewer fringe benefits). After adjusting for these choices, women earned about 96% of what men earn.

    And Miss. Solidarity omitted mention of Warren Farrell’s epic book, “Why Men Earn More,” which parsed government data to discover that when men earn more it’s because men and women make different choices. For example, Radfems were bitching that women doctors make less than male doctors (oh! the Patriarchy® is oppressing us!). But Farrell found that the Dept of Labor lumps surgeons and GPs together as “doctors” when their wages and job descriptions are actually different. Men are more likely to be surgeons who work longer hours, take people’s lives in their hands, travel more, etc. But women are more likely to be GPs and thus working more predictable hours, dealing with fewer life&death dilemmas, etc. Thus, when women get paid less for doing the “same job as a man” it’s usually not really the “same job”.

    Plus, Farrell found dozens of high-paying careers that are dominated by women and/or where women consistently out-earn men. Cocktail waitresses at high-end casinos can earn thousands of dollars per shift … but have you ever seen a male cocktail waiter?

    • Andrew

      The Good Men Project aren’t radical feminists.

    • Haystack

      But do they have equal chances of *getting* the same job? 

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    only a small percentage of white men
    enjoy the full benefit of being a white male
    (though driving while white in a new car is a perk)
    below $75k a year
    male & female compensation tends toward parity

    the real disparity is in legislative representation
    the result of which is
    that elite white male agendas become law and the only laws enforced

  • Eric_D_Read

    There’s actually a strong argument to be made that the U.S. economy is biased against men.
    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/why-the-us-economy-is-biased-against-men/256023/