Re: Love-Hounds Digest #7.313

[boris%monsoon.Berkeley.EDU@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Boris Chen)]

In article <9110161709.AA10109@lewhoosh.umd.edu> jeffy@lewhoosh.umd.EDU (Jeffrey C. Burka) writes:
>Boris sez:
>
>>What's funny, is that Laurie seems to get her data messed up. I heard
>>that its about up to 70 cents per buck that a man makes.
>
>You're right--the earnings gap is currently at around 70%--but here's a 
>partial list of female:male earning ratios:
>
>year	cents a woman makes to a man's dollar
>1955	64
>1960	61
>1965	60
>1970	59
>1975	59
>1980	60
>1983	64
>

Thanks for the info. Can you tell me your source? 


>were almost 30 years later.  The ratio may well have fallen back down to
>63 cents when she did her research for "Beautiful Red Dress," which must
>have been in '88 ("It'll be the year 3 thousand 6 hundred eighty-eight before

True. Good point.

> 
>>But regardless,
>>those stats may be misleading since: 1) more men work than women,
>>2) women on average have jobs that inherently pay less; it may have
>>little to do with unequal pay for jobs, but of course, I know that
>>unequal pay exists. It's just that it probably isn't as bad as she
>>says.
>
>You're missing the entire point.
>
>It doesn't matter whether women earn less money through unequal pay for the
>same jobs that men do or whether they tend toward jobs that pay less, or 
>whether women tend to have less education, leading to lower paying jobs.

Well, I think it does. (for what it's worth) If women in general choose
carreers that pay less than men, then that is their individual choices.
I don't think it is bad or good. Why major in engineering over english?
Just because it pays better? That would be silly. If some women
want to sacrifice their career for their family, I'd say, good for
them. And if some men want to sacrifice their career for their family,
I'd say the same (and Believe it or not, there are men who do that).
I think that is a very noble thing to do. Money isn't everything, and
I'd pick a good family over a great career anytime. The bad thing
is when a person; can't do what she/he wants to do. And that
happens, and I think it is bad.

Does sexism exist? Yes. Is there oppression? Yes. Is it as bad as LA
says? I don't know. As the above figures show, it isn't as
straigh forward and simplistic as LA says. But keep in mind that she
isn't doing a lecture, she is making a statement with humor.
---------------


And all you people stop sending me mail saying I am sexist and offensive.
Just like all of you, I am thinking about the ham and cheese sandwiches
in the next room. So leave me alone, or else I'll sling one of
those slimy creatures that have plates for heads and telescopes for
eyes at you.
(divert all futher discussion to soc.women or soc.men; your pick;
I don't read either of them)

--boris