I'm not joking.

Good article. Overpaid Julie Mellor talks shit as usual.

"She (not thicky thicky stupid, overpaid waster head of pointless
quango Julie Mellor) admitted that many women can be forced into
part-time work and lack the financial independence of men. But, she
continued, "The implication is that men have real choices, and more
choices to make." However, the researcher insisted, "Most men have
little choice in how to spend their lives, being forced into the
full-time continuous lifelong employment career whether they like it or
not."

Hakim also commented that it is important to take into account the
difference between men and women when it comes to their preferences
regarding work and family. Men are divided into two groups, with
roughly half being work-centered and half seeking a balance between
work and family.

Women are more heterogeneous in their preferences. Around two-thirds
seek a balance between work and family. The remaining third is divided
between those who are work-centered or family-centered. Overall, around
80% of women prefer to be secondary earners in the family.

Regarding the question of sex discrimination, Hakim explained that even
if this were eliminated completely, sex differentials would continue to
exist. This is due both to the numbers of women who opt to be secondary
earners, and to women who leave the labor market because of marriage or
childbirth"


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

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66583

When Equality Isn't Everything

Women Balancing Work and Family

LONDON, FEB. 19, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Ahead of this month's U.N.
conference on the status of women, the issue of how to balance work and
family responsibilities is once more in the news. On Monday the British
government's Equal Opportunities Commission released a study titled,
"Part-Time Is No Crime -- So Why the Penalty?"

A Telegraph newspaper report the same day said that the commission
highlighted the problems facing women who switch to part-time work in
order to care for their children while they are young. The study
affirms that even if the women later go back to full-time employment,
they will not be able to regain their former status or salary.

The commission called for more flexible workplace practices in order to
remove the penalties for women who wish to work part time. The study
also notes that women are increasingly returning to work after having a
baby. In 1979, fewer than 25% returned to work within eight months of
giving birth. In 1988, 45% returned within nine months, and by 2002,
73% had returned to work within 11 months.

"Britain is facing a crisis if it does not address the need for
flexible hours at work," said Julie Mellor, chair of the Equal
Opportunities Commission, in a press release issued Monday. "Women are
hardest hit by the part-time 'penalty' which channels them into
low-paid jobs with poor prospects often because they take on more of
the caring role at home."

The release noted that data from 2004 show there are 7.4 million
part-time workers in the United Kingdom -- 26% of all those in
employment -- of whom 78% are women.

No easy solutions

Research by British sociologist Catherine Hakim shows that the issues
involved in the work-family divide are a lot more complex than just
ensuring equality between the sexes. In an article published Oct. 7 in
the Wall Street Journal, the senior research fellow at the London
School of Economics noted that for a long time the European Commission
has presented the Scandinavian countries as a model of how to achieve
equal opportunities for women in the work world.

However, Hakim affirmed, "the studies I've examined show that these
policies, designed to be family-friendly, are actually
counterproductive in the long run." Women who return to work in Sweden
after giving birth are concentrated in occupations such as nursing,
child-care and clerical work, with men predominating in management and
professional jobs.

Interestingly, in the United States, which does not have generous
maternity leave legislation, women make up 11% of senior managers,
compared with only 1.5% in Sweden.

Hakim also observed that there has been no change in the pay gap
between men and women in many advanced economies during the last 10
years. The pay gap is just as high in the Scandinavian countries as it
is in the rest of Europe and in the United States.

The sociologist concluded that the generous maternity benefits in
Scandinavian countries makes them unattractive for employers and that
private companies have reduced their female staffs. In fact, two-thirds
of women in Sweden are working in the public sector.

She also argued that policies promoting women's equality in the
workplace may not be the same as family-friendly policies. "Not
surprisingly, it is people who focus on their careers first and
foremost who win the biggest prizes," said Hakim. In Britain, for
example, about half of all women in the top professional and managerial
jobs remain childless.

Hakim's article coincided with the publishing of a revised edition of
her book, "Key Issues in Women's Work: Female Diversity and the
Polarisation of Women's Employment" (Glasshouse Press).

True lies

In her book, Hakim argued that many "A great many true lies are told
about women" -- for example, that their work is invisible because much
of their activity is at home. In fact, Hakim says her research shows
men also are involved in a good deal of informal and voluntary work,
and, even if they do fewer household chores, they toil for longer in
the workplace. Hakim also observed that many housewives value their
autonomy in comparison with the restrictions of working in a market
economy.

She admitted that many women can be forced into part-time work and lack
the financial independence of men. But, she continued, "The implication
is that men have real choices, and more choices to make." However, the
researcher insisted, "Most men have little choice in how to spend their
lives, being forced into the full-time continuous lifelong employment
career whether they like it or not."

Hakim also commented that it is important to take into account the
difference between men and women when it comes to their preferences
regarding work and family. Men are divided into two groups, with
roughly half being work-centered and half seeking a balance between
work and family.

Women are more heterogeneous in their preferences. Around two-thirds
seek a balance between work and family. The remaining third is divided
between those who are work-centered or family-centered. Overall, around
80% of women prefer to be secondary earners in the family.

Regarding the question of sex discrimination, Hakim explained that even
if this were eliminated completely, sex differentials would continue to
exist. This is due both to the numbers of women who opt to be secondary
earners, and to women who leave the labor market because of marriage or
childbirth.

Hakim observed that case studies involving graduates in managerial and
professional occupations demonstrate that it is not sex discrimination
that is the principal cause of differences between men and women when
it comes to pay. Some feminists do not accept such conclusions, and it
is true, added Hakim, that in the past women's choices were conditioned
by social pressures. But, in Western societies today, social and
economic changes have opened up the possibility for men and women to
make freer choices, and we should respect this, Hakim said, even if it
does not result in a fifty-fifty split when it comes to occupational
and household duties.

"Difference and diversity are now the key features of the female
population, with the likelihood of increasing polarization between
work-centered and home-centered women in the 21st century," she
concluded.

Finding equilibrium

The issue of women and work was also addressed by the Church recently.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published last July its
letter to bishops "On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church
and in the World." The text observed that the relationship between
family and work "has, for women, characteristics different from those
in the case of men."

However, the letter commented that harmonizing the two is not only a
question of legal and economic measures: "It is above all a question of
mentality, culture and respect. Indeed, a just valuing of the work of
women within the family is required."

The letter recommended that women who wish to dedicate themselves
completely to home and the family be able to do so, "without being
stigmatized by society or penalized financially."

At the same time it called for measures to ensure that those women who
wish to combine work with family responsibilities "be able to do so
with an appropriate work-schedule, and not have to choose between
relinquishing their family life or enduring continual stress, with
negative consequences for one's own equilibrium and the harmony of the
family." An equilibrium that many women still struggle to find.



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