... in response to Article about wages between gender, posted by stefang on Mar 7, 2005This guy has very good points.One of the big reason women earn less is they choose jobs,like being a secretary,that pay less.
Probably the second biggest reason is they interupt their carreers to have kids.
But back when this issue first came up in the 70's there was another reason.Alot of traditional male jobs tended to be UNION jobs which paid way out of proportion to what alot of other people make.But then,women could select those jobs,and alot did.But some were physically hard and lots of women said no thank you,not me.
I have seen some incredible exaples of unofficial affirmative action in my public srvice carrer,upper level jobs where there was no requirement but huge pressure to promote women or minorities.One woman I knew went way beyond alot of people of equal or supperior talent.Because she was a woman?Yup.So if a woman picks her spot carefully she can do alot better than a guy.
My Colombiana girl friend made a choice that probably didn't help her,but the others might be poor for a woman also.She is a RN,5 years of college,16 years experience,makes 600,000 pesos, about $270 a month.For 48 hours a week,2 weeks vacation a year.Seems there had to be better choices than that.But she went for a job females choose alot.Some RN's can't even get a job here.
But Colombia is tough,so its hard for me to judge.
Pete
