[Thanks for this one, John!]
"Mr. McCain is an honorable man, we respect his service. But when you look at our records and our plans on issues that matter to working women, the choice could not be clearer," Obama told the audience in New Mexico, a voter-swing state. "It starts with equal pay. Sixty-two percent of working women in America earn half or more than of their family's income. But women still earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2008. You'd think that Washington would be united it its determination to fight for equal pay."
This should be good--the explanation, I mean. I'm sure it'll either 1. be ignored or 2., we'll hear the usual, " I was unaware, and will correct the situation." I hope those women get reparations. I hope the feminists speak up about this; it'd be nice to hear something from them besides assiduously lobbying for abortion rights for teens without parental consent.
Two things: With these black separatist, socialist types, it's always about government mandated quotas, free cheese, and the right to sue for reparations. "Money for nothing, and the chicks for free," so to speak. Oh, and apparently some serious cash for trial lawyers. No idea where the man stands on tort reform, tho.
With regard to women earning 77% of men*, this is overall--not job-for-job. Given that relatively low paying professions, such as teaching, nursing, speech therapy and my own field, occupational therapy, are dominated by women, you think this might play into things? Moreover, of the many colleagues with whom I've discussed the issue, all admitted that they had made no effort to negotiate their salaries prior to accepting their positions. Very significantly, all of these colleagues have been women (Actually, in 10 years I've never worked a single male OT, or for that matter, a male supervisor.) In contrast, I've always negotiated very hard for everything I could get. I don't know if I make more than my colleagues, but THEY suspect that I do. They tend to bitch and moan about it good-naturedly, but do admit that they could have done more to achieve higher pay.
My theory (which is certainly not original) is that, except for the high powered executive-types--who are probably assertive by nature, and hence achieved their executive status--women are simply less aggressive in than men. Whether this is due to innate differences in gender, or environmental factors, I don't know, but the fact is if you don't fight for everything you can get, you're going to get less.
Maybe we need to have government sponsored assertiveness training instead of equal pay legislation. It'd still be a big stupid government program, so maybe it'll still make liberals happy.
"No, you're totally qualified, it's just that a gi really isn't what we meant
by business casual...also, we were looking for someone a little more, you know...hot."
*For a fun filled counterpoint, please see my previous post, 12 y/o Girls Shatter Glass Ceiling!
With regard to women earning 77% of men*, this is overall--not job-for-job. Given that relatively low paying professions, such as teaching, nursing, speech therapy and my own field, occupational therapy, are dominated by women, you think this might play into things? Moreover, of the many colleagues with whom I've discussed the issue, all admitted that they had made no effort to negotiate their salaries prior to accepting their positions. Very significantly, all of these colleagues have been women (Actually, in 10 years I've never worked a single male OT, or for that matter, a male supervisor.) In contrast, I've always negotiated very hard for everything I could get. I don't know if I make more than my colleagues, but THEY suspect that I do. They tend to bitch and moan about it good-naturedly, but do admit that they could have done more to achieve higher pay.
My theory (which is certainly not original) is that, except for the high powered executive-types--who are probably assertive by nature, and hence achieved their executive status--women are simply less aggressive in than men. Whether this is due to innate differences in gender, or environmental factors, I don't know, but the fact is if you don't fight for everything you can get, you're going to get less.
Maybe we need to have government sponsored assertiveness training instead of equal pay legislation. It'd still be a big stupid government program, so maybe it'll still make liberals happy.
"No, you're totally qualified, it's just that a gi really isn't what we meant
by business casual...also, we were looking for someone a little more, you know...hot."
*For a fun filled counterpoint, please see my previous post, 12 y/o Girls Shatter Glass Ceiling!
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