GENDER PAY GAP AND THE INDEPENDENT'S INTERNAL CONFLICT

Many of you rightly pointed out (see comments) to Monday's Independent front page  about the gender pay gap being in favour of women for people between 22 and 29 - a story we commented about at the end of last year.

There are as ever two areas to review - firstly the comments section (the Independent piece had 298 comments) which gives those who truly want equality for men and women a voice across the UK.

The second piece is really around the comments and this is where you see the institutional antipathy of men especially by those who 'claim' to believe in equality.

Exhibit 1: Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union

She said: "I am pleased that young females are now earning more but we still have a lot of work to do before we bridge the pay gap between men and women in higher education, especially at professorial level."

So Ms Hunt is happy females are earning more than men, but does not say that we should now look at why men are underperforming (we know why - fewer education grades) and do something about that.

This is where you really do see the antipathy about men - sit on hands.

Exhibit 2:The Independent's leader 

This is a classic example of the conflict between those who believe in equality for both genders and the fear they have of the backlash for saying so. The leader says the gap is both welcome and unwelcome. It cannot be both.

Why does it not just say it is unwelcome if they gap is to widen which it surmises (like this site has) rather than trying to couch it that it is welcome. There is clear tension in their thinking - their emotional brain has been brainwashed by the anti-male feminists (the gap is welcome) while their reason/logic part of the brain is, er, logical (which is why they say it unwelcome).

 Posted by Skimmington

Comments

[Mr. Oginy]

People always argued the education gender gap wasn't too important because men earn more than women. This was always a short-sighted argument, because the schoolgirls and boys of today will be the working age adults of tomorrow.

And this gap in favour of women will only widen. Until the education gap is addressed we will continue to see women outnumbering men in university, and going into more higher paid jobs. And that will mean the pay gap in favour of women will widen still.

Job done all you feminist educationalists. The years of feminising our education system are finally starting to bear fruit.

[Groan]

This is just one area where gender feminists conflate issues. Clearly education should be good for all no matter what the future earnings potential . Yet the success of middle aged men is used to excuse ignoring boys in education. What is clearly the case is that there are no justifications for positive action programmer hung over from the 70s. The real issue is the effect of taking time out for children. Yet few feminists argue for equal rights with regard to children. Clearly women actually have more choices than men and pay reflects this. Yet public policy still actively discriminates against men who try to make the same choices.

[AngryMan]

If wimmin want equality then why don't they fight for the rights to go down mines or fight on the front line or lay tarmac or many of the other highly dangerous jobs that there are out there? Is it because they want something for nothing? Or are they playing the old female privilege card again! The UK is a bad place for young lads these days. I just can't understand why they don't all complain more. Actually I do understand. It's simple. It's because males are programed to be the protectors and they would chose to sacrifice themselves in favour of their family. They have been bred over thousands of years to be fighters and they've had their emotion ripped out of them. They would rather die like a "real man" than be seen to be emotional. This coupled with the fact that they are instinctively bred to be nice to potential pussy means that even the most educated politicians are scared stiff to say anything which could remotely offend the female population. When will this sie get a forum!