Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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Study: Blame the Patriarchy for Your Individual Choices!
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Posted by:
Mary Katharine Ham at
11:41 AM
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Darleen picks apart an AP story about the dreaded pay gap, and shares this brilliant proposal, which comes to us courtesy of the American Association of University Women: The American Assn. of University Women is backing two bills before Congress that would require equal pay for comparable but not identical jobs, and eliminate provisions allowing some employers to discipline workers who discuss their wages with co-workers. That means, because women disproportionately choose teaching and counseling degrees over mathematics and engineering degrees, that Congress should mandate that teaching and counseling jobs pay as much as engineering jobs without regard to the free market. Incidentally, I'm proposing a bill that would mandate that bloggers be paid as much as brain surgeons, despite the fact that I didn't incur any debt attending 10 years of school and that the practice of blogging carries with it considerably less risk of being sued for lopping off someone's cortexian-lobal-type area and, with it, their short-term memory. Because, you know, just because I chose to be a blogger instead of a brain surgeon, that's no reason for this woman to be earning less than her male peers in "comparable but not identical jobs." Freakin' patriarchy.
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Now you've done a great job linking to someone else's article, and then you've done an excellent job taking what was written in the article as fact without doing any independent research.
However that description of the bills "require equal pay for comparable but not identical jobs" which she quotes and the attacks is not a very accurate description of the bill.
If you'd like to actually learn about the bill which has been proposed you can find out all about it and read it here
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s108-841
They have a summary of the bill as well as the full bill text.
No where in the bill does it in any way "mandate" or even suggest that teachers and counselors should recieve the same pay as scientists or engineers.
Darleen took a poorly worded quote from an article written in the Baltimore Sun and then you have both decided to judge the bill based on this one sentence.
I think most of your and Darleen's readers expect better. |
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dskerman's link is obsolete. Instead of her link, use:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s110-1087
Mary Katherine Ham's description of the bill is only very slightly exaggerated. S.1087 is another lawyer and bureaucrat full employment act. Who decides what "equivalent" means? S.1087 supporters are scheming to resurrect the widely discredited feminist campaign for jobs of "comparable worth" that a free market does not consider to be of comparable worth at all.
(There is an alternative to the free market. It's the slave market. --Angelique Michelin)
I recommend Dr. Warren Farrell's carefully researched book Why Men Earn More to anyone who wishes to see a clearly written and well documented refutation of the American Assoc. of University Feminist Women and their lackey, Sen. Harkin.
Anyone can see for themselves that men are the underpaid group in most jobs. Try this simple thought experiment Dr. Farrell proposed in one of his earlier books: Consider how much the wages of jobs in, say, the homebuilding trades would have to soar until they reached a level at which half the people willing to apply for those jobs are women.
Here's my own test for showing men are underpaid in most jobs: Think about the increased costs employers would have to bear in order to get the job-caused injury and death rates of men to fall to the level of women's. (Men suffer on-the-job death and injury at rates several times that of women -- even in identical jobs and even in occupations thought "safe" such as office work.)
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Teachers are totally underpaid. They make an average of 40000 per year for 9 months of work at 7 hours per day. Which works out to about 30 dollars an hour. Must be tough. |
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jessicalange,
Obviously, if public school teachers were "professionals," they wouldn't join those socialist thug unions, and work so hard to protect the laziest and most incompetent in their ranks from dismissal. I have less respect for the teachers unions than I have for telemarketers. Telemarketers do a lot less damage to the young of America.
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MKH,
You wrote;
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"Because, you know, just because I chose to be a blogger instead of a brain surgeon..."
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M-Kat, in a tangential sort of way, I see you as performing the work of a brain surgeon.
After all, you surgically pick apart left-wing brains on a daily basis.
If you're ever served with papers from a plaintiff being represented by Johnny $400 Haircut, then you'll "know" for sure that you're a brain surgeon.
After all, Edwards' career has been made on doing nothing other than suing health care providers.
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Just bash away at teachers. Gee wiz! I cannot believe that some believe that we all work nine months a year, seven hours a day.
I cannot speak for all teachers, but this one works well over seven hours a day on average, and I work on Saturdays and Sundays to get papers graded, IEPs written, parents contacted, paperwork completed, etc. I happily give up my planning period and/or lunch period to give extra help to those who need it. I stay late at school, and if I am not in a meeting, the students who need extra help are my top priority. When teaching is done correctly, we earn every penny plus, and the fact that some begrudge us of our pay is unbelievable. |
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The free market works exactly as intended, and we all know what happens when "the government comes to help." MKH, thanks for blogging about this. |
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Dottie,
Tell me all the things you're doing to eliminate the public school monopoly on education funds, and then I'll tell you what a good job you're doing. Not before. Right now we have an entrepreneurial nation with a collective-farm style government school system. It's pathetic, and obviously doesn't get the job done for most kids. Anybody who defends it is part of the problem. Like someone said twenty years ago, if some foreign nation had designed our current public school system, we would've considered it an act of sabotage.
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I have heard that teachers are threatened in subtle ways if they dare go up against the all hallowed teacher's union. One teacher told me that each person's political affiliation was public knowledge within her school, and teacher's who did not participate in union activites (like walk-outs,board meeting demonstrations, etc.) were pressured to be quiet or else. I was upset when teachers in one of my son's schools were threatening a strike and they were all wearing large pro-union buttons or special colored shirts every day, using the classroom (and the kids!) as their political arena. I told one teacher that union activities DO NOT belong in the classroom. This past month or so when the union was arguing about another issue they had businesses in town put up large signs that said, "This Business Supports (name of city) Teachers." Once again, inappropriate (my opinion.)Until a majority of teachers tell union powers to be that they DO NOT want union representation (and can refuse to pay dues?) I do not think there will be much change. Charter schools are at least a start, but not enough to break the monopoly (although I do not think all charter schools are necessarily anti-union.) |
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such as "teachers" and "activities." |
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I taught mathematics at a large university for over a year. I have two issues with the opinions given above. First, I have to side with Dottie regarding the rigors of teaching. I found myself working twelve hour days, staying in the office till all hours responding to student requests and tutoring. Based on my own experience, I think Dottie and many other teachers work very, very hard. It is an exhausting (and personally rewarding) occupation. Nonetheless, Dottie and others like her could easily choose another profession. Moreover, the power of the NEA and other teacher's organizations increases the opportunity costs of remaining a teacher. The whole profession pays, literally, for the sheer incompetence of the few. I refuse to teach high school mathematics because of unions.
My second issue is with the characterization of women vis-a-vis mathematics and engineering studies. In my experience, the most pressing issue facing young women interested in science is mathematical literacy. I took a special interest in the young women in my classes who showed a sincere interest in learning mathematics. What I found is that I usually had to patiently lead them by the hand back to a period in their life at which they convinced themselves that one failure to understand a mathematical concept meant they were doomed. Once I accomplished this- and I didn't every time- I could literally see a light go off in their eyes. But it didn't end there. I had to nurse this spark to a flame. I recall specifically one young lady who had probably an eigth grade understanding of math. Once I convinced her to regress- to start over, basically, with numbers and simple division- she became relentless. I'll never forget the day she came into my office hours holding up her triumph- an excellent mark on her final exam!
The truth about women and mathematics is probably more complex than it seems. Now, as the father of a nine year old daughter who works very hard to get A's on her math exams (she came home with her first straight A's a few weeks ago), I wonder whether girls aren't more social at a yound age, prone to peer pressure and low self worth. Mathematics, as anyone who has studied it will tell you, is a cold mistress. I often spent six hours as an undergraduate doing a single differential equation. The utter joy of solving a difficult problem is tantamount to finishing a race without knowing its length. Suddenly you are there! Girls must be instilled with courage and tenacious sense of self-worth (not esteem)to shine in mathematics.
Madame Curie won the Nobel Prize twice in physics. One wall of every math class should bear her picture. |
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Excellent points! I do agree that many, many teachers work hard for their students. My children have had the fortune to have several, but they have also had way too many of the "bad apples" as well. Unfortunately the union still has way too much power and influence to my liking.
Congratulations to your daughter for her grades! I do believe you are onto something with the math and girls at a certain age. Once I got into high school and "got lost" in math that was it. I thought for sure that I could never succeed at math. I got the opportunity to "do math again" with my kids (helping with homework was really helping me!)and I realized in my 40's that I was not as dumb in math as I had thought I was. |
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"That means, because women disproportionately choose teaching and counseling degrees over mathematics and engineering degrees, that Congress should mandate that teaching and counseling jobs pay as much as engineering jobs without regard to the free market."
Did you think We would not be able to figure it out...thanks for the condescending explanation..."but i dont feel noways tahred..." |
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are like boys and writing. While girls may get frustrated at math, and kudos to you for helping them, boys are similarly discouraged when it comes to writing. Unfortunately, most teachers do not care about boys. While boys score slightly higher in math on the SATs, girls out perform boys at every level of schooling, every subject. The sad thing is, we are still obsessed with helping girls, when it is boys who need the extra attention.
Why can't we help BOTH without it being a contest?
Likely because victimology 101 is feminists favorite hobby, and admitting women have it fine will wreck their platform. 93% workplace deaths are men-I do not see feminism screaming for equality on THAT front.
Bah, I just get sick of it. The problem is, my two sons are bearing the brunt of it all, as are all our sons. |
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Personally, I do not care what you think of me, nor do I need your kudos. I just wish that people like you would stop generalizing when it comes to teachers.
I support school choice and my younger children attend a local parochial school. However, I am more concerned with teaching and working with students than I am the political aspects. If dedicated teachers get into a snit and leave because unions are powerful, where does that leave the students?
My school district works very hard to hire the most qualified candidates, rigorously evaluates teachers, encourages advanced degrees, and supports the teaching staff. Teachers who are not doing an adequate job are placed under remediation, and those who do not improve will not be teaching in this district. The administration and the union actually work together to try to benefit the students.
To those who do not attend school board meetings, offer suggestions, write letters, etc to improve your local school systems, I implore you to get involved. Parents and other community members working with the schools will only serve to help students! |
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Likely one of the most horrible things about the income tax is the information the government has about each and every American worker. Imagine a country where no one knew what you made unless you told them.
similarly government intrusion into labor and income laws not only is intrusive but much worse, it stifles labor and business never done because of labor, tax, and regulatory law. Min wage simply means that work worth less is not done. look outside, so much needs to be done, we have the money, but it is not allowed. this ripples into everyone's standard of living through fewer services, higher prices, and a devalued currency. imagine how many companies never open never hire simply because the rules of government make it un-economic.
we need a seperation of church and state, we also need a seperation of economics and state.
then please proceed to erase every mention of race or gender from our lawbooks. making racism and discrimination illegal has not helped. it would be much better if instead of illegal, we simply declared it stupid. it would open dialogue, and expose the stupidity and irrationality of racism and sexism. the idea of treating someone different because of color or gender is repugnant enough without make work for lawyer legislation.
where is the candidate for fewer laws. bastante already!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This reminds me of when I was a grade school kid playing marbles. Maybe some of you even experienced this. Several of you would be playing marbles with say 50 marbles in the big circle in the dirt. Someone would suddenly yell "grad dates", which meant there was a mad scramble with elbows flying and shoving to see who could get the most marbles. The end results was often the one with the most marbles in the circle ended up losing some, in the end.
This is like this. These otherwise, probably intelligent people want everyone to put their marbles (i.e. earnings) in a circle (pot?), except there will be no true "grab dates". These marbles will be distributed equally even though many people contributed more than others. Sound like communism to me; i.e., redistribution of earning and wealth! But what do I know! :-) |
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