Deirdre Saoirse wrote:
>
> On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Simon Britnell wrote:
>
> > The pay disparity between men and women may be due to the choices women
> > make, rather than discrimination in the workforce.
>
> Similar studies were cited by Thomas Sowell in one of his books. He cited
> some very interesting things, such as:
>
> 1) never-married women earned salaries virtually on par with those of men;
> 2) married women earned approximately 25% of that of married men;
> 3) women were several times more likely to quit jobs;
> 4) women were more likely to select jobs that allowed them easy entry and
> exit from the job market; by economic law these would be lower-paying
> jobs.
Funny, though, I used to work for a woman who was studying pay
disparities in the legal profession, and one of the things she
found that contributed to the disparity was that men tended to
*threaten* to quit more often than women...
> It seems to me that, in the US at least, the liberals wouldn't want to
> bring this up because it spoils their discrimination rhetoric, while the
> conservatives wouldn't want to admit that family values were largely
> responsible for the disparity.
>
> Whether you agree with Sowell or not, the case is well-presented.
The fact remains that women are penalized for marrying and having
children and men are not, or you would see men with children
faring worse than men without children. The economic sacrifices
that women make are not recognized in divorce or social security
in the US. It may not be in the workplace that some of the
issues should be addressed.
Of course, things will be different because we have different
patterns of employment now -- hardly anyone is staying in one
place for years and years. Career interruptions will become more
common across the board.
I think there are other disparities as well, having worked where
men are paid more for the same work (but the work is just labeled
differently).
Annette
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