Althouse: "Jodie Gummow, a 'senior fellow' at Alternet.org, takes a feminist cheap shot at America."

October 28, 2013

"Jodie Gummow, a 'senior fellow' at Alternet.org, takes a feminist cheap shot at America."

"The World Economic Forum released its annual Global Gender Gap Report for 2013 measuring gender disparity between men and women around the world . . . and disappointingly the United States didn't even make it in the top 20!"

26 comments:

RMc said...: So?; 10/28/13, 3:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Cracking the top 20 in gender disparity would be pretty tough when there are countries like Saudi Arabia around, wouldn't it?; 10/28/13, 3:40 PM
Darrell said...: Lots of women in the US don't wind up with Billionaire boyfriends when they choose to deal with the male species like always happens in the current generation of romance novels. How can you say that the US is not a hellhole?; 10/28/13, 4:12 PM
Darrell said...: Keep in mind, they just happen to be Billionaires, though. It had nothing to do with that--asshole!; 10/28/13, 4:15 PM
YoungHegelian said...: I guess they forgot to ask Julian Assange his opinion on the notion of Scandinavian gender equality.; 10/28/13, 4:16 PM
Darrell said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/28/13, 4:21 PM
Darrell said...: They are pretty, smart, and wonderful. All their college professors told them so when they were trying to get them to put out. Why should they have to deal with a man who only makes $50K-$150K? And why are they themselves NOT a corporate VP or CEO? They've been with the company a whole three years.; 10/28/13, 4:22 PM
Illuninati said...: Is Jodie Gummow playing games with statistics?

When my niece graduated from college the ration of women to men was something like 60/40 to 70/30. Are the men who do not attend college included in the statistics? Probably not. If you include the entire universe of working men and women, does the average woman make more than the average man? Probably.; 10/28/13, 4:46 PM
LYNNDH said...: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
The only time in our marriage that I made more than my wife was after she retired and I was still working. That includes the time I was in the Navy and she was in college. My thoughts were, the more she made was fine by me.; 10/28/13, 4:50 PM
LYNNDH said...: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
The only time in our marriage that I made more than my wife was after she retired and I was still working. That includes the time I was in the Navy and she was in college. My thoughts were, the more she made was fine by me.; 10/28/13, 4:51 PM
Wince said...: But think about the low-status female worker--the day-care employee. In a more traditional society, she would work in her own home, caring for her own children. In our brave new world, a government committed to equality pushes her to take a job caring for other women's children. Is she really better off now than she would be then? True, she gets a paycheck now--but that also means that the government takes a bite out of her earnings. As Lionel Tiger notes in "The Decline of Males: The First Look at the Unexpected New World for Men and Woman," unpaid domestic "women's work" is one of the great tax shelters of all time.

Isn't that increased tax burden what Sen. "Granny" Warren tried to hide with dubious statistics in her book "The Two Income Trap"?; 10/28/13, 5:07 PM
tim maguire said...: The WSJ spends a fair bit of words nibbling around the edges of what constitutes a gender-neutral legislature without ever mentioning the real problem with that metric--it measures a vanishingly small percentage of the population and tells you absolutely nothing about the larger population that the resulting "score" purports to describe.

I'm wiling to grant that men are over-represented in congress AND in the boardroom, but that tells me nothing about how life is lived by most people.; 10/28/13, 5:15 PM
paul a'barge said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/28/13, 5:16 PM
paul a'barge said...: I think if my name were Jodie Gummow I'd be a tad more delicate about flapping my gums.; 10/28/13, 5:16 PM
paul a'barge said...: She wrote this.

'nuff said.; 10/28/13, 5:18 PM
Henry said...: I think Taranto's counter is uncharacteristically weak. There's a lot you can say about childcare. Tax loophole is one. Poorly compensated is another. He's really fudging his distinctions.

However, one very distinct thing about the United States compared to small, blond, sub-artic countries is that in the United States women have children.

Sweden: 1.67
Finland: 1.73
Norway: 1.77
U.S. : 2.06

My point is not really about the economic drag of children. It's about the fact that the U.S. is an outlier compared to the rest of the world, let alone Scandinavia.

Culture trumps economics.; 10/28/13, 5:24 PM
Henry said...: This chart is instructive; 10/28/13, 5:25 PM
David said...: American women have more than 50% of the electorate. If one of their primary concerns was to have a higher percentage of females in the federal legislature, we would have it.; 10/28/13, 5:35 PM
Andy Freeman said...: > I'm wiling to grant that men are over-represented in congress AND in the boardroom, but that tells me nothing about how life is lived by most people.

I don't care if upper-class women (or minorities) have an equal shot a jobs for which I have no shot.; 10/28/13, 5:41 PM
Sigivald said...: Writer for Alternet says something stupid, in that particular way that "clever" people writing for a place like Alternet have.

Film at 11.; 10/28/13, 5:42 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: I love Alternet. My introduction to the Wonderful World of Internet Political Pissing Matches came via Alternet back in the '90's. Apparently some Clinton appointee had made some changes to Pacifica radio which had the 60's Left and the Yuppie Left at each other's throats. I don't remember the details but the histrionic commentary was hilarious. I still go there now and then to hone my Lefty Concern Troll Skills.; 10/28/13, 5:52 PM
Anonymous said...: As I read the numbers, and I did, it all pretty much boils down to two subfactors:

The majority of the voters in the US are female, yet they fail to elect a large enough number of women. who knew they were that biased?

The Obama Admin has not named enough women to cabinet positions. Who knew that they were that biased?; 10/28/13, 6:02 PM
john marzan said...: the philippines is #5 in gender equality for women, even though we dont have abortion and divorce laws in the country.; 10/28/13, 10:43 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: zzzzz.

Waiting for the big push to have equal numbers of female and male pizza drivers.; 10/29/13, 12:03 AM
Col. Milquetoast said...: They are concerned about some gender gaps more than others. If the female to male ratio is 1.41 (USA enrollment in tertiary education) then it is scored as "1" (Equality!); 10/29/13, 2:22 AM
DanTheMan said...: Modern feminism demands 50% female CEO's and university presidents.

Garbage truck drivers and roofers? No need for equality there...; 10/29/13, 8:32 AM