Wage Gap - Tumblr Posts
I hate the world we live in.
Thin privilege is better pay, particularly if you're a woman.
Thin women are paid more than fat women -- tens of thousands more by some estimates. This means thin women are valued as if they had more years of education and experience than fat women. To be at parity wages with thin women, fat women need to be much more educated (almost two years more education than thin women) and experienced (about three years more experience than thin women).
Researchers trying to determine why, have discovered that fat women are more likely to work in physical jobs and less likely to work in public-facing jobs than thin women. Public-facing jobs are generally better paid. Discrimination against fat women in public-facing jobs, like upper management and performance and waitressing and modeling and sales, could be the reason fat women on average make so much less than thinner women.
The most pay on average nets to relatively thinner women--about a 22 on the outmoded BMI scale.
Finally, take a gander at this absolutely devastating graph that shows a significant negative relationship between BMI/body fat and income for women from the St Louis Fed (2011):
This is thin privilege---massive, obvious, thin privilege.
-ATL
Free Pass!
Hello hello and welcome to this week’s six sentence story based on the word PASS, only a little later. This one tells the story of Lana, who is a bit of a pushover, until she has been pushed over the edge, and decides to do as she is told. I Lana had been kind, patient, reasonable, and found that in return for her efforts she was paid less than the new male intern despite having been there for…
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Eat the rich.
The gender wage gap: common “objections”.
LAST EDIT: Aug. 10th 2017 (fixed some dead links, added info on the devaluation of women’s work)
“There is no gender pay gap.”
Wrong. The gender wage gap exists. Next.
“But they’re comparing the average pay of ALL female workers with the average pay of ALL male workers!”
Yes, it’s written in every single study that refers to the “gender wage gap”. We know that since the beginning. Tell us something we don’t already know.
“But you’re comparing different jobs!”
Have you asked yourself why women choose different jobs than men? It’s due to both social expectations - aka rigid gender roles - and harassment that men level against women who dare to work in “male” jobfields. Here’s some examples of harassment against women in mining, firefighting, and the Army.
“Women choose less remunerative jobs. That’s why, as a whole, they’re paid less than men.”
It would be more appropriate to say that jobs that are dominated by women are considered less prestigious, and thus are paid less. Look at Russian doctors - they are as qualified as UK and USA doctors, but while the latter two are mostly male and are one of the most prestigious professions in their countries, the former is mostly made up by women and it’s one of the lowest-paid jobs in Russia. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Another example: nursing! A job dominated by women, not very prestigious. Then men started pourig in, and the wages began to raise. Oh, and a gender wage gap formed - in favor of men, of course. And it’s not the only example - the same thing happened in women-dominated fields such as administrative assistant, teacher, and babysitters. In fact, literally EVERY SINGLE workfield that became female-dominated in the USA lost prestige and wages. No, it’s not that women are attracted to lower-paying jobs - the study actually tested for that explanation, and they found it unsupported by the evidence.
When every choice women make is turned into the “wrong” one, you can’t blame women for making the “wrong” choice.
(By the way, the reverse phenomenon - jobs that become male-dominated and thus seen as “masculine” gain prestige and wages? Also true. Just look at computer programming. Or at film screenwriting and editing.)
“Men are paid more because they do dangerous jobs.”
Wrong. Jobs associated with higher personal danger are NOT paid more, and the market gives a quite low compensation for job-related injuries.
“But wait! Women get pregnant! That means they have to take maternity leave! That means that they can’t work as much as men! So OF COURSE they’ll make less lifetime money than men!”
Wrong. Mothers are penalized in comparison to non-mother women, even if they both have the same qualifications and efficiency. Mothers are paid less, hired less often, promoted less often, and believed to be less competent than non-mothers.
Also: there’s no “fatherhood penalty”. In fact, fathers tend to be advantaged towards non-fathers.
“But if you compare women and men that do the EXACT SAME job, with the EXACT SAME qualification, for the EXACT SAME amout of hours, and with the EXACT SAME efficency-”
…You’d STILL have a 7% difference that cannot be explained by your objections. And that’s just for discriminations about wage, nevermind hiring (here’s two studies - thanks Bogleech!) and promotions, which DO contribute a lot to how much money a person makes in their lifetime.
“Do you know that it’s ILLEGAL to pay women less for the same work as men? Therefore, the gender pay gap doesn’t exist!”
Do you know that it’s ILLEGAL to give women lighter sentences for the same crimes as men? Therefore, the sentencing bias doesn’t exist! </sarcasm> (Incidentally, it’s male judges who are biased in favor of women - female judges are perfectly fair. So much for your “Feminist women are demonizing men!” rethoric.)
“But if women are REALLY paid 78 cents for every dollar a man makes, wouldn’t industries only employ women? Checkmate feminists!”
Wrong. Re-read the points above - a LOT of the gender wage gap comes from women being pushed out of lucrative careers and jobfields, be it because they’re expected to be the parents who stay at home and raise the child, therefore the hisbands have no intention whatsoever to put their careers off; because they’re pushed away from “male” jobfields, via social pressure and harassment; and because “female” jobfields are considered less prestigious than “male” ones, and thus paid less.
The remaining part is connected to that last point - there’s various misogynistic beliefs that consider women, and everything perceived to be “feminine”, to be “lesser”. That includes considering women less competent than men, even if they have the same qualifications, thus paying them less and hiring them less - or, in the case of “male-only” fields, not hire them at all. After all, why would you want weak (feeeeeeemale) workers?
“Well, it’s their fault for not asking to be paid the same as men!”
Wrong. When men try to negotiate their salary, they’re seen as intrapendent; when women try to do the same, they’re seen as arrogant. And this is not just anecdotal knowledge - research backs this up. So, basically, women are damned either way.