More programs are needed for women to influence society

**Rebadow** · 8th-March-2006

Quote from [url=http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1927027,00.html

DW[/url]]It may be International Women's Day, but how far have women come in the battle for equality of the sexes? More programs are needed for women to influence society on all levels, says DW's Ulrike Mast-Kirschning.

Hohohohohohohhhhhhhhhhh. This plus

Equally little has changed when it comes to the economy. Women still have a harder time finding a job than men do. And when they do have a job, it's usually one without much status or influence. Women are still frequently paid far less than their male colleagues for equal work. And even when the odd company places a woman in a leadership position, the men still prefer their boys' club. The percentage of women in management board positions of publicly listed companies in Germany is a paltry 4 percent.

this = we can safely say that somebody's been living on a planet NOT called Earth.

**The Phantom** · 8th-March-2006

Just to compare. This is what the 'Women and Work Commission' says are the main effects on the "pay gap". (my comments in italics)

Human capital differences: i.e. differences in educational levels and work experience.

Part-time working: the pay gap between men and women's part time hourly earnings and men's full time hourly earnings is particularly large.

And the gap between men working part-time and men working full-time is even bigger, but they don't want you to know that.

Travel patterns: on average, women spend less time commuting than men.

They blame this on women having other family responsibilities, but ignore the much simpler explanation - women are just being lazy. As an example, my ex looked for a job and wanted to move to London, but refused to get a place to stay more than 10min drive from work even though that meant living in a run-down area. She could have stayed in a much better area if she had been prepared to drive for just 30min.

Occupational segregation: women's employment is highly concentrated in certain occupations

Workplace segregation: at the level of individual workplaces, high concentrations of female employees are associated with relatively low rates of pay.

So most of the pay gap in NOT caused by women being paid less than men for equal work.

As an aside:

The headline gender pay gap figure is derived from median hourly earnings (excluding overtime) for men and women. Mean figures are often not favoured because they can be affected by changes to the earnings of small numbers of very high-earners.

The median gap is 13%, the mean gap is 17%. Which do you think got splashed all over the papers?

**Rebadow** · 8th-March-2006

Good job, Phantom, one question tho':

And the gap between men working part-time and men working full-time is even bigger, but they don't want you to know that.

Do you have any source for this statement (actual statistics)? Would be great!

I already copied parts of your mesage to the Facts and Figures forum, in this topic here.

**The Phantom** · 8th-March-2006

I'm afraid I don't have a link for that.

I saw it on the BBC news last week. Men working part time earn less than women working part time, so of course the difference is bigger.