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From: flink@umcp-cs.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.politics
Subject: Comparable worth -- what I suggest instead
Message-ID: <543@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 16:59:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.543
Posted: Sun Jun 30 16:59:11 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Jul-85 08:38:01 EDT
References: <482@ttidcc.UUCP> <8203@ucbvax.ARPA> 
Reply-To: flink@maryland.UUCP (Paul V. Torek)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
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Xref: watmath net.women:6209 net.politics:9705
Summary: Earth to feminists, come in, feminists...

Why can't feminist spokeswomen accept what I'm saying?  Does the
need to justify their suggested government action blind them to the
problems their solution doesn't address?  (I don my asbestos suit...)

One of the reasons -- the biggest, I'll bet -- for the "59 cents"
wage gap is that girls/women are DISCOURAGED BY SOCIETY from taking
certain jobs; jobs that are considered "men's work".  If women are
pushed into a narrow range of jobs -- creating a much larger supply
of such workers than there would be if women were supported in 
whatever free choice they made -- it follows as the night upon the
day that they will be paid less than men.  This is so obvious that
I shouldn't have to explain it, but here goes.  

Picture, if you will, two societies, A and B, in a world where there 
are only 4 jobs:  hunter, gatherer, toolmaker, and housebuilder.  In 
society A, men and women are free to choose any job; their families 
support them regardless of their decision; nobody tells women that
hunting is "men's work", etc.  The 40,000 people in society A are
evenly split among the jobs, and they pay nearly equally.  In B, 
women are brought up to be gatherers only; everything else is 
discouraged.  Although the environment, consumer tastes for meat
vs plants, etc. are exactly the same for societies A and B, there
are 19,000 gatherers (almost all women) in B.  So guess what? --
supply and demand dictate that the price of veggies is lower in
B; fewer veggies can be gathered per worker-hour (diminishing
returns); thus gatherers receive terrible wages!

Society B's problem can't be solved by mandating "comparable worth"
pay schedules, though that might help remedy discrimination by bosses
of gathering companies (OK, so there's a 5th job).  Society B
must become more like society A, else comparable worth legislation
will only result in a lot of unemployed gatherers (plus a few well-
paid ones).  The moral for our society is clear (I hope).

So why aren't feminists raising hell (MORE hell than they raise
over "comparable worth") over the way girls are brought up to be
qualified for, and interested in, only "women's work"?

--Paul "Turn up those flames -- I hate cold weather!" Torek