June 23, 2013 archive

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Anti-Capitalist Meetup: Don’t Buy the Hype: The Gender Wage Gap and Women’s Oppression by Geminijen

Accordingly to an article entitled, “More Women Are bringing Home the Bacon…, ”  heralding women’s gains in pay equity, a recent Pew study revealed that an  impressive number of married breadwinner moms reflects society’s increasing opportunities for women, while the median income for the growing population of  single mother households  is $23,000 — just 28 percent of the income of one in which the female breadwinner is married, and less than half the median household income in America.

So What Else Is New?

The wage gap between women’s and men’s individual wages is the most standard indicator used to define women’s march toward equality. In recent studies of the gender wage gap, women make between 76 to 78 cents for every dollar made by men and most literature is optimistic that the gap will disappear or even reverse in  the near future. The gender wealth gap, however, another measure of gender inequality which measures the total wealth or net worth a woman has accumulated over time,  shows that women have, on average, only 6% to 36% of the wealth owned by men and that the gap is growing.

 photo b6c52919-9989-4214-bc0a-74e108bb326a_zpsafb25c48.jpg

source:http://www.cunapfi.org/download/198_Women_of_Color_Wealth_Future_Spring_2010.pdf

The stark difference between these two measures suggests two things about statistics:1) statistics on the same subject can fluctuation wildly depending on what is being measured and the methodology used and 2) One of the main functions of statistics is not to measure the reality, but as a propaganda tool to reinforce the ideology of the dominant culture.

The problem with using the wage gap . As a measure of inequality, the gender wage gap only measures an individual’s income growth in the market place and does not take into account either the worth of women’s unpaid social labor in the home(outside the marketplace) or how this unpaid labor structurally effects women’s position in the market place over time.

Because of its narrow parameter, much of the analysis of what the wage gap means in terms of the overall inequality of men versus women is merely a guess that allows for a lot of unverifiable  interpretations. For example, the recent Pew study echoes a demographic study that hit the New York Times a couple of years ago that showed  a narrowing of the wage gap, suggesting women’s wages were even surpassing men’s in some cases, especially in major cities.

The cause of women’s increased equality, the researcher suggested, was due to  increases in women’s higher educational status and increased  “feminist  consciousness.” In fact,  a closer analysis showed that the close in the wage gap was due to the outsourcing of  well paying union manufacturing jobs which had been held by men due to a sex segregated workforce. By focusing on city populations where people of color form a larger part of the database, the lower gap also reflected the fact that the wage gap is generally lower between women and men of color since men of color generally make significantly less than white men due to racism.  

Cartnoon

This concludes The Day The Universe Changed.

On This Day In History June 23

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

Click on images to enlarge.

June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 191 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin. Hopes for better U.S.-Soviet relations run high as U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey, for a three-day summit. The meeting ended inconclusively, however, as issues such as Vietnam and the Middle East continued to divide the two superpowers.

Background

With the United States gradually losing ground in the Vietnam War, the administration was looking for other solutions to the conflict.

On 5 June 1967 the Six-Day War began between Israel and the Arab states. The war led to an increase in Soviet-US diplomatic contact and cooperation; there were some who hoped this could continue to help the US solve the Vietnam war and other pressing international issues. Several days later the Soviet Union sent Premier Alexei Kosygin to New York to hold a speech on the then-ongoing Middle Eastern crisis at the United Nations headquarters. When the United States government was informed of this the Americans gladly welcomed Kosygin to a meeting between him and President Lyndon B. Johnson. On 13 June 1967 Johnson sought out J. William Fulbright, a Senator, at a White House reception. Llewellyn Thompson, then US ambassador to the USSR, believed that a conference could “start the process of moving toward an understanding with the Soviets”. Fulbright even believed that Johnson was reconsidering his Vietnam strategy. Later Fulbright wrote two letters to Johnson about the importance of a summit between the two nations. Johnson agreed, and wrote a letter in return, which said they were waiting for a Soviet response for US invitation. Walt Rostow, the National Security Adviser at the time, said it was a 20 percent chance of the summit having a good effect on Soviet-US relations, and only a 10 percent chance of the summit going awry.

The Soviet Political Bureau (Politburo) were divided over the usefulness of the summit. Andrei Gromyko, the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time and still not a member of the Politburo, was able to win support for it. Gromyko noted that Soviet-US dialogue which had been suspended in 1963 should be reactivated, despite the Vietnam War putting a great deal strain on the two countries’ relations.

Kosygin agreed to address the United Nations wished to conduct the summit in New York. Johnson, wary of encountering protesters against the war in Vietnam, preferred to meet in Washington, D.C.. Roughly equidistant, Hollybush was selected as a compromise. The summit took place at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Six In The Morning

On Sunday

It pays to use slave labour, says watchdog

Gangmasters Licensing Authority is dismayed at tiny fines levied on unscrupulous employers

EMILY DUGAN    SUNDAY 23 JUNE 2013

Sentences for criminal bosses who use forced labour are “unduly lenient” and do not deter modern slavery, the head of Britain’s worker exploitation watchdog believes.

Sentences for criminal bosses who use forced labour are “unduly lenient” and do not deter modern slavery, the head of Britain’s worker exploitation watchdog has told The Independent on Sunday.

The fines for agencies and farmers exploiting staff are so small that they are seen as a “hazard of the job” and not a deterrent, Paul Broadbent, chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority said in an interview.




Sunday’s Headlines:

Turkey’s crowds return, armed only with flowers

The myth behind Brazil’s Lula is crumbling

Al-Qaeda says European hostages are alive

Should African-American history have its own museum?

Malaysia declares emergency as Indonesia smoke pollution thickens

Edward Snowden flies to Moscow

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new…

Not the greatest source but there is some fun stuff here corroborated by others copying each other. 🙂

“The United States previously requested Hong Kong to issue a provisional arrest warrant for Mr Snowden. Because the US request failed to fully comply with the requirements under Hong Kong law, the US Department of Justice was asked to provide further information in consideration of the relevant legal conditions,” the Hong Kong government statement added.

“The failure to provide sufficient information in this case meant there was no legal basis to restrict Mr Snowden’s departure,” it said.

Previously, Mr Snowden has said both that he was willing to go through the Hong Kong legal system and that he would consider asylum elsewhere, particularly in Iceland.

Looks like Obama just hasn’t been able to hire competent lawyers.

I have very personal reasons for loving Snowden’s yearning to move to Iceland.

When I was in an Army class I was totally incompetent for, there was a very real threat of failure leading to assignment to Iceland.  At that time GI’s were caged in a very small area for a year because Icelanders had complained about their women were marrying American soldiers and leaving the country.

Iceland didn’t figure it had a lot of young women to spare.  I don’t know if the population has increased but prosperity surely has on the back of geothermal power despite the financial fiasco.

If you’re not caged inside a wire fence, I expect Iceland would be a wonderful place to live, especially if you share an interest in geothermal power that remains under dark clouds of superstition and ignorance in these United States.  Geothermal is a religion in Iceland.  The Icelanders even considered commercializing the hothouse cultivation of bananas in the country.  They are grown in demonstration sections.

Bobby Fischer was the last “traitor” that I know of to find refuge in Iceland.  

Best,  Terry

What We Now Know

On the week’s segment of Up with Steve Kornacki, Maggie Halberman, Politico; political strategist Basil Smikle;  Josh Barro, Business Insider; and Maya Wiley, Center for Social Inclusion discuss what they have learned this week.

Late Night Karaoke

Is only Obama allowed to take a leak in his executive branch?

Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

Government documents reviewed by McClatchy illustrate how some agencies are using that latitude to pursue unauthorized disclosures of any information, not just classified material. They also show how millions of federal employeees and contractors must watch for “high-risk persons or behaviors” among co-workers and could face penalties, including criminal charges, for failing to report them. Leaks to the media are equated with espionage.

“Hammer this fact home . . . leaking is tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States,” says a June 1, 2012, Defense Department strategy for the program that was obtained by McClatchy.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/201…

Maybe Obama could hire Kos to ferret out any liberals.  

Even if Markos is unwilling, shouldn’t be too hard to spot any employees that seem in urgent need of taking a leak.

Best,  Terry