JimC wrote:The education industry I worked in generally has fixed salaries for any given position or number of years of experience, unaffected by gender, so it's not the kind of private enterprise free-for-all that 42 was describing. However, even in this controlled wages environment, statistically women end up with lower overall lifetime wages and superannuation savings, partly because of taking time off for childbirth and child care, and partly because they are perhaps less pushy in going for promotions to deputy etc. There is some evidence of the beginning of a culture change, where some husbands are prepared to take a few years off after the birth of a child while the wife returns to work.
Taking time off seems to be a solid reason for not being promoted ahead of someone who did not take time off. If a man takes a year or two off to be a stay at home dad, he's making a sacrifice at work.
The argument is made that women are the ones who "have to" stay home more than men. However, I would argue that the decision of who "gets to" stay home with the kids is by-and-large determined by women. How many men do you know who were the ones who could say that they, not their wives, would stay home with the kids? The answer is, almost none. That decision is controlled by women.
And, I say "get to" stay home, because one way to look at that is cost/benefit. If you stay home with the kids you lose earnings - because it's not an employer's decision or concern if you decide to have kids. What if the employer believes the world is overpopulated already? She has to pay for your decision to the contrary? But, as for the benefit, you get to be home with your children. That's a very valuable thing. To many people, it's worth less money. In a free country, people get to decide for themselves what to do.
There may be a culture change were some men are "willing" to stay home for years. However, also in the culture change is the what some women are "willing" to go to work and leave the kids at home and let their husbands stay home instead. That's as dramatic a culture shift as the men's attitudes.
And lastly as to culture shifts. Why is it assumed that an equal distribution of child care culture is better than one where women opt to do the bulk of it, and men opt to be the worker bees? Or where that decision is made by husband and wife together? There seems to be some assumption on the part of the left where a culture that everyone splitting home care tasks equally is good and men and women doing different things by and large is bad.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar