Woman.

[passionpop]

In Australia we have the laws, yes, but our award system generally punishes female dominated occupations.



Teaching, nursing, childcare, administration and even payroll are all areas which are not paid what they should be. I have heard from someone who works in payroll for a hospital that what nurses get paid compared to doctors is 'criminal' and the nurses 'do all the work'



when boys try to go into these occupations they are often deterred. Even from a young age when a boy says they want to be a nurse, career guidance counselors will tell them 'you mean a doctor' and when a girl says they want to be a doctor they get told to join nursing cadets... well I did when I was at school anyways... and I learned how to make pom-poms because THAT is an essential life skill...



At my old job they still had a typing pool into the early 90's and in the 80's women still had to refer to men as Mr <surname>. though the typing pool was gone, it wasn't. there were many jobs that men were discouraged from applying for. there was not a single male in a 'level A' administration role. In 8 years at the company one boy started in Administration and that was only because due to legislative requirements he could not speak to clients (which includes marketing) or advise to those speaking with clients. when he turned 18 he went straight to a level B job. In that same 8 years 4/20 women got promoted from level A, 2 to senior level A positions, one because they were making her position redundant and one because she had a uni degree. she moved the the women only department of payroll.



There is the opposing view that women choose these occupations, and yes in some cases they do. Women who need to return to work often fall into jobs that I like to call 'mother traps'. they are jobs that promote themselves as being flexible, but what they mean by this is that you have to be flexible to them, they wont move an inch for you.



One Company I had an interview at years ago was basically a call centre for paging messages. flexible meant that full timers usually had to work split shift. part timers would work late at night. the pay was award, but less than market rate for call centres at the time. many of the women that worked there only started because they were blinded by the 'flexibility' and were now unable to leave because they need the money and work such long hours to make the money they need that they are too tired to look for another job. |



There are also stories of women who go into occupations like medicine and IT and are shunned by their colleagues. some mines and the military are also areas where women are harassed



What is interesting is the stories I have seen in of some of the Northern European militaries where men and women not only do they same work, they share the same barracks. This is part of the solution to removing the disparities between the genders, removing segregation. There is a bit of it around, though we don't notice it or accept it. schools, clothes, hairstyles, glasses, shoes (Fashion in general), sports, shavers (stuff it, i use mens shavers because they are cheaper), shampoos, deodorant, backpackers (some back packers are mixed gender dorms, YHA in Australia are strictly segregated like good little Christians. in many countries overseas there are few segregated dorms) , and then the two most segregated, language and advertising.



I did mention sport, however there is Mixed netball, which (unlike mixed tennis) has a fluid amount of people allowed in each gender. most mixed netball competition put a minimum of players for each gender, but with 7 people, a team with 4 girls can still kick a team with 4 boys arse. And this is about the only example where both genders can play together (over 16 nationally and over 12 in some states) on an equal level.



Our society as a whole has a gender disparity and this is reflected in the workplace. it will take a long time to remove it, if ever. we will be left behind the developed world if we don't fix it soon though.