28 June 2008

Gender - yes to me this includes both genders and to even out the persistent 'gender=women and feminism' idea I am probably going to write more about men than women.

First thing to note is that I am soo frustrated at this broad acceptance of the idea that because overall all mens' salaries added together add up to more that all womens' salaries added together that this means that for the same job men are paid more - it just isn't the case - there is unfairness all over the shop but that unfairness is equally spread. The fact is that women choose routes into work that have more non-monetary benefits (flexibility, length of hours, proximity to home, less danger, shorter qualification routes in, lower stress) which means they are concentrated in jobs that pay no compensation for the opposite of these.  Men on the other hand are much more likely to sacrifice comfort, safety, tiredness for money  - and so get paid more. 

The current Labour government in the UK has been blinded by the big brush figure (no doubt because any opposition to it is seen as 'sexist')  into thinking that we are in a country where when there are two people doing the same job the women is always paid less.  This is a bit like saying that when two people are the same age the woman is older because on average women live longer.  Its ridiculous yet we have a government who are making policy on the back of it.

I wonder if male models will be able to sue newspapers for not a) employing as many men and b) paying less to men than women?  Wonder if Amy Whinehouse will get sued by Pete Doherty  - two singers, two tabloid 'stars' Pete with lower pay.?

It ridiculous when people are doing differerent jobs at different levels you expect them to get paid differently  - if you are on the one hand arguing that women aren't spread equally amongst the workforce, you can;t then say 'but we expect the pay to be the same anyway' what we need to do is force women to take the high stress high danger jobs equally as often as men and then the pay difference would equal out naturally - with men's salaries being reduced by the supply of labour in dangerous/stressful/long hours jobs by the influx of new, equally treated workers.