Monday, May 29, 2006,4:40 PM
Why Women Don’t Get Paid Like Men
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse,,
I've read a report from the trenches of the American workplace, where apparently women are still enduring the same sex discrimination like 19th century .
A new and damning report by Evelyn Murphy, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, makes it clear that fair wages are still an elusive dream, even for women working full time!! shoulder to shoulder with the boys. As Murphy documents, the reality in every imaginable occupation can be a nightmare.When you found that you earning 24 percent less than your male colleague with less seniority. Is that normal ,when u find that the male co worker got promoted and you don't . And on and on, in numbing, depressing, convincing detail.
One could be skeptical about the connotation of this kind of data, but no one can deny the arresting fact that for several years in the 1990s, the gender wage gap between full-time working men and women stopped its slow process of narrowing and actually widened. By 2003, women were still earning only 77 cents to the men’s dollar !!!! Even among young male and female college graduates " The women earned 16 percent less in their first job than the men, statistics in 1991 " . women with only a high school degree who working full-time earned 22 percent less than blue-collar young men, compared with 18 percent less in 1991.
The only group of women who narrowed the gender wage gap during the 1990s was those with graduate degrees. Women between the ages of 35 and 44 with degrees in law, business, and medicine who were working full time narrowed the gap with comparable men from 29 percent to 14 percent between 1991 and 2003. Since these are the women who tend to attract the most media attention, their relative success may have obscured the fact that many more millions of women are dropping further behind.
Men tend to do better than women. And indeed, men’s wages in the booming in 90s did rise faster than those of comparable women. By any definition, that's not fair. Worse, Murphy reports that when she asked people what women ought to be earning compared with men, most said they had no idea, or guessed that women should earn about 80 cents to a man’s $1. No one thought the answer should be equal pay for equal work !!
This passivity may help explain why women continue to lag: They are not demanding their fair share. And that is incredibly costly both to them and to those who share their lives, including most men and almost all children. It just results in more modest housing, fewer vacations, and above all, greater anxiety about paying the bills, including those for children’s higher education. Murphy is eager to convey these personal costs in this book. She constantly reminds readers what they could buy with that money they never earn, asking at one point, “Why would any hard-working, able woman willingly forego making as much money as she possibly could?”
Well, actually, there’s a reason. Millions of able hard-working women do forego making as much money as they possibly can in order to have more time for life. Murphy doesn’t mention that full-time working women don’t work as many hours as full-time working men, which surely explains some of the gender wage gap. And her analysis leaves out fully half of all working age women with children, because they don’t work full time; they work part time or not at all for money.
Nothing is going to change until women themselves demand it, but I suspect that as a childless woman who has always been a flat-out professional, she misjudges the preference that many women have for a less work-centered existence. when thousands of women walked off their jobs in the textile mills of Lawrence, Massachusetts, during the massive strike of 1912, they carried signs demanding “ bread and roses ” -- higher wages and shorter hours. These were the two great goals of the original labor movement: money and time to smell the roses.
After decades of denial that feminism has any relevance today, women have to face the fact that unless they stand up, speak out, and maybe even pick a fight, things are not going to get better and could easily get worse. Not content with just writing a book,. Or a few lines in a blog I didn't accept my salary until I made sure that it's equal to my male colleagues salary
Never , please never think you are less than your colleagues just because they are males it doesn't mean they can do things better !Prove your precedence first then catch the fight.
 
Posted by saso | Permalink |


4 Comments:


  • At 3:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

    why women don't get paid like men,,,Interesting topic,,,but simply the truth is women are not like men,,that's the true,,no matter if u accept it or deny it. and I think about this gap between wages is because men have more needs,,and they responsible for the whole family..
    I think this tone about feminist and all this stuff get a little higher,,,and sorry if I say ,,,you have no rights,,,I think ,,women get their rights and more

     

  • At 3:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

    why women don't get paid like men,,,Interesting topic,,,but simply the truth is women are not like men,,that's the true,,no matter if u accept it or deny it. and I think about this gap between wages is because men have more needs,,and they responsible for the whole family..
    I think this tone about feminist and all this stuff get a little higher,,,and sorry if I say ,,,you have no rights,,,I think ,,women get their rights and more

     

  • At 10:44 AM, Blogger saso

    - glad to know that it's interesting,
    - Men are not like women yeah, but you are not like other men neither, i'm not like other women it's not about gender, simply it's a matter of qualifications do you or don't you deserve to get paid.
    - Men have more needs so it's just that a matter of needs " kol 7sb 7agto"?? did you turn to communism lately or what? i thought you know that it gotta be each according his effort not his needs , when you and i do da same effort in da same topic it simply means equal wages
    about the tone i wanna say it's a blog of thoughts you liked or not it's mine and i have the right to type it or you gonna interdict thoughts too..
    - and a little whisper that masculine tune you use is a little unreasonable you work more hard you get more wages you don't then don't complain we didn't ask for more rights put that in your mind we earn it merit it so that we deserve it

     

  • At 7:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous

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