[iggy_oi]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Yeah, incoming equality is only a worthy measure on a per-position, per-situation basis. If the number skews one way or another not based on obvious factors like maternity leave, then that’s a problem, but encouraging more people (men or women) into the workforce instead of into their family lives is insane.

This isn’t about encouraging more people into the workforce, woman are already in the workforce. In both Canada and the US economic mobility for the majority of the population has been on a steady decline for sometime. As the gender income gap narrowed over the years, we also saw a growing trend in family households that has both parents needing to work in order to maintain the standard of living previous generations were able to achieve on a single income. If an average man’s income isn’t enough to support his family without his wife working anymore, then his wife’s income that is on average lower than a man’s likely won’t be able to either. Maternity leave and Cliff’s doctor example also wouldn’t factor into why the gap exists when comparing average pay per hour worked. Nor would they factor into why the size of the gap isn’t more consistent across all industries, or why in the film industry the top actors on average consistently earn more than the top actresses.

If anything, we’d be better off with shorter work days and more family based time off for everyone. We should be pushing towards that, not turning more people into work-hungry slaves. Work is work. Even when it is good, you can always be doing something more rewarding or fun.

We should always be aiming towards a better work life balance. Why that isn’t happening is a whole other can of worms, but the decrease in the average persons overall economic mobility also makes that much more difficult to achieve. If that trend were reversed(or if the majority of women worked in higher paying field) the income gap likely wouldn’t be as great of an economic burden for women. But so long as economic mobility continues to erode while the gap exists, women will continue to see their economic mobility erode at a faster rate and as a result be pushed closer to or further into poverty at a faster rate as well.

Originally Posted by Azure

The real problem being how do we raise responsible and ambitious kids.

Creating an environment where our daughters can know that the average woman who chooses to have children maintains a level of economic mobility that is consistent with that of a man who choose to have children would help.