Double Standards

Here’s some interesting news I read in the emStar Tribune./em In big cities, it seems that a href=”http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1341273.html”women’s paychecks are outpacing men’s:/abr /br /blockquoteThe study by Queens College demographer Andrew A. Beveridge shows that all women from ages 21 to 30 living in New York City and working full time made 117 percent of men’s wages, or a median wage of $35,653, and even more in Dallas, 120 percent. Nationwide, that group of women made much less: 89 percent of the average full-time pay for men. The findings were first reported in Gotham Gazette, published online by the Citizens Union Foundation. /blockquotebr /br /a href=”http://www.startribune.com/484/story/1341273.html”The bad news for men?/a br /br /blockquoteThough the analysis showed women making strides, it also showed that men were in some ways moving backward. Among all men — including those with college degrees — real wages, adjusted for inflation, have declined since 1970. And among full-time workers with advanced degrees, wages for men increased only marginally even as they soared for women. Nationally, men’s wages in general declined while women’s remained the same./blockquotebr /br /The article quickly puts a kibosh on the good news for women by stating: br /br /blockquoteTypically, women have fallen further behind men in earnings as they get older. That is because some women stop working altogether, work only part time or encounter a glass ceiling in promotions and raises./blockquotebr /br /Well, if you stop working or work only part time, of course you don’t make as much money–duh. What I find amusing or ridiculous–take your pick–is that many women’s groups think women should make as much as men even if they have a family, don’t work or work part-time. This is nothing but a sense of entitlement. And if women are single and working full time in the cities, then decide to have a family and move to small towns and work part-time or not at all, of course their wages will go down. That is called a trade-off, not necessarily discrimination.br /br /If men’s wages are declining, is this ever called discrimination? No, of couse not. Does anyone care about the reasons that men’s wages declined while women’s stayed the same? No, probably not. What I find interesting or perhaps hypocritical is that if women earn more than men, the reasons given are justified–smugly, women are seen as go-getters who have advanced degrees with the gumption to move to the big city to avoid the country bumpkins. But if men earn more, it is often because of rampant gender discrimation and not because of particular circumstances that would cause one to earn more such as working harder and longer hours, going where the opportunities are ripe etc. If women start to pull away from men in the earning department, I wonder if we will see any interest in helping men to increase their earnings? I won’t hold my breath.