Revolutionary Rants

What a big surprise… Not. The UK has the worst female/male pay gap in Europe, the Guardian informs us, women continue to be paid a horrific 17% less than men do for the same full-time job (don’t even get me started on p/t), but this is hardly news, is it?

However much the law may enshrine pay equality there will always be groups isolated out of the biggest pay-outs (women chief amongst these). Only last week I read an article suggesting that older workers are being systematically axed off now, before new legislation comes in later in the year. The same sort of discrimination has always happened to women: she’ll be off soon to have a baby, she’s too emotional, blah blah blah. On top of this, those persons (female or male) who choose to “stay at home” (evil phrase…) and “look after young children” are stigmatised for not pursuing a career. But , then, women who chose the career are also stigmatised. How can you win?!

Furthermore, this morning on the news women were being encouraged to become tilers and plasterers, as recommended by this report (encouraging women in to ‘non-traditional’ careers - like doctors or brain surgeons, maybe?). Now, i am sure this is a perfectly good job, but somehow it stinks of the fact that now males won’t go in to these traditional ‘labouring’ professions they are trying to get women to fill the gap created by the ‘you can do anything you want’ society of post-Thatcherite Britain. Women, who are now almost systematically out performing men at school (and university?) should become brickies… Great, just another way of keeping women in low pay and filling a gap in the market, just what we need!