Men don't care about women's jobs

My wife is working as a masters qualified scientist in the private sector, and the male and female staff are paid roughly the same - very poorly. She is on £12 per hour, but some of the junior scientists/technicians are on around £8-9 per hour.
Wages are falling back in all sectors and jobs atre being cut all over the place.

Why do you think woman are drawn to low paid roles? Flexibility? I was thinking about this recently about ‘typical’ woman’s roles being not well paid and often at risk of redundancy.. I agree it’s true but it’s also led me to wonder why woman degrade themselves to these roles?
I work in a very Male dominated industry, they’ve not had a woman come to an interview in years - I do the hiring and would love to hire another woman.
I’m not being goady I’m curious as to why this happens.

You are right . I encourage all my children to go into jobs which have traditionally been Male dominated as they generally pay more and have better T and Cs.

Many worthwhile jobs which contribute a lot to society have crap wages or conditions just because they are mostly female eg care workers, cleaners, nursery workers, hairdressers, many admin jobs.

I think it’s capatalism which builds on patriarchy rather than simple sexism...structural

I think most people would assume you'd be paid a lot more than £8 an hour for your job.

Thats not a job you should be paid minimum wage for doing. You couldn't pay me to step foot on to a secure/forensic mens mental health ward.

Yeah that's really shit.
I presume you're in the public sector?

There are massive cuts across the public sector and believe me they are not discriminating on the basis of sex. (The police force eg).

Yes, women are more 'agreeable' when it comes to accepting a low wage, that's a different issue.

When it comes to cuts to a work force though, economic decisions do not account for maleness or femaleness.

My male friend who cares for the elderly has experenced dramatic losses to his sector and staff cuts he is also experiencing stresses.
It's important to direct anger where it's due which isn't necessarily sexism but is usually economic incompetence due to bad governance.

There have been a series of articles in the guardian about how the job losses since austerity measures have had a greater effect on women than men. Possibly by Frances Ryan?

There is a definite trend across society generally of "women's work" being valued less than men. Traditionally female heavy sectors, such as nursing, PAing, etc attract less income and less social cachet than traditionally masculine work, regardless of the actual skill or effort involved.

If you want to do something like becoming a union rep, you should do it. You could make a difference and you sound like you would be good at it. I see some of these issues as mainly structural/institutional inequalities that men don't specifically want or directly cause, but at the same time we all need to recognise and correct them rather than just seeing them as "how it is". However, the lack of a representative here seems not just like a lack of interest in their part but actually a possibly conscious decision to create a barrier to any action on your part. You should address it. Good luck!

Some of the biggest redundancy losses have fallen to men.
Our country is falling to bits and everyone is affected.

Admin jobs are so undervalued and underpaid. They still get away with paying the same as I remember them being advertised for 20 years ago, when I left Uni. Admin jobs are so far removed from the typist and filing clerks that used to constitute a company's admin. In yet, some jobs which require few celebral skills or education - like warehouse worker or supermarket security or estates staff - more typically carried out by males, have typically been paid more.

To be fair mass redundancies also happen in work places that are very male-orientated. (Manufacturing for example).

Healthcare is particularly prone to redundancies at the moment because of government lead austerity measires.

Your anger could be usefully applied as a union representative but recognise that structural economic decisions rather than sexism are at play here.

That’s shit and I’m inclined to agree that it’s because it’s a female dominated sector

Just look at retail - thousands of jobs have been lost this past decade and no one seems to really give a shit.