Women at Work

I’ve been reading recently in the papers about various work related women’s stuff. I read a comment piece in the Times (Thursday 6 September) with the title ‘If women don’t ask, they’re asking for it’ – which was all about the fact that women are far less likely to ask for a pay rise in a job than their male counterparts. This contributes to the rising pay gap between men and women in managerial positions – but as you can imagine is not as relevant to women in low paid, low skilled work who still bear the brunt of the pay inequality and injustice.

I’ve got a few things to say.

Firstly, I find it interesting that when you roll out the standard 17% average pay gap comment, people are always like ‘but that’s not like for like’. So lets look at the ‘like for like’ stats shall we….. Low paid, low skilled part time work: pay gap of more than 38%. Managers in food and drink industry: pay gap of 46%. HR, Pensions and Insurance industries: pay gaps of more than 40% each . Interestingly, the Guardian reported recently that the Public Sector’s gender pay gap sits at just 0.7%. Oh, so it CAN be done! So much of the legislation on equal pay, and the Gender Duty lets the private sector off the hook. That’s why their pay gaps aren’t going away. I know it’s not ideal for the poor poor private sector but pay equality simply won’t happen if we don’t extend the legislation that the Public Sector is subject to.

Secondly, in the comment piece titled ‘If women don’t ask, they’re asking for it’, I thought to myself ‘come on! When will the day come where women aren’t forced to move to the male position??? When will they come to us?’. Seriously though. Just because men ask for pay rises more doesn’t mean that we are responsible for our own lower pay. Pay should relate to performace and work. Not how pushy you are in the board room. How about companies stop doing that ‘if you ask you get’ thing and instead implement a published scale of pay with clear opportunities for reviews and stuff? No? Oh I see… maybe women should just do what men do….AGAIN. Well, I’m not going to. I’m going to keep campaigning for a better minimum wage, for equal pay for women, and for the legislation that’s revolutionised working practice for women in the public sector to apply to the Private Sector too!

Diana

I’d just like to attract you all to a book I read recently. It is PLEASING. Here it is:

Diana, Princess of Wales: How Sexual Politics Shook the Monarchy, Beatrix Campbell.

It’s about Diana’s life, the Royal Family (sexist) and the media (sexist). It’s like a feminist Heat magazine (juicy goss) with a load of brilliant class and gender analysis.

You should all read it.

Toilets

I was in France recently and had to use the odd public toilet whilst doing a bit of sight seeing whilst I was there. This is not a rant against France – the situation is the same everywhere.

Clearly we all know that there’s always a cue for women’s toilets – in bars, clubs, at tourist attractions, at the theatre, cinema, in school, at college, etc. And that there’s hardly EVER a queue for the men's. And most people would probably say ‘Kat, I know you care about sexism and everything but aren’t there more pressing things to worry about’. I’d probably agree – there are more pressing things. But this is just a 5 minute blog so I think the issue is taking up a proportionately appropriate amount of time.

Right. So first of all why don’t they build more toilets for women? And second of all – more interesting – when I thought about it there’s loads of sexism surrounding toilet use. Here’s my top 5 sexism and toilets list:

1. QUESTION: ‘why do women go to the toilet in pairs? HAHAHA! Aren’t they stupid and funny?’

ANSWER: No it’s not because we are stupid actually. Here are just some of the reasons that some women go to the toilet with others:

• to queue with
• to discuss various men who have harassed them in the last 5 minutes (esp clubs and pubs)
• to have sex (not in a male fantasy way – in a gay couple way. Live with it)
• to have a chat for 5 minutes that doesn’t involve having to negotiate sexism (esp clubs and pubs)
• because we don’t have issues about people thinking we might be gay (homophobic and sexist)
• because we need to borrow a tampon/sanitary towel/make-up/phone

2. Queueing.

3. The humiliation of standing in a queue for the toilet that reaches out the door and being desperate for the loo.

4. How extreme sanitary bins are; like menstruation is the most toxic dangerous thing in existence (it isn’t – babies grow in it).

5. When the baby changing facilities are in the women’s toilets but not the men’s.

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