Astronomy
On Friday we posted a link to David Brooks' NYTimes opinion piece, Why Men Fail. A related opinion piece, The Myth of Male Decline, by Stephanie Coontz came out in the NYTimes on Saturday.
Below are excerpts of interest from The Myth of Male Decline:
On Wage Disparity
Women?s real wages have been rising for decades, while the real wages of most men have stagnated or fallen. But women?s wages started from a much lower base, artificially held down by discrimination. Despite their relative improvement, women?s average earnings are still lower than men?s and women remain more likely to be poor.
Today women make up almost 40 percent of full-time workers in management. But the median wages of female managers are just 73 percent of what male managers earn. And although women have significantly increased their representation among high earners in America over the past half-century, only 4 percent of the C.E.O.?s in Fortune?s top 1,000 companies are female.
On Skewed Studies
Proponents of the ?women as the richer sex? scenario often note that in several metropolitan areas, never-married childless women in their 20s now earn more, on average, than their male age-mates. But this is because of the demographic anomaly that such areas have exceptionally large percentages of highly educated single white women and young, poorly educated, low-wage Latino men. Earning more than a man with less education is not the same as earning as much as an equally educated man.
On Prejudice against Working Mothers
Once they have children, wives usually fall further behind their husbands in earnings, partly because they are more likely to temporarily quit work or cut back when workplace policies make it hard for both parents to work full time and still meet family obligations. But this also reflects prejudice against working mothers. A few years ago, researchers at Cornell constructed fake résumés, identical in all respects except parental status. They asked college students to evaluate the fitness of candidates for employment or promotion. Mothers were much less likely to be hired. If hired, they were offered, on average, $11,000 less in starting salary and were much less likely to be deemed deserving of promotion.
According to the N.Y.U. sociologist Paula England, a senior fellow at the Council on Contemporary Families, most women, despite earning higher grades, seem to be educating themselves for occupations that systematically pay less.
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Astronomy
NYTimes Opinion Piece: The Myth of Male Decline
On Friday we posted a link to David Brooks' NYTimes opinion piece, Why Men Fail. A related opinion piece, The Myth of Male Decline, by Stephanie Coontz came out in the NYTimes on Saturday.
Below are excerpts of interest from The Myth of Male Decline:
On Wage Disparity
Women?s real wages have been rising for decades, while the real wages of most men have stagnated or fallen. But women?s wages started from a much lower base, artificially held down by discrimination. Despite their relative improvement, women?s average earnings are still lower than men?s and women remain more likely to be poor.
Today women make up almost 40 percent of full-time workers in management. But the median wages of female managers are just 73 percent of what male managers earn. And although women have significantly increased their representation among high earners in America over the past half-century, only 4 percent of the C.E.O.?s in Fortune?s top 1,000 companies are female.
On Skewed Studies
Proponents of the ?women as the richer sex? scenario often note that in several metropolitan areas, never-married childless women in their 20s now earn more, on average, than their male age-mates. But this is because of the demographic anomaly that such areas have exceptionally large percentages of highly educated single white women and young, poorly educated, low-wage Latino men. Earning more than a man with less education is not the same as earning as much as an equally educated man.
On Prejudice against Working Mothers
Once they have children, wives usually fall further behind their husbands in earnings, partly because they are more likely to temporarily quit work or cut back when workplace policies make it hard for both parents to work full time and still meet family obligations. But this also reflects prejudice against working mothers. A few years ago, researchers at Cornell constructed fake résumés, identical in all respects except parental status. They asked college students to evaluate the fitness of candidates for employment or promotion. Mothers were much less likely to be hired. If hired, they were offered, on average, $11,000 less in starting salary and were much less likely to be deemed deserving of promotion.
According to the N.Y.U. sociologist Paula England, a senior fellow at the Council on Contemporary Families, most women, despite earning higher grades, seem to be educating themselves for occupations that systematically pay less.
On the Negative Impact of the Masculine Mystique
According to a 2011 poll by the Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Americans now believe that a college education is necessary for a woman to get ahead in life today, but only 68 percent think that is true for men. And just as the feminine mystique exposed girls to ridicule and harassment if they excelled at ?unladylike? activities like math or sports, the masculine mystique leads to bullying and ostracism of boys who engage in ?girlie? activities like studying hard and behaving well in school. One result is that men account for only 2 percent of kindergarten and preschool teachers, 3 percent of dental assistants and 9 percent of registered nurses.
The masculine mystique is institutionalized in work structures, according to three new studies forthcoming in the Journal of Social Issues. Just as women who display ?masculine? ambitions or behaviors on the job are often penalized, so are men who engage in traditionally female behaviors, like prioritizing family involvement. Men who take an active role in child care and housework at home are more likely than other men to be harassed at work.
Men who request family leave are often viewed as weak or uncompetitive and face a greater risk of being demoted or downsized. And men who have ever quit work for family reasons end up earning significantly less than other male employees, even when controlling for the effects of age, race, education, occupation, seniority and work hours.
- Ladybucks
If you're looking for talking points to confront our country's neanderthal stance towards equal pay for equal work, check out John Oliver's diatribe on Last Week Tonight. Zing zing. My favorite bit comes at 2min10sec into the clip... can't...
- Lessons From Women In Emerging Markets
I heard a fascinating story on the radio this morning, on gender equality in emerging markets. Naively, one might expect that women might be doing poorly in the business world in countries like Brazil, Russia, India, and China [BRIC], but that doesn't...
- Good Beach Reading: The Feminine Mystique
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan has been called the book that changed the consciousness of a country?and the world. Originally published in 1963, this trailblazing book that changed women?s lives is still just as relevant 50 years later. For...
- Top 5 Myths About Girls, Math, And Science
LiveScience debunks the top 5 myths about girls, math, and science: The days of sexist science teachers and Barbies chirping that "math class is tough!" are over, according to pop culture, but a government program aimed at bringing more women and girls...
- In ?geek Chic? And Obama, New Hope For Lifting Women In Science
The New York Times January 20, 2009 Basics In ?Geek Chic? and Obama, New Hope for Lifting Women in Science By NATALIE ANGIER With the inauguration of an administration avowedly committed to Science as the grand elixir for the nation?s economic, environmental...