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From: ziegler@lzmi.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Sexism in insurance prices
Message-ID: <224@lzmi.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-May-84 14:55:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: lzmi.224
Posted: Thu May 24 14:55:32 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 30-May-84 09:12:42 EDT
References: <1129@ihuxl.UUCP>, <149@looking.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft, NJ
Lines: 42

Brad Templeton dares us all to find a major distinction between sexism
(as in men getting higher pay for the same work) and actuarialism (as in
men paying higher auto insurance).  He feels that statistics show that
women in general are not as educated or successful in professions as
men, just as they show that men are less careful behind the wheel.

First of all, let us not cloud the issue.  Women should get equal pay
for equal work.  This has absolutely nothing to do with automobile
insurance.  Flaming about your car insurance rates is counterproductive
in net.women.  If you don't like the way your insurance company sets its
rates, write a letter to your state government - it's their fault - but
don't release your frustration by using this as an argument to justify
underpaying half of the human race.  By the way, I didn't see any
articles by women "defending" insurance companies, as you suggested they
had.  I did see a few mentioning that it would be foolish to complain
about a favorable arrangement, which is irrefutable.

Now for the difference.  You say that women are, in general, less
educated than men.  I'll assume that you're right, since an argument
about where the figure came from is boring.  This statistic has
absolutely nothing to do with how productive a woman is within a
corporation, since those women who do get into professional fields are
likely to be those who are educated at least to the level of the men in
the organization, if not higher.  Anyone have any statistics on that?

As for women being less successful than men, I'd say that this is an
effect of sexism, not a justification for it.  I don't think I need to
go into any more detail on that one.

If you can show me a statistic that shows that women really do less work
than men in the same jobs, then I'd agree that women should on the
average be paid less.  That is, if you can show that the decreased
productivity is not a result of sexism :-) (well, only half kidding).

The above opinions are my own, and happen to correspond with the
official policy of the company I work for.

		Joe Ziegler
		{ihnp4, hogpc}!pegasus!lzmi!ziegler
		AT&T Information Systems
		Lincroft, New Jersey
		(201) 576-7905