TwoSeven:

 

Geektastic: There's no genuine gap.

If you measure a man and a woman with the same years of experience, same qualifications and same talent. Also ignore things like nipping off to have kids, causing inconvenience and cost to businesses and thus making yourself less attractive as an employee.

What the ranters want would eventually result in higher pay for women just for being women.

My wife earned well into six figures for the last 3 years, so know it's perfectly possible for women to earn far more than many men.

 

 

 

I think you may be doing what many of us blokes do and repeating stuff we may have been told by other blokes, rather than actually looking at empirical studies that probably disagree with your initial statement.  I might point out that what is possible for a few, isn't necessarily the norm for everyone else.

 

I support gender equality and would probably call myself a feminist - when I started to learn about why [gender] inequality exists I started to notice more of it around, from the way people talk, the jokes people make and often the way they are treated by the media.  I think stereotyping is big part of this issue, it generally runs along the line of women cant do something or are bad/men can do it or are good - usually with some kind of justification attached to it.  I would like to see these stereotypes broken down and gotten rid of. I think people should have the opportunity to be everything they can be, without having to deal with peoples perception of their capabilities that are based solely on what gender they are.

 

I think gender can be defined as the 'social attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female'. So what us ranters are really asking for is that both genders have 'equal rights, opportunities and responsibilities and that these should not depend on whether someone is born male or female' - neither does it mean that men and women have to become the same as each other. I think that we also need to recognise there are industries where the equality goes against men, but I would suggest that the majority of the inequality is directed against women

 

Personally, I would like to see more women in software engineering, I would like to see more female F1 drivers, women's soccer given more time on TV, more scientists, more mathematicians and physicists, electronics experts, engineers and mechanics - the opportunity for women to be able to play the leading role in movies (that are not just about relationships) are the superhero (and the list goes on). 

 

Given that I think gender equality still has a long way to go, I would find it very hard to say there isn't a pay gap at all.

 

Firstly, let me state that I care not one whit whether there is a gap or not. I know many well paid women (I'm married to one who will probably earn more than I do every year for the rest of our working lives) so there are no barriers to women who WANT to earn.

That is good enough for me. I have very little interest in the modern obsession with 'equality'. Equality of opportunity is fine. Equality of outcomes is a nonsense.

Personally I preferred it when there were less women in the office but I appreciate that is a lost battle!