- Background: In a recent post I expressed confusion and ignorance about gender bias in the workplace. I asked how it could be true that studies consistently show bias against woman while studies on pay gap do not reflect that bias (according to strangers on the the Internet). Clearly someone is wrong. But who? I had no idea.
So I declared a link war to get to the bottom of things. You sent me your links, and I will declare my verdict(s) today.
But this will not be a closed verdict. This post will stay alive, and I will update it as necessary based on new information. So consider this a draft opinion that can improve over time if we let it. I use science as my model here. We will crawl toward the truth without ever knowing if we are all the way there.
As always, don't read the comments unless you want to see some serious gems of cognitive dissonance.
- If women want to earn what men earn, they should do what men do.
Let's see them in dirty, dangerous, but typically better-paying jobs. Let's see them put in 50 or 60 or 90 hours a week instead of 32.
- The "pay gap" is of their own choosing.
There's a pay gap between Wall Street bankers and myself, therefore, I want that "unfair" gap closed.
I don't make as much as a surgeon, there's another "pay gap", etc.
There is no "pay gap" among men and women in the same field with the same experience.
Going by your (il)logic; McDonald's workers can complain about the pay gap between them and white-collar workers.
All in a conversation about pay gap between men and women IN THE SAME JOB, NOT DIFFERENT JOBS.
FUCK.
I see this post as interesting, and containing a few tidbits i hadn't seen before, but getting the conversation around gender equality exactly nowhere. This is especially true of its ending section, which infers that close enough to equality is good enough, and I can't really agree. As someone who has, in some ways, seen life from "both sides", my personal observation is that the bias against female presenting people is amazingly easy to see if you're looking for it, and even easier to see when you're living it.
- I see this post as interesting, and containing a few tidbits i hadn't seen before, but getting the conversation around gender equality exactly nowhere.
- As someone who has, in some ways, seen life from "both sides", my personal observation is that the bias against female presenting people is amazingly easy to see if you're looking for it, and even easier to see when you're living it.
- But I also say maybe it is time to stop fighting the last war and adjust your strategy to reflect the reality in 2015.
- On average, men and women are different creatures. and they employ different strategies in life, especially when it comes to risk. If male strategies (on average) are more suited to workplace competition, you would expect to see that reflected in pay.
I have never seen risk-management/aversion as a gendered thing, more just personality based. But trends must emerge across populations, right?