Economics and Feminism

[IrishDemocrat]

This topic has perplexed me over the past year. Why is it that many women in 20-something the dating pool want the benefits of the feminist movement and at the same time want a guy that makes more than them? Is that kinda paradoxal? What I mean by "benefits of the feminist movement" are equal pay, don't want to cook or want men to do more of the domestic work, etc. It's not that I have a problem with cooking, hell I'd likely do most of it, but it seems most of these younger women fail to realize the 50/50 concept of relationships plus the costs of the feminist movement. The reason most of these women can't find someone that makes more than them is simple- WE'RE COMPETING WITH THEM! I know real family incomes have increased since 1970, but not real salaries given one particular job. My relatively conservative dad says it's largely due to feminism and I hate to say it, he's right. I don't think women should be forced back into the home to be barefoot and in the kitchen, but it really seems most women can't make up their minds as to what they want. Am I wrong for thinking this?

[leftstreet]

1. Post WWII economy exploited women

It didn't "favor" them. It found a compliant workforce not seen before.

Your Dad may mean well, but he's wrong. Working men AND women failed to unite and stand up for their rights to reasonable compensation.

That's why today they call us "human" resources. Similar to "natural" resources like coal or oil.

[AuntiBush]

2. Wow. Never thought of it like that.

Good point, "human" resources. Shew... explains a lot.

[bloom]

3. It seems to me that many of the salary increases

that should be going to people in general are going to the CEOs and top executives.

I think 20 years ago - there might have been more of a thing for awhile where wages didn't rise as much because the labor force increased with so many women entering the work force. I don't think that that is still the case.

I think there are a lot of jobs where the salary stays low because it is women in those jobs - if there are women who are willing to take a job that isn't enough to live on - but which adds to the household income - then the pay can necessarily be lower. And sometimes it just seems like discrimination - when jobs women tend to gravitate toward are devalued. I don't know if there is anything that can change that short of equal pay laws.


Maybe the younger women have figured out that if they are the domestic experts - they will be expected to carry that burden - so they avoid it.

[MountainLaurel]

4. You're right about #1

The gap in the United States between the highest paid workers at a company and the lowest paid workers is huge and about three times that of other industrialized nations. And, it's been growing exponentially over the past 40 years.

You're right about #2, but to a large extent the situation was set up that way from the beginning and not a factor of women flooding the workforce. If you look at the history of librarianship, one of those traditionally undervalued professions (particularly considering that a master's degree is required) you'll see that most libraries were men prior to the explosion of public libraries in the late 1800s which is also when the first children's librarians came into play. Library administrators deliberately made the decision to recruit women for these positions because they wouldn't have to pay as much. The exact same thing can be found in the history of education in this country.

The claim has always been that women don't need to be paid as much because men, in comparison, had to support a family, which ignores the reality that many women were supporting families in some way, since time immemorial. Husbands left their wives or died, women took in their younger siblings because their mother hemorraghed to death in childbirth, single women cared for their parents.

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[Moderator]

7. Locking

This is flamebait.