Sunday, March 24, 2013

Gender Inequality

There's this site I like that I've mentioned before, Embrace The Chaos on MSN. She did a blurb about the never-ending "mommy wars" and gender inequality, gender egalitarianism, and feminism. I posted a comment about my current situation and got a response I didn't like.
Chelsea said...
My boyfriend has more education than me (though we both attended post secondary) and when I became pregnant unexpectedly, neither of us had jobs at the time and my boyfriend was returning to school. He was just about to graduate when I gave birth. It made sense for us that I stay home and he go out and try to find a job. It could have gone either way, but he has more earning potential than I do due to his education.
After 6 months, I started a home daycare so I could make money and stay home with my baby. I don't even net a thousand dollars a month, but we don't have to pay for childcare, we don't need a second car, and a lot of stuff that I bought for the daycare, my daughter will be able to use one day and I get to write it off.
I'm not sure if I "have it all" because my wardrobe consists of over-sized shirts and sweat pants, and I never get to leave the house anymore, but this is our life now and we're just trying to make ends meet. I do all the cooking and cleaning and my boyfriend pays all the bills. It's just how we decided to do things and it has nothing to do with gender egalitarianism or feminism or anything like that. People read too much into that stuff.
Sara said in reply to Chelsea...
I think you are kidding yourself if you think your situation is not due to gender differences. You describe perfectly the gender gap of the 'slight advantage' males have to their wives in career which is multiplied by maternity leave.

Anadam said in reply to Sara...
Your comment would make more sense if they both had equal levels of education. By her own admission, her boyfriend is more educated than she is. That in itself can explain a disparity in earning potential. I'm not suggesting that there isn't a gender gap, there definitely is, but there is more at play here than just that.
I still don't think there's a gender gap. My education, Media Production, is extremely specific, and with my 3 years experience working in television news broadcast, there's not much else I can do besides freelance. If I were to go out and try to get a job, it would be a minimum wage job because that's pretty much all I'm qualified to do at this point in my life.

Bob, who is 7 years older than I am and has a decade more work experience than I do has a B.A. English and an Administrative Professional diploma. His education is much more broad and those skills are all easily transferable. His earning potential is greater than mine, not because he has a penis, but because he is better educated.

Bob pays all the bills because Bob makes all he money. If I was still working at CBC making $25 an hour, Bob would be the stay at home Dad, cleaning the house, and I would pay all the bills.

When it comes to our child though, as soon as Bob walks in the door, he's got his Dad hat on and he's ready to take care of her. At the end of the day, that's what matters most to me. We're both raising our baby the best we can and it doesn't matter who works and who cleans, it just needs to get done and we've split it up in a way we both agree on. That's equality.

1 comment:

  1. Arguing on the internet against people who have an axe to grind is an exercise in futility.

    And boy is it ever true that Media Production is very specific. I couldn't get a job anywhere else unless I went back to school or started out apprenticing, and who wants to hire a 25 y/o apprentice?

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