Double Whammy for Women's Pay [Anwyn]

They don't like to negotiate because it's not nice, and surprise, when they do, men and women bosses think they're not nice.

Mary Katharine Ham notes that you can't "magically" make salaries equal in a workplace that demands negotiation. Well, you can, by the "magic" of making a law that everybody gets paid the same and thus eventually overturning the economy. Wait, wait, can I think of any profession that already lives by a union that rules that people of the same level of experience, no matter their ability or effectiveness or assertiveness to negotiate on their own behalf, get paid the same? And what a shock that a) the people in that profession chronically complain of being underpaid and b) that profession is largely run by women.

It's obvious that most women, without being taught how, prefer not to negotiate. It may not be so obvious that even, or actually especially, women bosses punish them for doing so. I've felt the impulse myself, back when I was teaching. When you set up a system, as in a classroom, women tend to get more highly irritated than men when their subordinates, be it students or employees, try to insert their own ideas about how things should run.

Most women just have that automatic mom thing: "You'll take what I give you and like it that way."

Who knows, maybe I just have the makings of a pretty fair dominatrix in me.

I doubt it, though. I think it really is as the study says, that women have an innate tendency to penalize those who want to disrupt their system. So stop emailing me already, boys.

posted by xgenghisx at 11:27 PM

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