March 08, 2007

• I will celebrate today by being a woman! *celebrates by being a woman every day*
• The ongoing, frustrating struggle of Japan's "Comfort Women" to achieve dignity through a formal apology from their government is a classic illustration of ways in which women continue to be undervalued globally. It could be (and has been) argued that much of organized religion was, in fact, created as a means of codifying second-class status for women, and it certainly continues to do so today. I advocate "Lysistrata" tactics to hasten the end of conflicts globally. Women of the World Unite!
• How exactly do they measure that 80 percent of what men make statistic? They make it sound like if two people are doing the exact same job, then women make 80 percent of what men make. Is that what they mean? If so, does it take seniority into account? In my work experience (GTE, restaurants, and legal system), I have not witnessed women being paid any less than men for doing the exact same work. Understand that I am not saying the statistic is invalid. Rather, I am asking how they arrive at that number.
• Well, my short answer is "I don't know". My guess is that they categorize jobs (accountants, supervisors, cashiers, nurses) and then get a total salary for men vs. women and arrive at it that way. Using that methodology probably wouldnt take seniority into account. That was a department of labor stat, but I'd imagine there are others with more clearly defined terms that show the same or similar result, I just didn't find them in the time I allotted myself to post.
• Perhaps we could also think about the plight of women in the armed forces, although that seemed to raise a veritable Desert Storm with the neighbours.
• I Am Woman
• The Ms. That Roared!
• My reading of the site leads me to believe that it doesn't even take into consideration what the jobs are. It says: EARNINGS--Women's median weekly earnings in 2005: $585 for full-time wage and salary workers, $722 for men. * Overall, women’s earnings as a percent of men’s were 81.0 percent. * Women's median hourly earnings: $10.31 for those paid hourly rates, $12.16 for men. This makes it appear that they are comparing all hourly women to all hourly men. This does not take into consideration what kind of work people are doing. Now, it may be a different discussion to question why society pays more for work that men traditionally do than for work that women traditionally do, but that -- to me -- is a slightly different discussion. And it leads me to really question the 81% figure.
• I couldn't find any songs that said what I thought being a woman was about. I thought about all these strong women in my family who had gotten through the Depression and world wars and drunken, abusive husbands. But there was nothing in music that reflected that. The only songs were 'I Feel Pretty' or that dreadful song 'Born A Woman'." (The 1966 hit by Sandy Posey had observed that if you're born a woman "you're born to be stepped on, lied to, cheated on and treated like dirt. I'm glad it happened that way".) These are not exactly empowering lyrics. I certainly never thought of myself as a songwriter, but it came down to having to do it. - Helen Reddy It was the first No.1 in the Billboard chart by an Australian artist and the first Australian-penned song to win a Grammy Award (in her acceptance speech for Best Female Performance, Reddy famously thanked "God, because She makes everything possible").
• This year in NZ, Women's Day coincides with marches and protests by women over the recent not-guilty verdict of one of Auckland's top police officers and two police mates in a rape trial. The protests are in response to the verdict and the presumed lack of justice for rape victims, but I think it's more important to consider the anti-women culture of the NZ police force, and the harm that the men in this case have done to the police's reputed social responsibility. The main defendant is currently the Assistant Police Commissioner. Even if he and his colleagues are innocent of rape, they were involved in group sex with a sixteen-year-old girl. What woman, especially one who has just been sexually violated, will go to the police when their culture presumably allows and accepts this behaviour? Would the defendants take any woman seriously who complains of rape? How deep into the police system does their attitude go? Ergh, excuse me. I need to go lie down now.
• *stands under cold shower, then fetches cool cloth for Trac, in attempt to keep our heads from a sploding 'Nockle, I've got a one rat study I've been doing for close to thirty years. Yes, I've been paid as much as 50% less than a man doing the same job. (of course the man got his ass canned about six months after I started doing the job, but the lazy butt was only there a year and still had managed to make 15% more than I had after 2 1/2--one of the reasons why I left. Let us not sidetrack about gutless companies who make a big deal about employees comparing wages. Dammit, senority, performance, and ability ought to count for something, and the damn company ought documented observifiable justification for the wages they pay. No whinging about what who is worth, or what sex they are, because the promotions and pay are done fairly, and everybody gets a straight shot, as long as they put forth the effort. Back to the fray! Bernockle: You can cut and paste, or do your own google search. Then color me blue. http://www.racialwealthdivide.org/research/WorkandWages.html http://www.now.org/press/04-06/04-25.html http://www.answers.com/topic/male-female-income-disparity-in-the-united-states It doesn't matter if you're a doctor or a shoe sales person. http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763170.html No wage parity anywhere http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/804CD136C1980459C1257287003375CE OK. Maybe it isn't 30% lower. Maybe it's only 22% or 10%. Perhaps squabbling over the numbers suffices so we don't have to look at the problem?
• What? Look at men? Have you ever found a man who doesn't shuffle away from responsibilities? Then if you do just try to get enough for consensus on women, other than rolling their eyes. That is what you meant isn't it?
• I'll know things have changed when restroom design has been drastically altered. That is all.
• Maybe it's the fellas I hang around with, but most men I know have no problem with working with women or the idea of equal wages. Somehow institutions just haven't caught up with the idea. Of course, the Wal-Marts of this world would just as soon screw their employees on a gender-neutral basis.
• It isn't the workers though, is it? It's the decision makers and Mrs. Walmart should have more scruples.
• Bit late, but here's a Women's Day photo podcast.
• Very cool, thanks bogey!
• US conservatives block cancer vaccine for girls. Don't fuck my daughter, young man. I'll let her die instead.
• Well, it sounds like all they're blocking is a law that mandates vaccination.
• Yeah, like hepatitis B, polio, chicken pox...you know, all the things we had to go through before being admitted to public school. But this one, this one would cause young girls to have sex. Because I know all the young girls who turned me down were afraid of one thing and one thing only: cervical cancer. But enough about last week.
• I agree totally, but as long as my (still entirely theoretical) daughter has that option available, I'm fine with arranging for the vaccination myself.
• Feminists Yanar Mohammed of Iraq and Dr. Sima Samar of Afghanistan on the Dire Situation for Women Under U.S. Occupation and Rising Fundamentalism
• Profoundly depressing.
• And what if their daughters get sexually assaulted? Can you not catch HPV from date rape? Does God reach down and say, "This wasn't your fault, so you won't get sick?"
• God says a lot of things.
• But rarely posts on Monkeyfilter.
• Thank You, Justice Ginsburg.