The earnings gap is indicative of female privilege, not oppression

Badgerz92 · 2016-10-15T01:57:32+00:00

Both mothers and fathers would prefer work-life balance over long work weeks. I don't know how any feminist can argue that mothers are oppressed and fathers are privileged

jamminnummeruno · 2016-10-15T10:06:28+00:00

less to no paternity leave
later retirement age

2016-10-15T11:11:12+00:00

6) men sign up for the draft and women don't. If that isn't worth 7% or whatever false statistic they are still pumping out, I don't know what is.

JonSnowsGhost · 2016-10-15T07:11:49+00:00

I pretty much have to disagree with you across the board. I'm not disagreeing with the fact that the things you pointed exist, but the "connection" to the earnings gap that you implied (and then never actually backed up).

(1) Imo, you shouldn't try to bring up men working longer hours as female privilege if this subreddit is also going to use women choosing to work fewer hours as a factor in the earnings gap. If men are choosing to work longer hours (to provide more for their families, for example), then that is totally okay. Obviously, there are societal pressures on men to be the primary breadwinner, but societal pressures affect both sexes.

(2) The connection between female privilege and male workplace deaths is obvious enough, but you could at least try to draw a connection between that and the point in your post title. Men make up a huge majority of workplace deaths not because they make more money, but because they tend to work more dangerous jobs (which tend to be higher paying because of the inherent risk). Again, if this is a freely made choice, should we really take issue with it as much as just make sure people are aware of it?

(3) Ummm... so, yeah, there's an obvious connection between men earning more money and men paying more in taxes (the causality exists in that order) but I don't think you can draw a transitive sort of conclusion here.
Men making more money = men pay more in taxes.
Men pay more in taxes = more money spent by the government on societal programs comes from men.
**
Societal programs tend to benefit women more than men = female privilege.

I agree with each of those individual points, but I think there's a break in that line because that's tied to how the government allocates its money and isn't really tied to the causes of the earnings gap.

(4) Men's opinion being considered less when it comes to home-related decisions is definitely an example of female privilege, but how is this actually related to the earnings gap? If you're in a relationship and let your SO "spend and control the money" as an individual and not as a couple, then your relationship (or whoever's relationship it is) is probably fucked.

(5) Okay, so apart from another annoying generalization that this sub tends to have about women, you haven't really shown how this is an example of female privilege.
According to your logic, men choose to work more and earn more money to attract women they want. I assume these tend to be women who are more physically attractive than the men (from your dating down statement), but is this not a choice made by men? They could just as easily work less and earn less money and date a woman who isn't as physically attractive as their ideal woman.

TL;DR: I don't disagree that the individual things pointed out are examples of female privilege (except 5, I guess), but the only ones that have a real relation to the earnings gap are 1 and 2.

ralphswanson · 2016-10-15T12:46:39+00:00

Five especially. Society gives women more freedom in lifestyle choice, and they use this freedom to live richer, more rounded lives, filled with family, friends, security and self-expression. Men are valued as only wallets, while women are seen as full human beings who are free to be stay-at-home wives, even without children, CEOs, or anything in between. Thus fewer women sacrifice everything to reach the top of the earning ladder. And many of those who would can't find house-husbands to raise their children as they do. Many women find it easier and more beneficial to marry wealth than earn it. This freedom is a huge female privilege, and is far more important to the earnings gap than the largely-imaginary female oppression.

allowsnackbar · 2016-10-15T13:14:00+00:00

Right out of college, I got a job as a sysadmin for $55k. I was in charge of two sites with roughly 30 servers. I had my comp sci undergrad degree and was working on my grad degree.

Female coworker who started after me was in charge of one site with 4 servers, kept getting crappy KPIs, missed work sometimes, had a 2 year degree in communications was getting paid $65k.

I left the job after being told by HR that it was improper for me to try to negotiate a raise based on my performance, education and relative salary.

There's a gap alright, the gap between how much of a damn society and employers give about men compared to women.

Title	The earnings gap is indicative of female privilege, not oppression
Author	shogun_starship
Upvotes	95
Comments	25
Date	October 15, 2016 12:25 AM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/57jn6s/the_earnings_gap_is_indicative_of_female/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/the-earnings-gap-is-indicative-of-female-privilege.939766 https://theredarchive.com/post/939766

Comments