It's been a long time since I last read any studies on gender pay issues, but what I was thinking back to was what I said. And now you are saying something completely different. Could you please cite a source?
Have a source. Rereading that, I'd actually underestimated the pay gap. 80 cents to the dollar at best, 69 cents to the dollar at worst.
I was actually addressing your point that the pay disparity is owing to the tendency of women to work less, or work lower-paying jobs, and pointing out that that simply isn't true. I didn't address the fact of women working less at lower-paying jobs, but I can do that now.
In the articles Miria pulled up, they make it clear that even in academia, a career for the bloodily career-minded if ever there was one, women's jobs are still valued less than those of their husbands when it comes time to drop hours in order to raise children. The effect is moreso in other fields, where working full time to research and publish isn't as much of a time suck. Because we have these entrenched ideas about women's roles in the home, women are socially disadvantaged if they choose to honor their career above their children. We think of them as irresponsible mothers, even when fathers do exactly that constantly. So it's almost inevitable that a woman will drop hours or take a less-demanding job in order to care for her children. According to her own social programming and the disapproval she'll garner from others, she doesn't have a choice. If we made parenting a more cooperative venture, men and women could be more able to work equal hours.
[Break for comments by Jaybug removed by randompvg. Point below stands on its own okay, so I figure I'll just leave it as is.]
I would prefer it if rape wasn't such a prevalent crime in the United States, such that anyone should even have to consider owning a gun just to deal it. Which, if you think about it, is a hella extreme measure. The onus of violent crime should not be on potential victims. I am not responsible for violent actions taken against me, and I should not have to live in fear just because our society fails to teach men that women are people and not objects for their gratification.
20,000 people show up for every Blazer game. There were so few attending the Portland WNBA franchise, it went away. Why pay women the same as Kobe, when there isn't enough money coming through the door? Would paying women more, make a better game? Wouldn't it be better if women were good enough to play in the NBA?
I remember when I was younger, during the period of time when Mia Hamm was getting more visibility for professional women's soccer, I would often hear this particular gem: "You know what's a funny joke? Women's sports." So maybe no one goes to WNBA games because we've cultivated this culture where women doing a physical activity couldn't
possibly be as interesting as men doing a physical activity. And because most young women don't aspire to professional sports because it's not a thing that women get respect in, it removes a lot of the competition that drives the rise in skill level in men's sports.
Maybe it'd help if women's professional sports were as heavily or dramatically advertised. If one were to say it isn't advertised because it isn't bringing in money, and no one cares because their attention is never on it because it's never advertised, then you've got yourself a self-fulfilling prophecy of why no one cares about professional women's sports.
So because my parents got college educations, and I am a white male, that means I should not be able to go to college? Well that's just great, thanks! And you expect me to be on your side when push comes to shove?
This a strawman. No one wants to deny you entry into college. It's already easier for you than it is for everyone who isn't a white son of college-educated professionals.
You get a lot of social advantages for being all the things you listed above. All of these things will make it significantly easier for you to get an education, get a job and get respect. Every other class of society that doesn't have your advantages, so they need support systems in place in order to deal with the disadvantage.
I'm not asking you to "side" with me. I'm asking everyone to try to create a world in which people are judged based on their real personalities, opinions, skills and experiences, regardless of their sex or gender. Speaking more broadly, regardless of any inherent trait that can't be chosen, such as socioeconomic class, physical ability, appearance, race, ethnicity, age, sexuality or anything else a person can be.
DancingTofu: I disagree that you can be separate from conflict, but you have my kudos for the intellectual consistency.