A bit of help/ hand hold/ moral support?

[GiantSteps]

OK as I said on the thread about the transactivist assault this week, I've got into a Twitter row with a commentator (not a transactivist as far as I can see), who, in the course of our exchange (about which she has said I was rude & dishonest!!!) told me that
a) we don't live in a patriarchy, and she's written a blog post to prove it
b) there is no pay gap in the UK

I'm going to mute her Tweets, because there's only so much personal abuse I'll take, but just reassure me - there is a pay gap isn't there?

I mean, the professional magazine in my sector (universities) published evidence of this every year - I know I'm paid about £10k less than the average of men at my grade.

I suspect I've run across a neoliberal, using post-modern high theory to justify her position - arguments that - to me anyway - are too complicated to pursue on Twitter.

But it's rather shaken me a bit - silly, I know.

I think some of it is that men are more likely to ask for a payrise. Not that this is an excuse because it is surely fairly easy for companies to make sure pay reviews are legitimate.

There is also lots of discrimination in the workplace against mothers (I would like to say parents but it's mothers) - it is really hard to progress as you can't take flexible working agreements into another job. Plus while men are seen as being more responsible once they have children for women it is a workplace hindrance. But that doesn't explain that childless women also are affected.

Here is a nice blog outlining why people think it's a myth. Including the oft repeated fact that men deserve it because their jobs are so much harder and more dangerous
www.google.co.uk/amp/blog.acton.org/archives/92915-yes-the-gender-wage-gap-is-still-a-myth-and-a-potentially-dangerous-one.html/amp

a quick Google tells me that the average pay of a logger is 25k. What's disturbing is that anyone would actually read that without thinking wtf....

I think some of it is that men are more likely to ask for a payrise. Not that this is an excuse because it is surely fairly easy for companies to make sure pay reviews are legitimate.

I've been thinking about this. Men can do this for a large chunk of their life, because promising things isn't an issue for them.

As a woman in my 30s (OK, not for much longer, but I was once) - I didn't have the bargaining chip that my DP had - he could negotiate and walk away - but if a woman in her 30s does, then she's also risking her maternity rights. It's a whole extra level of risk for her.

I was freelance, so actually it wasn't a problem for me once I got to my childbearing time, and, now I am senior I will put my own job on the line to get fair treatment for female staff (although I still cringe at thinking a chilly server room - as the only lockable, private, room in the IT Dept, including offices for senior staff- was OK to express in). Because if I've hired someone, it's because they're good at their job, and I want to keep them and they probably enjoy their job, so I'll bend over backwards and pay them well to keep them.

None of it is simple, and much of it is weighed against women in ways you might not initially think about.

None of it is simple, and much of it is weighed against women in ways you might not initially think about.

That's why it's so nuanced. Deniers will say it's because women choose. Without ever looking at the reasons why.

Yeah so potentially some of the things that apply to women with children apply to women without children. And on the employers side a childless woman of 35-40 is highly likely to go on mat leave anyway so that may affect how they are treated.

It's also a bit of a weird assumption that childless people have no caring responsibilities.