WOMENS' COMMISSION GENDER PAY GAP MYTHS - SLAVISHLY LAPPED UP BY MEDIA

A 56 page report called Shaping a Fairer Future by the Women and Work Commission (no Men and Work Commission exists, of course) run by the UK Government's 'Equalities' Office.

The report essentially state that the gender pay gap is down to gender stereotyping in career choices promoted by schools.

Yet, as pointed out so many times on this site, there is a gender pay gap overall but:-

• Lifestyle choice (ie taking years out to bring up a family) is the biggest explanation of the gender pay gap as explained by the Office of National Statistics report in 2008
• Women and men earn the same wage until they reach their 30's (see above for reason) so it is not down to school career stereotyping
• Single women earn more than single men
• In landmark research by the Daily Telegraph, they showed that far more women are entering the professions than men.
• There is no evidence that women get paid less than men due to discrimination.

 An additional point worth looking at is the fact that in June, the Government were slammed by the UK Statistical Authority for using the figure of 23% for describing the gender pay gap instead of the more accurate 12%, yet the report still uses 23%. They ignore the truth.

The deliberate and sexist lack of intellectual rigour in reports like this just keep coming and one of the problems is that th British media, which as each year goes by, lacks serious depth, never challenges them. They just spew out the copy verbatim without looking at the above points, the evidence or points by academics.

In the myriad of articles, there is not one challenge to it in the news reporting or an alternative voice. The only article is by Jill Kirby of the Centre for Policy Studies in the Telegraph

Comments

[Groan]

Jill Kirby reminds readers about the push to increase maternity leave. Comparisons across europe show that the longer the leave alowed the greater the "pay gap". Similarly countries with a high proportion of part time working have the highest gap. These simple facts seem always to be missed by the W & W C.

[CS]

it always comes across in the Press that women are being payed less for doing the same job. Utter dross!!! There is a woman at my work on the same grade as me but works part time (4 day week) because she chooses to for personal reasons, this is the sort of thing that gets included in these statistics but that isn't made clear. If a woman decides to have a child and also wants the career then she should think about it and perhaps discuss with her partner as to who will be the breadwinner. My wife was completely at ease with stopping work and looking after the children, again that'll be another stat - she earns nothing. These reports in the paper make my blood boil, totally misleading and bereft of facts.