According to statistics released by the US Census Bureau on September 25, 2001

For every 1 Dollar earned by White men:

White women working full-time earn only 73 cents
African-American women earn only 65 cents
Latina women earn only 53 cents

read more at my blog:

Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Equality, Hell - how about Reparations?! 

Morgaine Swann, I will comment a little. By the way visited your site. Well organized. Very nice.
I don't know where you get your numbers, but let's say they are true. This isn't a challenge, or a dismisal, just try to listen and be as fair as you can. I notice you have this list that goes down by ethnic group. I want to address this since you stated it. Many "groups" seem to make less than white men. First off, I notice no mention of the other men, but I guess that wouldn't make your point, so it was selectively not mentioned. Not picking on you, seriously, but all the numbers should be there. Also, I notice you don't bring up a number of things.
A lot of single mothers work. Some do not. The ones that do may have to cut back on the hours so they can spend time raising the rug rats. I hope that's what parents are doing, considering the shape of today's youth "gone wild". If a single parent isn't at work they make less. Let's not forget the supplemental income of child support. Now, it would be off subject for us to get into that. I don't want April to [edit] my comments. If you like, you can look up my E-mail, and we can have a lively broo-ha-ha online via-e-mail or on your site. But, back to our discussion. Many black women have kids and are struggling to work and take care of em. Same as mentioned above. I have noticed that African-Americans and Hispanics seem to be more family oriented than Whites. Hell, I am White and I am saying it. Putting family before money isn't evil. Only in our society (and dont go "patriarchy" on me - give me a break - you like nice things - so do I ) we put a premium on earnings. Family or job - only so many hours in a day. More Hispanic women stay home in a "traditional role" than do White women. If you factor in their "income" it makes the number lower.
Point is, you stats may be valid. Seriously, but 1) the "white male" thing is kinda insensitive to use whites. 2) you only give partial stats on the rest of us men. 3) You don't factor in other things.
I know you will post back. Hoo-Ahh. E-mail me if you like. We would probably agree on a ton of things. This probably won't be one of them.

In a class last semester one boy said that there was no wage gap, and even if there was, it was because women took jobs that paid less. So basically, if they wanted to be paid more they should pick a higher paying profession. I was amazed really, it's easy to forget that people are really socialized to think of women as "asking for it" (to use an inflamatory phrase).

I heard that the wage gap was a result of women taking maternity leave. If that is the reason, then shouldn't things be levelling out now that paternity leave is becoming more and more common?

I've heard something similar to what Brigitte has reported, but I read it in an article by a female sociologist. Supposedly women don't ask for raises as often and that's why they don't get paid as much. This may be an itty bitty part of the problem but I don't believe it's the real cause behind the wage gap.

Read the Ampersand series, folks! It addresses the mommy track concept, too. ;)

Here's an (amended) piece I posted on another board regarding Amp's analysis-

"Too funny. ms. has a little piece on their blog today about this, of course. They refer any doubters of this discrimination to the research of Ampersand, a cartoonist. Actually, Amp's a very bright guy. That's what makes his take on this so painfully obtuse. He is very much a feminist, so he really wants to believe that true discrimination against women, by men, exists. I think the most telling example of bias is his repeated use of the term "anti-feminist". Ms. feminists will not tolerate any deviation from the mantra of victimization. Therefore, you are either completely with them, or completely against them. Sorta like Bush and terrorism. :) And liberals howl that conservatives have no understanding of nuance.
Apparently, Amp's angle is to produce evidence that disproves the notion that discrimination *never* exists. But who ever made that claim? Mistreatment could happen to anybody for a lot of reasons. The argument is whether or not it is systemic and always directed at one group.
Anyway, Amp goes into detail to prove why any one factor- motherhood, career choice, hours worked, experience- cannot account for the entire gap, but rather only a part, apparently oblivious to the fact that the aggregate of these factors could account for the gap quite tidely. Actually, I don't think he is oblivious as he then goes on the present extremely weak "evidence" on why even those factors actually brim with sexism. But it's almost all anecdotal or largely subjective. Like I said above, nobody said that discrimination *never* exists. It's just not nearly as prevalent as Amp and other would have us believe. Here is a quote, typical of his piece-

"To sum up, motherhood can account for a significant part of the wage gap. But motherhood doesn't account for all of the wage gap. Nor is it safe to assume that the "motherhood penalty" has nothing to do with discrimination or sexism."

If you polled 100 mothers, how many do you honestly think would prefer that their husband be the one to stay home with the child? I'd be willing to wager that that number would be very low, indeed.
Lately, feminists have been howling about the (not really new) trend of highly-educated and successful woman dropping off of the CEO track to pursue interests that allow them to balance family and career. Of course, it is not just highly-successful women who do this. A lot of women, by their own choice, seek part-time or less-stressful employment for similar reason.

Here is some more absurd "evidence" from Senator Carolyn Mahoney's website.

[edited by Kerri for length.
ATTN: Anyone responding should read guidelines first.]