Women and the labor force

[nadinbrzezinski]

So here I am doing more readying, now in the New Left Review, mostly to get my feet wet again in journal readying. And here is one piece of trivia that struck me.

When there has been the highest pressure downward on industrial salaries over the last three hundred years, women have made most of the work force. When men have been the majority, well salaries have gone up.

Now this is an interesting line of inquiry which also has some serious implications. To anybody paying attention, you DO KNOW that for the first time in Modern US history WOMEN make most of the work force. Now not saying that NLR is correct or not (or rather the writer is correct or not). I have not done enough readying to even test that thesis yet (This is how this is done... readying and primary sources), but it certainly gave me room for pause.

The implications of this thesis are astounding. Realize that this means that salaries will go from stagnant to down, assuming this is correct.

Oh and for those screaming, what the hell is the New Left Review? Well one of MANY poli sci journals...

[Captain Hilts]

1. Where women are a significant part of the workforce, the salaries are lower...

hence why doctors in the Soviet Union got lousy salaries there - mostly women.

Labor is one of those issues that the Left pays attention to and the right often ignores.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Correct, and that was one of those

wide looking articles.

I will need to keep my eyes open on that trend, It also did not bode well for organizing.

And I have not read the NLR in over three decades... I actually bought the copy at the bookstore, which was like shocking to me.

[Captain Hilts]

3. You might have inspired me to do the same. Even when I don't agree, I do like

to see other views.

In my dissertation - about Soviet,post Soviet labor - the CATO institute actually published some really interesting things. No kidding.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Oy that means I will have to go read CATO?

Actually CATO does fairly descent academic research... unlike oh Enterprise... CATO still has an ideology, but they don't hide the data. Why CATO is respected, while Enterprise is seen as a joke in academic circles.

[Captain Hilts]

9. VERY true. CATO is one of the few honest 'thinktanks' in DC. They are what they are. nt

[ConcernedCanuk]

5. excuse me for an inadvertent LOL

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Women

Labor

If men could only experience that pain

Maybe we wouldn't be such macho assholes!

[Omaha Steve]

6. K&R!

[HipChick]

7. I was told I am taking up a man's job...

I work in a heavily male dominated field..I was told the place for me is at home, not taking up a job a man should and could be doing..its not all that equal out there with that type of thinking...

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. And dime on hte dollar you are getting paid less

and in a way, not that most of them know that, what they are telling you is not come here, or your lower pay will push ours down.

Finsished reading the article and the conclusion of the author is that this struggle is multigenerationa, but that is another story.

Oh and if it helps, when I was a medic I was told that a few times and lord knows my pay and theirs was the same... after all we volunteers were not paid a dime.