Comments on: The Trouble With (Paying) Women

By: blues

blues — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:10:23 +0000

I don´t have much to add to what has already been said by the other commenters. Excellent post and I can feel your anger through the screen and I feel it too because I´m fucking sick of it. Sick of it in general and sick of it in my own relationship and in my family.

Those low paying jobs are low paying BECAUSE women occupy the positions, they are not low paying and THEN women occupy them.

By: NS

NS — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:06:00 +0000

@SingleParentDad – Have a look at this chart of the pay gap http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=167

17% is only the average gap for average wage earners. In the City, female stockbrokers earn 60% less than their male counterparts. Women in upper management roles (in most sectors) earn 30% less. Essentially, the more powerful the job, the less pay women receive compared to their male colleagues.

@Cave Mother – Your experience is similar to many women’s. That betrayal is all the worse when you’ve been told your entire life that you’re just as good, that you can do anything you want, that you’re equal to your male peers…only to find out you’re not valued the same and that it was all lip service.

@Nicola – Ah yes, “families to support.” That is the original ‘reason’ that men were paid more, when women first started entering the workforce. Because they figured that a woman’s income was merely ‘supplemental’ and the job held merely to give her some personal ‘satisfaction’ and get her out of the house, it seemed only fair to give the guys more. That might’ve worked in the very, very beginning but it sure as hell doesn’t work now and we aren’t turning up to work every day merely for some pin money or so that we have something to talk about at cocktail parties.

By: Nicola

Nicola — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:09:52 +0000

I SO wish I had seen this programme (unfortunately not shown in Chicago, that I am aware of). Mind you, I am not sure the tele would have survived having a glass of wine or a big fat fist being put through it. Thank you so much for blogging about this issue. I have so much to say but non of it is really coherent, being 2 glasses of wine down and the third is in the midst of being poured. And thank you Harriet Harman – it is institutional and societal discrimination. Before I had kids I was working my arse off but paid less than my male counterparts (it was almost an unspoken agreement that because they had ‘families to support’ they were paid more…) and now if I want to venture back into that arena and fight the good fight then my kids will be practically parent-less on a Mon-Fri basis. I think my ex could live with this scenario, but I can’t. They call America the land of opportunity – but I really haven’t experienced that at all as a mother, or a more recently a single mum.

By: Cave Mother

Cave Mother — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:23:01 +0000

The pay issue is one I just can’t get my head around. I felt equally valued (and valuable) as the boys at my mixed school. I went to a fantastic, male dominated university, studied a male dominated subject, and passed with flying colours. At no point did I feel discriminated against. Yet the FACT is that women like me are still discriminated against, in terms of pay, every day. We weren’t brought up to feel inferior. It came as a hurtful surprise to me that I was discriminated against in the workplace. This was not the world that I had been taught to expect.

By: SingleParentDad

SingleParentDad — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:18:39 +0000

What a noble drinking game. I usually go for fuzzy duck or similar.

Where does the 17% figure come from? I always worked in the private sector, in small/medium size firms, where negotiation was king, regardless of sex. I was amazed at the disparity there was within the the pay structure, we had an overpaid accountant (female) and underpaid technical director (male), and an incredibly overpaid operations manager (moi).

But I have not experience employment where there are grades, or lots of people doing the same thing, and I hope I never do to be honest.