I'm reading
The Cost of Being Female by Sue Headlee and Margery Elfin
It seems that everyone knows that women get paid less than men while doing the same jobs, yet the powers that be don't seem very alarmed by it. Or at least they're not in a hurry to do anything about it. Headlee and Elfin show that being female can make you lose out on a lot. Being a female can cause you to NOT get hired, it can get you fired (should you get pregnant or sexually harassed), it can make you lose out on a promotion. And there's nothing you can do about it.
Remember the Betty Dukes vs. Wal-mart class action suit? Dukes worked for Wal-mart for six years before it became apparent that she wouldn't be considered for promotions like her male co-workers. So she sued. That was in 2000. A million women joined Dukes in her class action suit, citing that they too had been held back and discriminated against because of their gender. The case went to the Supreme court and was held up for 11 years because of Wal-mart's stall tactics. In the end the women lost.Why? According to The New Yorker article I read last year the plaintiffs' evidence was " “worlds away from ‘significant proof’ that Wal-Mart ‘operated under a general policy of discrimination.’ ”
Where does the attitude that a woman's work cannot be as valuable as a man's? Headlee and Elfin say that the idea is a very old one. "In Leviticus [27:1-4], the Bible says that women should be paid two-third of what men are paid. (xxii Headlee and Elfin). I don't want to get to deep in the patriarchy that is organized religion, but that's a really archaic idea to cling to. According to the Gender Wage Gap's finding in 2009, women were paid 77cents on the dollar.
Do you know what a woman can do with extra 23 cents? She could take care of basics like feeding and clothing her family. In a world where two paychecks have to keep a household afloat, women and men should demand the rest of their dollar.
If you were male lawyer in a firm with female lawyers, who received a similar education, worked on the same cases, and worked towards the same promotions, you'd think something were up if you never got opportunities to advance, right? You would feel worst if you found out you weren't even getting paid the same as those lady lawyers. Your school loans, your bills, your children's well being are all being put on the back burner because you have a penis. Sounds shitty, doesn't it?
No comments:
Post a Comment