He who Created Knows the Difference

  
Read from Quran: [4:34]  
  
  Men are in charge of women, because Allah  hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of  their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient,  guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom  ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge  them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is  ever High, Exalted, Great.  
  
  
http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/09/05/opinion/edfarrell.php
  
  Meanwhile: Exploiting the gender gapWarren Farrell The New York Times
  TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005
    
  
CARLSBAD,  California Nothing disturbs America's working  women more than the statistics showing that they are paid only 76 cents  to men's dollar for the same work.  
  
When I was on the board of the National Organization for  Women in New York City, I blamed discrimination for that gap. Then I asked  myself, "If an employer has to pay a man one dollar for the same work  a woman would do for 76 cents, why would anyone hire a man?"  
  
Perhaps, I thought, male bosses undervalue women. But  I discovered that in 2000, women who own their own businesses earned only  49 percent of male business owners. Why? When the Rochester Institute of  Technology surveyed business owners with MBAs from one top business school,  they found that money was the primary motivator for only 29 percent of  the women, versus 76 percent of the men. Women put a premium on autonomy,  flexibility (25- to 35-hour weeks and proximity to home), fulfillment and  safety.  
  
After years of research, I discovered 25 differences in  the work-life choices of men and women. All 25 lead to men earning more  money, but to women having better lives.  
  
High pay, as it turns out, is about tradeoffs. Men's tradeoffs  include working more hours (women work more around the home); taking more  dangerous, dirtier and outdoor jobs (garbage collecting, construction,  trucking); relocating and traveling; and training for technical jobs with  less people contact (like engineering).  
  
Is the pay gap, then, about the different choices of men  and women? Not quite. It's about parents' choices. Women who have never  been married and are childless earn 117 percent of their childless male  counterparts. (This comparison controls for education, hours worked and  age.) Their decisions are more like married men's, and never-married men's  decisions are more like women's in general (careers in arts, no weekend  work, etc.)  
  
Does this imply that mothers sacrifice careers? Not really.  Surveys of men and women in their 20s find that both sexes (70 percent  of men, and 63 percent of women) would sacrifice pay for more family time.  The next generation's discussion will be about who gets to be the primary  parent.  
  
Don't women, though, earn less than men in the same job?  Yes and no. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics lumps together  all medical doctors. Men are more likely to be surgeons (versus general  practitioners) and work in private practice for hours that are longer and  less predictable, and for more years. In brief, the same job is not the  same.  
  
Are these women's choices? When I taught at a medical  school, I saw that even my first-year female students eyed specialties  with fewer and more predictable hours.  
  
But don't female executives also make less than male executives?  Yes. Discrimination? Let's look. The men are more frequently executives  of national and international companies with more personnel and revenues,  and responsible for bottom-line sales, marketing and finances, not human  resources or public relations. They have more experience, relocate and  travel overseas more, and so on.  
  
Comparing men and women with the "same jobs,"  then, is to compare apples and oranges. However, when all 25 choices are  the same, the great news for women is that then the women make more than  the men. Is there discrimination against women? Yes, like the old boys'  network.  
  
And sometimes discrimination against women becomes discrimination  against men: In hazardous fields, women suffer fewer hazards. For example,  more than 500 marines have died in the war in Iraq. All but two were men.  In other fields, men are virtually excluded - try getting hired as a male  dental hygienist, nursery school teacher, cocktail waiter.  
  
There are 80 jobs in which women earn more than men -  positions like financial analyst, radiation therapist, library worker,  biological technician, motion picture projectionist. Female sales engineers  make 143 percent of their male counterparts; female statisticians earn  135 percent.  
  
I want my daughters to know that people who work 44 hours  a week make, on average, more than twice the pay of someone working 34  hours a week. And that pharmacists now earn almost as much as doctors.  But only by abandoning our focus on discrimination against women can we  discover these opportunities for women.  
  
Warren Farrell is the author of ''Why Men Earn More:  The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap — and What Women Can Do About It.''