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It's not despicable. As a woman, I'll repeat: paying women less for being women is not despicable. That doesn't mean it's good. It's bad. But it's normal and

by kaitai 12y ago

It's not despicable. As a woman, I'll repeat: paying women less for being women is not despicable. That doesn't mean it's good. It's bad. But it's normal and there are a lot of social forces at work. Good, well-meaning people have all sorts of logical reasons to pay women or minorities or handicapped people less. You don't have to be evil to participate in a sucky system. We all do, even the virtuous ones. So, open your eyes and work to change things. As long as we frame bias as something only despicable people have, we will not be able to change anything. After all, we're not despicable, so we can't be biased! Yay. False. Bias is something good people are still steeped in. It's how humans operate. Transparency in pay is a way in which good people can be confronted by their bias. In any one situation, you can argue that a woman deserves less (rationally and justly -- just change the rules for evaluation so she loses [1]). If via transparency and use of data you notice that women are consistently paid less, and that your evaluation criteria keep changing, you can realize your implicit bias and change your actions. [1] http://advance.cornell.edu/documents/ImpactofGender.pdf http://advance.cornell.edu/documents/ImpactofGender.pdf , http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9120783 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9120783 .

forgotpasswd3x 12y ago
Could you give an example where a good, well-meaning person would have a logical reason to pay a minority less?
- cbr 12y ago
  Lets say you're hiring a freelancer and you take bids. The lowest bid is from a member of a historically disadvantaged minority, and the reason their bid is lower is because as a member of that group discrimination makes it harder for them to find work. A good, well-meaning person might still accept the bid.
- tbrownaw 12y ago
  Work that involves in-person meetings with customers who are known to not like minorities. (If they're paid on commission, this will happen even without the employer actively deciding anything.) If that particular minority is strongly correlated to cultural values that clash strongly with the organizational culture. (And said values clash would likely result in slower career progression even if the minority status is deliberately ignored.) There exist conceivable situations where minority (or other protected) status could actually directly affect job performance, or be correlated to something that affects job performance.

by kaitai 12y ago

forgotpasswd3x 12y ago

Could you give an example where a good, well-meaning person would have a logical reason to pay a minority less?

cbr 12y ago
Lets say you're hiring a freelancer and you take bids. The lowest bid is from a member of a historically disadvantaged minority, and the reason their bid is lower is because as a member of that group discrimination makes it harder for them to find work. A good, well-meaning person might still accept the bid.
tbrownaw 12y ago
Work that involves in-person meetings with customers who are known to not like minorities. (If they're paid on commission, this will happen even without the employer actively deciding anything.) If that particular minority is strongly correlated to cultural values that clash strongly with the organizational culture. (And said values clash would likely result in slower career progression even if the minority status is deliberately ignored.) There exist conceivable situations where minority (or other protected) status could actually directly affect job performance, or be correlated to something that affects job performance.