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Men Continue To Fare Badly in This Economy

The population of "disadvantaged men" is growing. Here's why everyone--women included--should care.

December 5, 2011 RSS Feed Print
Tags:
recession,
unemployment

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Re: "as many women continue to fight for equal pay..."

No legislation to date has closed the gender wage gap. That's because pay-equity advocates continue to overlook the effects of female AND male behavior:

Despite the 40-year-old demand for women's equal pay, millions of wives still choose to have no pay at all. In fact, according to Dr. Scott Haltzman, author of "The Secrets of Happily Married Women," stay-at-home wives, including the childless who represent an estimated 10 percent, constitute a growing niche. "In the past few years,” he says in a CNN report at http://tinyurl.com/6reowj, “many women who are well educated and trained for career tracks have decided instead to stay at home.” (“Census Bureau data show that 5.6 million mothers stayed home with their children in 2005, about 1.2 million more than did so a decade earlier....” at http://tinyurl.com/qqkaka. If indeed more women are staying at home, perhaps it's because feminists and the media have told women for years that female workers are paid less than men in the same jobs — so why bother working if they're going to be penalized and humiliated for being a woman. If "greedy, profit-obsessed" employers could get away with paying women less than men for the same work, they would not hire a man – ever.)

As full-time mothers or homemakers, stay-at-home wives earn zero. How can they afford to do this while in many cases living in luxury? Because they're supported by their husband, an “employer” who pays them to stay at home.

Feminists, government, and the media ignore what this obviously implies: If millions of wives are able to accept no wages and live as well as their husbands, millions of other wives are able to accept low wages, refuse overtime and promotions, work part-time instead of full-time (“According to a 2009 UK study for the Centre for Policy Studies, only 12 percent of the 4,690 women surveyed wanted to work full time”: http://bit.ly/ihc0tl See also an Australian report: http://tinyurl.com/862kzes), take more unpaid days off, avoid uncomfortable wage-bargaining (http://tinyurl.com/45ecy7p) — all of which lower women's average pay. Women are able to make these choices because they are supported or anticipate being supported by a husband who must earn more than if he'd chosen never to marry. (Still, even many men who shun marriage, unlike their female counterparts, feel their self worth is tied to their net worth.) This is how MEN help create the wage gap. If the roles were reversed so that men raised the children and women raised the income, men would average lower pay than women.

See “An In-depth Look at the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” at http://tinyurl.com/pvbrcu

As for black men, here's one reason they are lagging:

"Why Workplace Affirmative Action is Failing Blacks" at http://battlinbog.blog-city.com/why_affirmative_action_is_failing_blacks.htm

Male Matters of MI 3:42PM December 07, 2011

@DSPWilson I wouldnt say that she only cares about the impact it has on her. I think her point is that it affects everyone and needs to be addressed for everyone's benefit. I think she is more concerned with promoting urgency of the situation so that people realize they need to take care of it.

As for getting back manufacturing jobs, that's hardly a simple fix. Those companies aren't going to bring those jobs back from India and pay 10 times more per hour just to be nice. They are trying to save money and need to keep costs low to appease the "I need cheap junk" mentality Americans demand. Let's be real, most of those jobs are gone forever. We need to get these men into new industries where they have a chance of getting hired. Don't ask me for any answers on that one though. I can only recognize the problem and the limitations of the solution. coming up with a real solution is a different matter entirely.

Kale of CA 2:28AM December 06, 2011

The author has some very corrupt values represented in her article. We care about people's suffering because it is the essence of living a moral life that we care for others, not because other's suffering might cause some negative consequence for ourselves.

dspwilson of WA 11:44PM December 05, 2011

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