Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!ut-sally!riddle From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics Subject: Comparable worth Message-ID: <2126@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Tue, 18-Jun-85 11:48:52 EDT Article-I.D.: ut-sally.2126 Posted: Tue Jun 18 11:48:52 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 20-Jun-85 20:58:37 EDT References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <8203@ucbvax.ARPA> <457@unc.UUCP> Reply-To: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills Lines: 25 Keywords: Re: Discrimination against women and statistics Xref: watmath net.women:5936 net.politics:9472 Worth-It: "Bob" >The fallacy of the equal-pay-for-equal-work idea is that it compares >only the paychecks and level of skill and training required. If we do not >also factor in the safety, pleasantness, and emotional effects of the job, >then this plan is likely to create more unfairness than it rectifies. Sorry, but I don't buy it. Many of the jobs which are de facto "women's work" are not only low-paying, but they are high-stress, low-satisfaction shit work as well. They include some of the worst examples of latter-day sweatshop labor -- everything from garment assembly to data entry. They also include plenty of jobs ("teacher, nurse, secretary, social worker") which ideally should be rewarding, cooperative jobs as you say but which in fact are often high-stress, highly competitive, terribly underrated and unrewarding burn-out jobs. (Talk to a few teachers and nurses about their job frustrations some time. While you're at it, ask the female ones about the treatment they receive from the male administrators and doctors they work under.) I'm afraid that the line about how "women are underpaid because they choose less ambitious lines of work" sounds to me awfully reminiscent of older myths about how sharecroppers were poor because they were too "lazy" to do anything else. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle --- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle%zotz@ut-sally