Vault101 said:
since when does a guy who works in a ware house/drives a forklift make more than some high powered exectuive....how is a guy who works in an office going to die?
Im still not getting your reasoning, see to me its got nothing to do with the drive to make money, heres how I see it
how does one die in a workplace?
if he is doing dangerus things..what are dangerous things? well machinery, tools, chemicals abd such can be dangerous...if youre not careful and if you have accidents
who is MORE LIKLEY to work with such things? MEN...why is this? I think because they are more inclined that way..they are more physically able
Okay, since i already posted a study explaining all of this im going to assume it just went over your head so im gonna try and break this down into bite sized segments showing the problems with our typical workplaces.
Person A is in the lowest bracket of education lets say hes a forklift operator.
Person B is in the lowest bracket of education lets say she is a secretary.
Person A will make more money than person B while person B has a safer more comfortable work environment. Typically Person A's job is staffed by men while Person B's job is staffed by women. So pay gap explained by men accepting more danger.
Another example is say community college educated people.
Person A becomes an electrician.
Person B becomes a nurse.
Again since more men are electricians and more women are nurses and electricians work in more dangerous less comfortable environments men earn more than women.
Lets look at the university level.
Person A is an electrical engineer
Person B is an English major.
Now despite most universities having affirmative action policies that demand a variety of benefits including, lower requirements for women, special tutelage, preferential placement for women or spots specifically reserved for women, lower tuition/scholarships/free admission for women, separate grading curves so they don't have to compete with men, engineering is still a heavily male dominated field, and its one of the highest paying. Whereas women tend to dominate in things like arts degrees and, and a masters in english is probably not going to land you a six figure salary. This is an instance where personal choice dictates the wage gap.
Now lets look at doctors.
Doctor A is a surgeon.
Doctor B is a pediatrician.
Pediatrics is divided almost equally between the sexes while less than 20% of surgeons are women. Surgeons make more because they perform a high stress delicate life or death operations, while pediatricians generally stay open for business hours and treat minor issues. Men are taking harder jobs in order to earn more money.
This does not mean that a forklift operator will make more than a pediatrician, simply that at virtually every level women choose quality of life and men choose money. However there is a strong voice saying women should make the same amount as men while ignoring these differences. What their argument boils down to is that women think they should be able to earn as much for doing less work and working in safer environments. You see if a man is more likely to die at work that's his choice but if a woman earns less that's sexism.
dickywebster said:
As for everyday life, it does depend, sometimes its easier to be one sex, sometimes the other.
This is very true, you can't break this down to what sex has what worse without making other qualifiers. However we tend to ignore the mechanics of womens problems (and mens problems in general).
dickywebster said:
In some areas its the same if not worse, some it has had the tables turned, but i think it balances out to be fairer but still in the favour of men, dont believe me? Do and look up the numbers for people running countries or big corps, more women than before, but still majority of men.
Does the fact that the last winner of the Indy 500 was a white male mean that I am more likely to win it next year than say, a Hispanic woman? Or are the odds of that determined largely by the likelihood that we will try?
Typically in the western world women have a much higher likelihood of getting elected if they run than men, but since so few do run they still make up a small minority. Its not a matter of institutional sexism, but rather a lack of ambition by women.
Its largely the same in the business world, typically women have other priorities and aren't willing to make the sacrifices that it takes to get to the top.