Wednesday, our FFP class was discussing the social implications of sexism and misogyny. A TED talk we viewed stated that women, on average, make 70 cents to every dollar made by a man, and at first this seemed illogical.
A few moments ago, I finished watching a podcast, and the closing subject was discussing this statistic that men are earning more money. A popular internet personality who goes by Hutch in the YouTube community, brought up an interesting point on the matter: "Men earn more money on average, because a lot of higher paying jobs require physical attributes that most women don't have." In the modern day media, women are portrayed as having a slim figure and being very dependent when it comes to strength, while men are encouraged to be as muscular as possible.
When it comes to higher paying jobs, such as fire fighting, military positions, high end construction workers, and emergency services personnel, strength is a key component to succeeding in each field. Most women, not all but most, don't strive to dead lift 400 pounds, bench press twice their weight, or curl an average sized human child for an hour straight. Mainstream media has pumped an image into their minds depicting a cute, harmless woman with no comparable strength to an average man; and most women don't set out to attain commendations for excelling in the field of carrying wounded civilians from war zones. Canada is known for its peace keeping missions around the world, and high ranking military officers pull in a sizable pay check for their efforts; but the field is mostly dominated by men.
If you're averaging all salaries worked by men and women, the result SHOULD look something like 70 cents to a man's dollar, because of higher paying fields where men are not chosen because of misogynous cultural views, sexist employers, or favouritism towards a certain gender; It's due to a pure, realistic, and evolutionary conundrum where men are the better contestant for certain careers. All four fields listed before are dominated by male employees, and all four are well paying jobs that greatly surpass the average salary.
So, the next time someone complains about the "70 cents to every man's dollar" issue, remind them that many fields where men excel and women don't are primarily well paying jobs that will skew the results of a general average of all salaries.
A few moments ago, I finished watching a podcast, and the closing subject was discussing this statistic that men are earning more money. A popular internet personality who goes by Hutch in the YouTube community, brought up an interesting point on the matter: "Men earn more money on average, because a lot of higher paying jobs require physical attributes that most women don't have." In the modern day media, women are portrayed as having a slim figure and being very dependent when it comes to strength, while men are encouraged to be as muscular as possible.
When it comes to higher paying jobs, such as fire fighting, military positions, high end construction workers, and emergency services personnel, strength is a key component to succeeding in each field. Most women, not all but most, don't strive to dead lift 400 pounds, bench press twice their weight, or curl an average sized human child for an hour straight. Mainstream media has pumped an image into their minds depicting a cute, harmless woman with no comparable strength to an average man; and most women don't set out to attain commendations for excelling in the field of carrying wounded civilians from war zones. Canada is known for its peace keeping missions around the world, and high ranking military officers pull in a sizable pay check for their efforts; but the field is mostly dominated by men.
If you're averaging all salaries worked by men and women, the result SHOULD look something like 70 cents to a man's dollar, because of higher paying fields where men are not chosen because of misogynous cultural views, sexist employers, or favouritism towards a certain gender; It's due to a pure, realistic, and evolutionary conundrum where men are the better contestant for certain careers. All four fields listed before are dominated by male employees, and all four are well paying jobs that greatly surpass the average salary.
So, the next time someone complains about the "70 cents to every man's dollar" issue, remind them that many fields where men excel and women don't are primarily well paying jobs that will skew the results of a general average of all salaries.
