Public Comment

Gender inequality: a male perspective

Harry Brill
Friday March 24, 2017 - 04:18:00 PM

This month, which has been designated as women's history month, has given us an opportunity to appreciate the tremendous contributions that women have made to our well being. Unfortunately, some of the harsh inequality that women have endured is still with us. Women make up over half of those who live in poverty.. It is not surprising because women continue to experience considerable discrimination. At work, women earn on the average only 80% of male wages. In some occupations, the wage gap is even larger. This is not only because women congregate disproportionately in low wage occupations. Most women earn lower wages even when they occupy the same jobs. 

Gender inequality is an issue that men need to think about. Among the reasons so many male workers are struggling is related to the availability to employers a lower wage workforce. Since the opportunity of men to improve their wages is often extremely difficult at best, they too experience a high rate of poverty. 

For example, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, male nursing and health care workers, earn on the average annually almost $2,000 more than women do. But they still make a poverty wage of under $28,000 a year. For cooks it is even worse. Although men make about $2,000 more than women, they still average only $24,000 a year. The same pattern of inequality and poverty wages applies to laundry and dry cleaning workers as well as many other occupations. 

The only way out of this dilemma is for both men and women workers to work together to not only improve their earnings. They must organize to abolish wage inequality. In fact, it is impossible for men to improve their stand of living without achieving wage equality for women workers and of course other workers who are subject to super-exploitation.  

Among the weapons that women have won is the 1963 Equal Pay Act. The law prohibits sex-base wage discrimination between men and women who perform the same jobs under similar conditions. The problem is that the law is not seriously enforced. We must make a vigorous and even militant effort to insist that all employers obey this immensely important law. Generally speaking, we must persuade the government and the private sector that a humane society is obligated to do whatever they can to achieve fair and just economic principles.