Salary Inequalities Down to Underselling?

NBR reports; senior recruitment consultant Megan Alexander stating that equalities in salary between men and women continue because of women 'underselling themselves':

"“What I do see is that women take themselves out of higher-paying jobs because of the other choices they make in their personal lives ... I do think that women need to learn to sell themselves better … they sell themselves short in a lot of instances, they don’t talk about what they can bring to the role enough"

Stopping short of the words 'absolute bollocks' I do find this hard to swallow. Coyness and lack of confidence in employment situations, I believe, is surely down to the individual and certainly not gender sensitive. For me, salary inequalities continue to favour men because our culture has a history of male dominance in politics, business, and society. The gusto of Women's rights and equality movements are still very much an invention of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and although progress has been made in baby steps (notably through the Right to Vote movement at the turn of the century, Civil Rights movements of the 1960s and beyond) culture - unfortunetly - still evolves at the pace of baby steps. This may seem obvious, but that's kinda my point.

I am by no means excusing such inequalities and am as much an advocate of equal pay as any sensical person. Yet, although I find the argument that women still don't enjoy equal pay because they undersell themselve valid (to an extent), it is totally ignorant of the institutions in place that allow such inequalities to exist.

A smile and commanding request for a pay rise isn't going to change the trends of history

EDIT: Also, as an afterthought, trends show that both men and women are sacrificing their personal lives to pursue healthier careers (delaying childbirth etc.), and not vice versa as Alexander suggests.

Let Me Keep Remembering

Re: the fight for Georgie Pie

Yes, to answer the constant pounding of the question I remember Georgie Pie. That is no reason for the revival of its corpse.

I find it fascinating how a simple question can provoke not only a movement but achieve an objective that was never intended. As a part of a youth that is now entering it's 20s and beginning to realise 'we' are not so young anymore, I have witnessed a tidal wave of 'do you remember...?'s from friends and acquaintances. A marker of how we have moved on from our childhood years.

The "Bring Back Georgie Pie" campaign was never a truly a campaign, but a brilliant example of merchandisers hitting a phenomonenal market just before its peak. The slogan we now see brandished on badges, t-shirts, mugs, etc. was meant to be taken no more seriously than the "I Heart Newtown" merchandise is a campaign to make David Bowie play in the Newtown community centre. Rather, this is an identity issue, a tag of belonging, a slice of nostalgia cake for twenty-somethings like myself who are beginning to realise they are not going to be young forever.



Yes, I remember Georgie Pie, I also remember Captain Planet, HotBodz, Eek! The Cat, Squirt TV, and Telethons, and I am quite happy never to see them again. Without pretending to be an expert on the subject, we can assume that Georgie Pie failed for a reason: it sold pies for $1. And the pies were of $1 quality. It easy to think a decade into the future that the Mince and Cheese pies tasted like they had mince from the finest hand raised cows, and cheese churned from the breasts of Venus but, alas, they did not. They tasted like $1 pies.

I have no doubt that should the chain return soon we will witness an initial boom of support and it do quite well to begin with. But the hype will slow down, the nostalgia will diminish, and what then for the fate of dear old Georgie Pie? Get overtaken by McDonalds again? We shall see.

In an age where Michelle Obama is being pumelled in American media as elitist and irresponsible for growing an entirely organic garden, surely there are causes worth fighting for and resurrecting more than a fast food chain. Let's let nostalgia lie in the past, where it is nurtured and beloved.

- C. Gilbert