Ellen Goodman, Seattle Times [1]:
In the winter of our economic discontent, women now hold more than 49 percent of jobs on the nation’s payrolls. If we cross the 50 percent line — hold the applause — it will be because men are losing their jobs even faster than women.
This dubious equality is in large part an ongoing tale of two economies. Men tend to work in manufacturing and construction, areas that were the hardest and first hit. Women tend to work in jobs such as health care and education that haven’t (yet) been as affected.
The idea that as women represent fifty-three perecent of the population that therefore they should constitute fifty-three percent of the work force and earn fifty-three percent the wages is simply absurd. Goodman allows that men and women are being laid-off at different rates becuse they do in large part different jobs, largely by their choice. There is no reason to believe that two groups working in largely seperate fields should somehow will be employed in the same proportions and magically earn the same wages.
I find it both amusing and revealing that when women are on the short end of the statistical stick, we get screaming headlines. When men are on the short end, we get passing asides. Thus, I don’t respect gender feminists, because their idea of equality is entirely too selective.