On Sat, 5 Aug 2000, Caitlyn M. Martin wrote:
> > > 1) never-married women earned salaries virtually on par with those of
> > > men;
>
> This flies in the face of almost every statistic I read. For example, look
> at Working Woman's annual salary survey. You'll find that, with a few
> exceptions, women in the same position doing the same job still earn less
> than men. The ideas you cite below are based on the idea that women choose
> lower paying jobs. The numbers I cite are comparing men and women in the
> *same* job. Women still are coming up short.
Actually, I've found that I have typically made the same, sometimes more,
than my male counterparts. Last year, for example, I found that while I
was being paid about 20k under market, I made 15k more than the
next-highest paid person in the department.
> > > 2) married women earned approximately 25% of that of married men;
>
> Again, to come up with a number like this you must compare all married women
> (including those who stepped out of their careers to raise children and
> don't work full time) rather than career women in positions identical or
> comparable to their male counterparts.
That is correct. It also includes people who aren't on traditional career
paths and never were (those who may not have worked prior to marriage).
> > > 3) women were several times more likely to quit jobs;
>
> I have heard this argument used repeatedly to justify lower salaries for
> women. Once upon a time it was true. In today's high tech market, the
> reverse seems to be true. Women seem to be more likely to show loyalty,
> while men jump for the highest dollar. In either case, it is not a valid
> reason to discriminate. OK, yes, women are more likely to quit to raise
> children. Does that make it OK to penalize women who do not have children
> and decide to remain in professional careers? IMHO, no.
When someone enters and exits the job market, that means they need to take
jobs that don't require constant retraining. In other words, high-paying
careers in high-tech are out for those people.
> > > 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.
>
> What the women's movement is still fighting for is equal pay for equal work,
> not equal pay for unequal work. This argument is therefore specious.
I didn't say it compared A and A. I'm not going to argue Sowell's points
for him; please argue with him yourself. ;)
--
_Deirdre * http://www.sfknit.org * http://www.deirdre.net
"We can always count on the British. Except for the Revolutionary War
they've been perfect." -- Mel Brooks, on the first Concorde flight since
the Paris crash.
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