Comments by "cchris874" (@cchris874) on "LastWeekTonight"
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+JamesHLanier Not if the reason for the gap has nothing to do with sexism or arbitrary discrimination.
I see at least three different ideologies at work in such a rigid position.
1) That sexism explains all or most of the wage gap. You need to back this up with evidence. It's not self evident unless one uncritically accepts what one hears stated repeatedly over and over by feminists and the media, indeed by virtually everyone it seems. I've already started the ball rolling with my post above. If you want tho seriously debate this, I'm certainly open to that.
2) Statistical disparities are always the result of injustice. This is taken as given by many feminists and liberal/socialitsts. Yet statistical disparities have been the norm throughout history, even when no forces of oppression were present. Some examples include West Indian blacks, who earn about 30% more than African Americans. Or take the Jews. In many different countries, they are among the top income earners. The same has been true of the Chinese minority populations in southeast asian countries. The latter in particular cannot be explained by racism, as the local governments have often reacted by policies which favor the local populations.
3) The assumption that income is the definitive standard for injustice. To me, that's a sexist assumption. One reason men may earn more than women, has tho do with what they value: competition, hierarchy, power and money may be higher up on the list of priorities for many men than for women. For example, the very highest income brackets, often require long work weeks of 50-60 hours. For many men, these sacrifices are well worth the price as the benefit is higher social status. For many women, money, power, greed and social status are less important than having this thing called a life, more time to enjoy the results of their income with friends and families. Are women saying no to the highest paying jobs sexist? To say yes is to endorse hierarchy, power, money and greed as norms for society, and that women should follow suit and be just as greedy as men. I'm not buying it. cheers
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+JamesHLanier Thank you for your reply.
"The wage gap is relevant though because the cause is sexism." I don't think it's that simple. For example, from wiki:
" The raw wage gap data shows that a woman would earn roughly 73.7% to 77% of what a man would earn over their lifetime. However, when controllable variables are accounted for, such as job position, total hours worked, number of children, and the frequency at which unpaid leave is taken, in addition to other factors, a U.S. Department of Labor study, conducted by the CONSAD Research Group, found in 2008 that the gap can be brought down from 23% to between 4.8% and 7.1%"
The wage gap is also largely explained by marriage. Single men and women w/o children shows a much smaller income difference, leading economist Thomas Sowell to state the real wage gap is between "married women and everyone else."
So if sexism does play a major role, it's not necessarily in the form of employer discrimination.
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+JamesHLanier --
Wikipedia: for sources, go to article below and click on the footnotes:
"In the United States, the average female's unadjusted annual salary has been cited as 78% of that of the average male.[6] However, multiple studies from OECD, AAUW, and the US Department of Labor have found that pay rates between males and females varied by 5-6.6% or, females earning 94 cents to every dollar earned by their male counterparts, when wages were adjusted to different individual choices made by male and female workers in college major, occupation, working hours, and maternal leave. The remaining 6% of the gap has been speculated to originate from deficiency in salary negotiating skills and sexual discrimination.[7][8][9][10] In the UK, the gender pay gap has continued to close and as of 2012, the gap officially dropped below 10% for full-time workers.[11][12] The gender pay gap can also be viewed as a generational sliding scale with females between 55-65 with the largest disparity (18%) and females between the ages of 25-35 with the smallest disparity (6%).[13]"
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