Does this actually happen? (I'm being naieve, perhaps, not belligerent.) Does it actually happen that women with equal skill and experience and education get paid less for the same job than men do? Is this something that doesn't happen in the programming world? Does it happen, and I've just never seen it?
Can I really go to some large software firm and find people of equivalent skill working side by side, with one of them making 75% of what the other does simply for being a girl?
Yeah, you and me both. Part of what I've encountered calling myself a feminist in this day and age is having to defend the term feminism from both men and women of my generation who recoil from it because of the negative associations with it. It's supremely frustrating to me.
I've had a very similar experience to you, including the glamour thing...which made it all the more shocking when I came to Germany and found how prevalent sexism is here (and in most of Europe).
There are lots of intertwined issues in Germany. Besides the fact that the society tends to be traditional about gender-roles and family, things are set up to keep it that way. Kids get out of school at 1pm and their mothers are expected to be there to make them lunch and help them with homework all afternoon. Women have an incredibly difficult time trying to combine career and family here. Since a university education takes much longer here, most women graduate in their late 20s, then they have to do a couple of internships before getting their first real job. But by the time they are ready for that, many women are already feeling they have to make a choice between career and family.
There is a law here that a woman can take three years off work after the birth of her child and then must be given her job back. Because of this,
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I like this entry because I mostly feel the same way. In fact, my first girlfriend reacted the same way with my willingness to hold her hand and kiss her in public.
I think I only learned to be careful later, probably as I started looking more gay, and also through the fears of my various girlfriends.
I still don't really think I'm oppressed, though, not in liberal towns in Oregon in 2011. If anything, being gay gives me a cool factor.
Kalisha is happy that you have a little sense of self-preservation so you can watch out for both of us when it's appropriate. I think that in addition to my naivete about it, I tend to feel kind of defiant about it - like fuck 'em, I'll do what I want and people have to deal with it. Which is fine in some places, and not terribly smart in others, I think.
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Or *im*pressed. Hahahahahaha. I made a joke.
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Does this actually happen? (I'm being naieve, perhaps, not belligerent.) Does it actually happen that women with equal skill and experience and education get paid less for the same job than men do? Is this something that doesn't happen in the programming world? Does it happen, and I've just never seen it?
Can I really go to some large software firm and find people of equivalent skill working side by side, with one of them making 75% of what the other does simply for being a girl?
-Ogre
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(Not to me, thankfully, but certainly to people I know.)
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That doesn't make a damned bit of sense. If women are willing to do the same job for less money, how do men ever find employment?
I realize I'm probably looking at this from a too-rigorous market viewpoint.
-Ogre
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There aren't enough women to completely replace all the men. You'll find less unemployed female coders than male ones, though, for this reason.
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There are lots of intertwined issues in Germany. Besides the fact that the society tends to be traditional about gender-roles and family, things are set up to keep it that way. Kids get out of school at 1pm and their mothers are expected to be there to make them lunch and help them with homework all afternoon. Women have an incredibly difficult time trying to combine career and family here. Since a university education takes much longer here, most women graduate in their late 20s, then they have to do a couple of internships before getting their first real job. But by the time they are ready for that, many women are already feeling they have to make a choice between career and family.
There is a law here that a woman can take three years off work after the birth of her child and then must be given her job back. Because of this, ( ... )
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I think I only learned to be careful later, probably as I started looking more gay, and also through the fears of my various girlfriends.
I still don't really think I'm oppressed, though, not in liberal towns in Oregon in 2011. If anything, being gay gives me a cool factor.
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For some reason, it's stuck in my head. Possibly because we've talked about it a lot.
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