I Think the IWF & Larry Summers Just Found A New Best Friend

Meet Dr. Farrell. He’s the asshole of the week that the NY Times Business Section decided to give in-depth coverage. He’s a pseudo-scientist that believes he’s finally figured out the gendered wage gap. His answer: women self-sabotage.
“Women, he believes, methodically engineer their own paltry pay. They choose psychically fulfilling jobs, like librarian or art historian, that attract enough applicants for the law of supply and demand to kick in and depress pay. They avoid well-paid but presumably risky work – hence, the paucity of women flying planes. And they tend to put in fewer hours than men – no small point, he says, because people who work 44 hours a week make almost twice as much as those who work 34 and are more likely to be promoted.”
Ummmm, yeah. But where is the analysis on how women are pushed out of partnerships and senior level positions when they become pregnant. Or how women are *still* left tending to the majority of childcare and house work. And how no matter how many hours we put in, we will still *never* be eligible for the boys club. I don’t care how you spin it, it is just plain *wrong* to blame women for their lower pay. (sigh).
Now I guess that because Dr. Farrell served on the board of NOW in the 1970’s we’re supposed to think that he’s not so anti-feminist after all. That he’s just presenting a new paradigm of economic analysis. Ummmm, yeah.
“It is O.K. to trade a fatter paycheck for more time with children and hobbies. Just recognize that society did not force the choice on you. ‘Feel powerful and happy that you have control over your own life,’ Dr. Farrell said. ‘It’s better than feeling like an angry victim of discrimination.'”
Well, you know what. I think anger is a pretty valuable tool. And rather than just accepting wage discrimination or blaming myself & other women for our low wages, I say that we keep giving the Dr. Farrells of the world hell.
One final thought–could the Times *really* not find anything better to publish than this propaganda? Well, hey, maybe in the post-Summers media climate, backlash is cool.