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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (March 3, 2017)
News Page 10 What will it take to achieve economic gender equality in the US? work has fallen since the year 2000, while growing in almost all other affluent nations - C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T many of which provide free, public pre-school. he first International Women’s Day, Men are picking up more of the slack at March, 8, pushed for women’s right to home, but women are still charged with an vote, as well as rights to work, outsize share of unpaid work. On average, vocational training and discrimination-free women’s days, compared to men’s, include an workplaces. hour and a half a day more of housework and Haven’t we won these battles? It’s the taking care of family members, an hour less 21st century! in paid work and 45 minutes less for leisure No. The economic gap between women activities. Although 7 out of 10 women with children and men is shockingly large in the U.S. Women’s yearly incomes average less than at home now work, twice as many women as two-thirds of those of men. In other words, men work part-time, which means low wages the average American man’s income is more and few benefits. Women are much more than half again as much as the income of the likely than men to take time out from work, average American woman. to care for young children, aging parents and American families depend on women’s ailing partners. incomes, and would be better off if women , Unlike other countries, the U.S. barely earned more. Women are the biggest or only Subsidizes childcare and other forms of care, breadwinner in 4 out of 10 households with and it’s extremely expensive, despite the kids. very low wages of paid care workers. What do you mean by ending the What if we just look at full-time College-educated pre-school teachers earn devaluation of women and women’s workers? Are you saying that women are the least of any college major, even though work? still being discriminated against? high quality, early childhood education is Many people don’t realize that they sub tremendously valuable, markedly improving Yes, In fact, the World Economic Forum consciously devalue work done by a woman kids’ future earnings. just reported that 65 other countries do and the jobs that are most female-dominated. Paid family leave keeps women connected better at paying women equally with men Famously, the number of women musicians to their jobs, and their doing similar work, though American women hired increased dramatically after U.S. wages up. The U.S., are the most equally educated. symphonies started conducting “blind Oman and Papua New Among year-round, full-time workers, auditions,” with the players screened so they American women are paid four-fifths as much Guinea are the only Am ong year»ronxi<l, to ll-tim e couldn’t be seen. Resumes with men’s names as men, on average. That gap grows with age three countries in the are evaluated more positively than identical workers, A m erican women BY MARY C. KING ■ M ary C. K in g is a professor o f economics emerita with Portland State University an d w ith m o re ed u catio n . ■ "W W B and women of color. Of full-time workers, white women are paid 83 cents to white men’s $1, African-American women make 65 cents, and Latinas just 58 cents. Mothers earn less than similar women without children, docked a “motherhood penally” for each child. And employers assume that women of color have more children than they do, while believing that white women have fewer than they really do. Women are also less likely to get overtime, bonuses, good benefits and access to enough hours, particularly in fields like retail. What? The Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, more than 50 years ago! What’s it going to take to achieve economic gender equality in this country? The three most important things to do are: 1. Raise wages in the lower rungs of the extremely unequal U.S. labor market, 2. End the persistent social devaluation of the work of individual women, and the jobs and skills most associated with women, and 3. Provide high-quality, affordable care for children, seniors and adults living with disabilities. How can we raise wages in the lower rungs of the extremely unequal U.S. labor market? Oregon recently made progress on two effective tactics: raising the minimum wage and mandating paid sick days for all workers. Other strategies that work elsewhere are reducing barriers to unionization, requiring that part-time work be paid at the same hourly rate as full-time work, mandating more regular schedules, creating more apprenticeships, restoring vocational education and enforcing equal employment laws. re s u m e s w ith w o m en ’s n am es, a s a re w ritin g w orld w ith o u t n atio n al sam ples/^ The skills in jobs dominated by women tend to be overlooked or undervalued, as compared with men’s jobs. paid parental leave in the formal sector. Half of the world’s nations pay for 14 weeks or more. Why don’t women go into better paying fields? Part of the pay gap is due to women being socialized to enter lower-paying occupations and industries. But women earn less than men in all industries, almost all occupations, at every level of education, and after graduating with every college major. Wages fall when more women go into a field, as seen in pharmacy, journalism and teaching. Harassment pushes women out of some relatively well-paying, male-dominated jobs, in the trades as well as in science, engineering and computer programming. Speaking of harassment, does violence against women have an economic impact? Yes, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that stalking victims lose 10 paid days of work a year, rape victims eight days, and victims of intimate partner violence seven days a year: Abusers use economic strategies to maintain their power, including forbidding women to work or attend school; sabotaging women at work; destroying women’s property, such as cars and clothes; and undermining women’s confidence in their ability to earn a living. Three-quarters of survivors of intimate partner abuse have stayed in a violent relationship for economic reasons. Even the right wing American Enterprise Institute says a “care chasm” keeps women in the U.S. from working as much as in other countries. American women’s participation in paid are oaisi. fe n r-iiiIk s ns as men, ©a average. T hat gap grows w ith age, and w ith more education. But women and men are in families together, so doesn’t it all work out in the end? Not really. Even straight couples are vulnerable to divorce, desertion, death, disability, unemployment, chronic illness, alcoholism and domestic violence. And plenty of women are single, or partnered with other women. For couples including people of color or immigrants, the gender pay gap is added on top of earnings differences by race, ethnicity and immigrant status. What’s more, pay differences and penalties for caring really add up. Women workers earn more than half a million dollars less over their lifetimes than men do, from annual pay differences over the years of just $10,000 or so. Women own a lot less wealth than men do. Women are far less secure in old age, receiving less in pensions and social security, sometimes retiring early to care for parents and spouses, and running down assets to pay for partners’ end of life medical care. Women’s poverty rates are much higher than men s, particularly in old age and as single parents. Forty percent of single mothers’ households are poor, twice the poverty rate of single fathers and more than five times the rate of married couples with kids. And in a country where political influence is measured in dollars, women’s views count for a lot less.
