One of my classmates from MIT (we graduated when the Wisconsin ice sheet still covered most of Massachusetts) emailed to say how excited she was that young women were suing employers more frequently than women had in the past (unclear that this is true; it could just be that Ellen Pao-style lawsuits now get more press coverage than previously). Ellen Pao in particular is a hero to her. Why? “Lawsuits force men to listen up.”
I responded with “ask yourself why a U.S. company would want to hire women at this point at the same wage as a man. If every female employee comes with a statistical risk of being sued and spending $10 million defending the discrimination lawsuit, then the only way for the female employee to be equally valuable to the company if she is paid a lower wage. … So women like Ellen Pao actually lower the wages of other women in the workforce.”
Was she persuaded by this Econ 101/Accounting 201 argument? Apparently not because she responded with “This email of yours is wrong and ignorant and sexist.”
Phil, I’m sure your former classmate would also be pleased to discover that
computers are racist.
You are blaming the victim. If you actually follow the logic you should pay men less for actions that put your company at risk of lawsuit.
Your comment to your female colleague is a subset of the larger rhetorical question, “Why would any man enter into a legal contract with a woman if it comes with a potentially catastrophic lawsuit 50% of the time?”
Look up the term of art “illusory promise” for a perfect definition of marriage in America today.
Wait until she sues Reddit also, lol.
@anthony: you should pay men less for actions that put your company at risk of lawsuit.
But, at least in the Pao case, as was proved in court, the men committed no wrongful acts.
The Matriachy is coming. Look at Argentina to see the future of the USA.
Just recently, Argentina put in as president of the board of the Nacion Bank (!!!!) a 26 year old girl who is the daughter of the Argentine Defense Minister, who doesn’t have a single year of work experience and is fresh out of university. On top of that she is a Marxist.
” Delfina Rossi is 26 years old and graduated in Economics in Barcelona, Spain, where she lived for several years. She has a Master in Economics as well, a course she took in Florence, Italy. She was part of left-wing political groups in Spain becoming part of the list of that country’s Popular Left party in the elections for the European Parliament. Last year, she was a candidate also for the European Parliament, representing the Initiative for Catalonia, a leftist and green coalition.”
http://en.mercopress.com/2015/08/13/argentine-minister-s-daughter-26-board-member-of-main-development-bank