HERstory

The title isn't a typo.
It's the opposite of HIStory.

This is about pay inequality for women.
We women have all been--and the majority, no doubt, still are--touched by it.
It's insidious.
While initially a reader may think I'm referencing the news of sexual harassment that's been at the forefront of news for many months, that's not my topic despite it likely being part of Cause and Effect.

Men make more money than women.
Even for doing the same job.

I experienced that in my working life, but won't go into details about me.
The principals in my case are still living, plus it's too late for me as I've retired.
It didn't begin in my generation either; my Mother suffered its effects too.
But I have a daughter.

Women, the victims, can't expect "the system" to be the catalyst for its own demise; women themselves must instigate change.
And the time has arrived.


Carrie Gracie of the BBC did it, story here.

Wikipedia does a good job of explaining the sheer depth of wage slavery.
It takes many many forms, but that's what it is.

Put very simply, women workers were needed during World War II because men were serving.  Rosie the Riveter is a famous example.  After the war ended, armaments manufacturing switched to a new gear in a new economy where women could augment a family's meager income by working in offices as clerks and machine operators in textile mills, for example.

The advent of more widely available and effective birth control measures allowed women to plan--indeed, space out pregnancies--and economic benefits to the family could accrue as the woman was able to work outside the home.  Little progress was evidenced as many religious and cultural tenets prevented women from achieving the potential of selecting a future for themselves.  Often dependent first on parents, then husbands, and ultimately being responsible for the care of their children and home, change was slow to occur.

The Free World's democracies routinely pat themselves on their constitutional backs for being the first to enshrine human rights.
While spouting the merits of human rights to developing countries, these same democracies ignore the travesty of pay inequality.
Such hypocrisy!

Equal pay for equal work is a right.
Do it for your daughters.

from Google images

Then thank Carrie Gracie for having the courage to make it happen.

Make herstory happen.
In this generation.