You know what I worry about? I think people have imbued this election with so much import. Everything feels so desperate and precious. But the problems are so deep and wide, that no single person is really going to do anything substantial to fix it. I know that probably sounds horribly cynical and defeatist, but it’s how I feel. So, one guy or the other is going to win, and nothing will change and then the people who were half believing in a miracle will lose all hope.

Well written, well said (and without being polished? Kudos!)

(can I call you Mar?)

(has your gray cloud of “overwhelmed” lifted at all?)

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/101202/

It’s true that there have been advances made in equality; they just don’t go far enough. A large establishment’s pay practices became publicly known a few years back. When asked why its policy was to pay its male managers more than its female managers, the response from PR was that the men have families to support at home.

This is nonsensical! Equal pay for equal skill and equal work. Anything less is unacceptable. Furthermore, has it escaped this company’s attention that there are different family structures? Stay-at-home dads, single parents, same-sex relationships, etc., etc., etc. Why should the men make more than the women? There is no justifiable answer.

I work full-time. I’m in school full-time. And I’m a wife and mom, so I also work at home full-time. My schooling directly relates to my job and is designed to facilitate advancement. And as a student, I have an average in the high 80′s to low 90′s; I’ve also taken one scholarship so far and am aiming for more. So if I don’t get treated nice and paid appropriately, I become inclined to move on. Fortunately, my current employer has no gender bias issues of which I am aware, and so I’m good. But it hasn’t always been the case.

At another company, where I was denied advancement potential, they were pretty brazen about this. I had a male friend who applied for an opening on par with what I was doing. When I handed in his resume and gave him a glowing reference, I was told that they couldn’t hire him; he wouldn’t be happy because the role was clerical and a man would really be looking for something more advanced. Seriously! That’s what they said!!

Anyway, this is something of a hot button issue for me. And I’m irritated by the notion that Newsweek would put a cutesy lipstick drawing out there to try and drum up a female audience. As if they don’t already have one. And as if we’ll be all “Ooooh … look at the pretty colours … I wonder if they’ll tell me how to properly apply my make-up”. ‘Cause that’s what women really want. Obviously. Haven’t you seen that commercial with the vacuous model who announces to the world “What I really want is for my foundation to match my skin”. (World peace be damned!)

Okay. Enough ranting for today. Suffice it to say: I agree with you on this. I don’t know when it will ultimately be fixed. These things just seem to take a lot of time and a lot of work. But for now, I hope that you get fewer and fewer men trying to explain these difficult real estate deals to you, the poor little gal who’s clearly in over her head. Fatheads!