Recently in Financial Matters Category

by Elizabeth Hemmerdinger

The road to economic recovery is going to be rocky – and apparently built mostly by men.   Linda R. Hirshman , author of Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World , brings something pretty scary to our attention in last week's op-ed piece “Where Are the New Jobs for Women? ”  “The bulk of the stimulus program [announced by President-elect Barack Obama] will provide jobs for men," writes Hirschman, "because building projects generate jobs in construction, where women make up only 9 percent of the work force.”  We can hope that this fact is merely a momentary oversight on the part of the incoming administration. After all, almost half of the American work force is women. Overlooking the necessity of putting women back to work, even as an accidental consequence of the developing stimulus program, is untenable. Clearly, some women choose not to build roads. Those who want to, ought to get trained. For all we know, more women would do construction work if they could get the training , if, for instance, the unions weren’t essentially closed shops.

  Just as clearly, jobs to which tend to attract more women (if whatever statistics they are using for all of this is to be believed) must be made available, too. “During the campaign,” Ms. Hirshman continues, “Mr. Obama also promised that the first part of his plan to combat urban poverty would be to replicate a nonprofit organization in New York called the Harlem Children’s Zone in 20 cities across the country.”

To see the rest (including video), click here.

Dating Around

I have wanted to write a post about dating for some time, and fortunately, one of my favorite blogs brought up one of the topics on my mind recently. Like wedding traditions and anything else to do with courtship, dating tends to be fraught with sexist 'traditions,' although they are less entrenched than the 'traditions' in marriage. The question was was about who should pay on the first date. This simple question is something anyone who does a 'real' date has to contend with: who picks up the bill? Finances are obviously personal, and the way people handle and value money can really show core personality issues. (I feel guilty spending too much money on 'fun' things for myself. Ergo, I feel guilty about enjoying myself.)

While I don't mean to make an issue out of suicide, when I saw the front page of MSNBC, this headline jumped out at me:

"Male Suicide a Growing Concern in Tough Economic Times"

My first thought was, "So, women can't have economic concerns that are that important, now?"

I understand that this is coming entirely from a patriarchial perspective - that men have to support their families, and thus losing a job or having a family financial crisis is seen as a failure on their part.  However, there are HOW many women today that support their own children and pay their own bills as single mothers or otherwise?

The subtitle of the article "War, debt and joblessness causing emotional distress for many young men"doesn't seem like something that should be primarly male - those are issues that are enough to make anyone depressed!

The article tries to make male suicide seem more pressing by stating that more men actually do go through with suicide than women, and calls women taking pills "halfhearted".  This just reads like a continuation of the ever-present portrayal of male psychological problems (when addressed) as a "serious concern", while women are considered "silly".

Instead of worrying about how men are affected by job loss or economic issues, can we focus on how these affect the mental health of ALL affected?

The news about the demise of Lehman Brothers reminds me of watching the telecom meltdown of 2001, from my ring-side seat as a recruiter in the Dallas Telecom Corridor.

On Monday, shocked Lehman Brothers staff were told to "move on" :

The mantra of Lehman Brothers was to pay its staff in stock – some 30 per cent of the bank’s equity was held by employees and many bonuses were paid in shares. Now those holdings are all but worthless.

Some staff were also told not to expect a paycheck at the end of the month and that they might even be liable for expenses on their corporate credit cards.

No one ever sees this kind of financial decimation coming. Almost no one is prepared for it.

From the Marine Corps Times:

---------------------------------------

"The performance-based pay system, called the National Security Personnel System or NSPS, was launched two years ago. The performance evaluations, raises and bonuses handed out in January were the first large-scale test of the new system, covering 102,000 employees at agencies, bases and commands across the Defense Department."

"The first large-scale payout of new pay-for-performance raises and bonuses, completed in January, was riddled with inequalities, an analysis by Federal Times has shown."

This caught my eye because they stated in the title that there were gender discrepancies, so I thought, "Here's another example of women not getting paid as much as men!" But look what it said!

...And women received larger total payouts overall than did their male counterparts even though they both received the same performance ratings, on average.

What do you think of that?

So I was walking with a friend tonight in Manhattan. She lives on the Upper-ish East Side. We bid adieu at 63rd and 3rd and I walked about a block when I saw a jewelry store. In the window, was this sign:

It really made me so angry, especially since I started reading Feministing and other feminist blogs and books, about a year or two ago, and I find I am much more observant about commonplace, everyday misogyny. I scrounged around in my backpack, looking for a pen and a piece of paper. Now I think I would've written something like, "The Middle Ages called, they want their sexism back." At the time, though, I could only come up with a simple "FUCK YOU. I MAKE MY OWN MONEY."

As I'm writing this, I'm so furious I can barely think.  I have been working for this company that provides music lessons for nearly a year.  I recently suggested that my boyfriend, who is also a musician, should apply to work for them as well.  So musika hires him, which is all well and good, until I discover what he's getting paid.  

They are paying him at least $10 more per hour than they are paying me (specifically, they pay me $36 per hour, and he is getting $46 per hour).  We have similar educational backgrounds (both of us have a Master's degree in music performance), and I have MORE teaching experience.  I'm convinced he's getting more money for no other reason than he's a man, and I'm so furious I don't know what to do.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Should I quit in protest?  Demand equal pay?