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Gotcha. Unfortunately, the kind of people who seek money and positions of power are often also men, and the kind of men who think they're better than women. That is definitely a thing, and because of how imperfect our court system can be, I am sure that many instances of discrimination (along with many instances of a lot of bad things) can and do slip through the cracks.
That being said, it is my observation that those people usually have to find ways to circumvent the legal system and Western culture at large, because sexual discrimination and harassment are illegal in the workplace, and mistreatment of women just because they're women is actually obscenely unpopular with a growing majority of both men and women, especially among young people (at least according to what I see in pop culture and in the people I observe).
While those things do exist, and people do sometimes get away with them, people also get fired and/or prosecuted for those things on a regular basis. I can think of at least 3 or 4 people off the top of my head that have been fired from my day job for sexual harassment and/or discriminatory language (calling someone of any gender a bitch or a fag is a no-warning offense, and one guy recently got canned for calling a girl a cum-guzzling cunt). Also, since I'm in the food service industry, I am extremely used to women making more money than me, both on isolated cases and in general. 3 out of my 4 managers are women, including the general manager, who presumably makes more than any of us (not that I would care even if it were any of my business).
I guess my bottom line is that I recognize that discrimination is an ongoing and attention-worthy problem, but I don't think it's systemically enabled or culturally acceptable in the current zeitgeist; it's very much a feature of a dying generation. I'm sure there are certain areas and maybe even whole states where it's a bigger problem, but I'm in rural Virginia squarely below the Mason Dixon line and it's still generally considered a no-no to discriminate in either pay or hiring because somebody is a woman, black, gay, or anything else.
I have run into assholes who do not behave appropriately toward women in one regard or another, but they are generally frowned upon and find it difficult to hold jobs if they can't keep that shit to themselves at work.
I also don't think the earnings gap is a good thing to point to, either as evidence of wage discrimination or as an example of a cultural bias against women. It seems to me that the factors that primarily play into that are things that have nothing to do with discrimination and mostly to do with biological and behavioral differences between men and women.
Why those differences exist (and to what extent they influence income) is a whole other debate, but I think those factors influence the statistical variation in lifetime earnings between men and women far more than instances of unpunished discrimination (infuriating as those may be).
Great points, Red! I agree - I think the wage gap is primarily a generational/patriarchal perception problem. I grew up in the 60's - in an area when a married woman having a job was a terrible shame for her husband. These ideas have not yet completely died out.
And I don't think that the earnings gap is the best example of cultural bias either. I have read many interesting books about speech and behavior patterns, and the difference between male business culture and female - they make great points - I should look them up. I still think the article I posted was interesting though.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
