A Few Links to Dispel Conservative Myths Part Nineteen: Gender Inequality

2022 will long be remembered as the year when American women lost their constitutional right to control their own reproduction. This blog series is overdue to discuss the fight for women's equality, because it's another subject where conservatives believe a lot of things that just ain't so. Diving right in:

Myth: The gender pay gay and the "glass ceiling" do not exist.
From Forbes magazine: "There are many media reports of a gender gap, often claiming that women are paid only about 80% of what men are paid. But that number is comparing the total amount of salary paid to men and to women in this country. It does not take into account such crucial factors as profession, qualifications, type of employer, seniority, hours worked or many other things that go into deciding compensation. When these basic factors are taken into account, the gender pay gap vastly decreases."

Fact: The Forbes author is partially wrong, and what he says that is not wrong is grossly misleading.

According to the Department of Labor: Women earn less than men in nearly all occupations. There are only a handful of occupations where women earn slightly more than their male counterparts, such as health care social workers. Furthermore, "Women are more likely than men to be employed in professional and related occupations, according to a 2019 BLS report. Within the professional category, however, the proportion of women in higher paying jobs is much smaller than that of men."

And an interesting thing about the Forbes quote. It lists "seniority" as one of the reasons men make more money than women. Well, yes. Time for: Some relevant stats on the glass ceiling: Employers overall promote 8.9% of their employees annually, with an average wage increase of 17.4%. Among them, women tend to receive promotions earlier in their careers than men, with an average of 6.6 years into their working life for women as compared to 7.3 for men. Women also women tend to stay with one company longer than men, and employees are more than 20% more likely to get promoted to management positions from within. However, things start to change as women move up the org chart. There’s a steep drop-off at the fourth level of management, as women only represent 23% of executives. Among the top brass or sixth level, women comprise only 15%.

 

A McKinsey study shows that a "broken rung at the first step up to manager is holding women back. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to manager positions, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are promoted. As a result, men significantly outnumber women at the manager level, and women can never catch up. There are simply too few women to promote to senior leadership positions."

 

Myth: Women want greater equality with men but reject the responsibilities that would accompany that equality. Examples: The military has lowered its standards for women to get the same jobs as men. Women still expect men to pay for dates.

Fact: The above are things repeatedly said to me on social media. The military has not lowered its  physical standards as it has opened combat jobs to women.

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the "But women want men to pay for dates" thing. First of all, what evidence there is suggests that women who expect a man to pay for a first date are in the minority. Second, even if some women do expect a man to pay for a first date, I don't think that alone justifies the patriarchy in the United States. Call me crazy if you want.

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