The reason the wage gap appears to have closed in that demographic could be due to several factors, like the fact that women predominantly hold low wage jobs in urban areas. Now that men are out of work (from their higher paying, service and blue collar jobs) for now, it appears as though the wage gap has closed. The problem is, nobody in this economy is making money and many women have retained their lower paid jobs. As the market shifts and new jobs appear in different sectors, it will be interesting to see what happens to the gap. Remember more men lost their jobs than women. Those men that lost their jobs were most likely making more money than their female counterparts. Also, the article looked at a very specific segment of society. We don’t know too much about the segment studied. Add in women with children and families and story may be vastly different. Many women do take on jobs that allow for more flexibility and are less risky and perhaps, overall, they work about one hour less than men. This study doesn’t acknowledge the “second shift” which is something that most working women in relationships with children have to contend with. The study also looked at younger people who are most likely at the beginning of their careers, which neglects to acknowledge advancement and the glass ceiling which still exists. One other major oversight is that urban dwellers tend to be overwhelmingly minorities and the wage gap isn’t as wide when comparing minority men and women to begin with. I would like to see the breakdown of the statistics this article was derived from. The story might be very different once you start looking at intersections of the community and how the study was broken down. I wish that was the world for everybody. Obviously I want to see everyone doing well, men and women, but we can’t start manipulating statistics and ignoring issues in the hopes that real issues will just go away. We need to be honest or we will never make any real change that supports everyone.
It makes sense because men are "the choosing one" for tough jobs so these men deserve tough pay.
ReplyDeleteThe reason the wage gap appears to have closed in that demographic could be due to several factors, like the fact that women predominantly hold low wage jobs in urban areas. Now that men are out of work (from their higher paying, service and blue collar jobs) for now, it appears as though the wage gap has closed. The problem is, nobody in this economy is making money and many women have retained their lower paid jobs. As the market shifts and new jobs appear in different sectors, it will be interesting to see what happens to the gap. Remember more men lost their jobs than women. Those men that lost their jobs were most likely making more money than their female counterparts. Also, the article looked at a very specific segment of society. We don’t know too much about the segment studied. Add in women with children and families and story may be vastly different. Many women do take on jobs that allow for more flexibility and are less risky and perhaps, overall, they work about one hour less than men. This study doesn’t acknowledge the “second shift” which is something that most working women in relationships with children have to contend with. The study also looked at younger people who are most likely at the beginning of their careers, which neglects to acknowledge advancement and the glass ceiling which still exists. One other major oversight is that urban dwellers tend to be overwhelmingly minorities and the wage gap isn’t as wide when comparing minority men and women to begin with. I would like to see the breakdown of the statistics this article was derived from. The story might be very different once you start looking at intersections of the community and how the study was broken down. I wish that was the world for everybody. Obviously I want to see everyone doing well, men and women, but we can’t start manipulating statistics and ignoring issues in the hopes that real issues will just go away. We need to be honest or we will never make any real change that supports everyone.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree, Bhava. Stats are so easy to manipulate, and you always have to look at the how and why aspect.
ReplyDelete