Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It

Book Description

Controversial and exhaustively researched, gender expert Warren Farrell's latest book Why Men Earn More takes as its stunning argument the idea that bias-based unequal pay for women is largely a myth, and that women are most often paid less than men not because they are discriminated against, but because they have made lifestyle choices that affect their ability to earn.Why Men Earn More argues that while discrimination sometimes plays a part, both men and women unconsciously make trade-offs that affect how much they earn. Farrell clearly defines the 25 different workplace choices that affect women's and men's incomes -- including putting in more hours at work, taking riskier jobs or more hazardous assignments, being willing to change location, and training for technical jobs that involve less people contact -- and provides readers with specific, research-supported ways for women to earn higher pay. Why Men Earn More, with its brashness in the face of political correctness, is sure to ignite a storm of media controversy that will help to make this thoroughly pragmatic exposŽ Warren Farrell's next bestseller.

Customer Reviews:

Not addressing the real wage difference.......2007-09-09

Farrell contends that women make less due to the fact that they pick "easier" or more pleasant jobs than men. This may be the case in some instances, but I picked up this book because I thought it was about the wage imbalance, not what an average man makes compared to the avg woman. The wage imbalance is for the SAME jobs, not different ones.

Farrell says things like women make less because they choose to be day care providers instead of accountants. Again, I'm not saying this is not the case, but that does NOT address why women accountants make LESS than male accountants (with the same education, years of experience, etc). THAT is the real wage imbalance and Farrell just tells one common sense (like that a liberal arts degree gets you less money than a technology degree). I hope this "researcher" didn't get any money for his "research" on this. It's COMMON SENSE, not research!

Don't waste your money on this book!!!

Women and children first.......2006-08-05

If I did not see in author's biography that he is the father of two girls, I would have difficult time accepting some of his statements and explanations as to why is it that men make more money than women do. Advice to women that they should be courageous and enter the male dominated fields is something I have tried many years ago myself. Being willing to travel, relocate, enter the professions traditionally held by men and dedicate life to a career is the path I have followed. While I have had good professional success so far, I still do not find it to ring true that will necesarily generate more money in salary than what people working for me (all men incidentally) do. As a matter of fact, my employees make the same, or more money in salaries and benefits than I do.
What I have found interesting is the notion of the social order that author is trying to break. He is suggesting that women need to be accepting of having "stay at home husband" or what author is also referring to as "wife". Traditionally all women, even the successful ones according to today's standards have always been looking into ways to marry well (i.e. marry up). That made their own professional careers limited, since they always had to consider their own husbands careers too before making their own professional mark. Successful men on the other hand always had stay at home wives that followed them around country or world every time a new career opportunity for their man came along. Women need to free themselves up from the notion that they must have successful professional husbands in order to be successful themselves. I still find it difficult to buy as an idea, since I have a "wife" myself, and yet - money is not as good as it should be. There must be some other answers out there, only this book is not providing me with ones I was hoping for....

An excellent coverage of the subject, incorrect marketing.......2006-08-03

The controversy surrounding this book is not only in its very existence in the gender-political climate of today but also the author's weak choice of his target market. The material is unsettling for the female reader searching for yet another sympathetic ear in the mire of self-help books, an industry with synthetic reality for sale. It's totally ok for a handful male-oriented books to exist amongst the shelves of female self-help "porn." Do universities even offer male-oriented social study ? Oh, wait, that's engineering.

The author systematically discusses the reasons behind the perceived in equality in the inappropriately concocted but very real pay gap. When multiplied by years worked, the "total earnings" difference is a canyon.

The author makes a great point that the workplace has largely changed to accomodate females. Diversity training is about altering male behavior rather than training women to enter the culture of the existing workplace. There is no equivalent training of women to accept men in female-dominated industries, such as teaching, retail clothing sales, medical practice/nursing, childcare, etc. On the contrary, men are increasingly demonized as potential rapists and child molesters.

Men have always been pressured to earn more because they NEED to. Males compete with one another for desirable characteristics that are still in vogue. Just search the on-line dating listings to see that women prefer men that are physically larger (taller), are older (can demonstrate a track record of holding a job and accumulating assets) and , well, make more money. When these selective pressures are reduced, the pay gap may narrow. The gap won't disappear until the advantage of leveraged feminity disappears with it.

A strange book.......2006-03-13

This book is filled with interesting statistics about the job market, and certainly should put an end to the idiotic "59 cents" button we have seen so often.

However, one of the book's key insights was written up long ago by Thomas Sowell: unmarried men and unmarried women are paid just about identically. Married men tend to work much harder because they are now "bringing home the bacon," while married women work much less because they are raising children at home.

So one of the major issues here is a really obvious one: women have children. Of course, men are necessary to make this happen, but the female is the one who is equipped with a complete biological system to carry the infant to term and give birth, plus another complete biological system to nurture the new-born infant during its first years of life. We are called "mammals" because the females have "mammary glands."

If a woman does not want to have children, and wants to strike it rich by working for money, this book is full of good advice for her. It's full of good advice for everyone.

But it also strikes me as a very strange book, mostly because of its "Mindless Egalitarianism." The author seems to think that just anyone can choose to be an engineer, or a brain surgeon, that it is all a question of options, and never a question of cruel necessity. He does not really seem to live in a universe where some children cannot learn beyond the elementary-school level, or beyond the high-school level. Everybody has all these wonderful options -- and nobody has any limitations.

This is, of course, utter nonsense. Speaking from my own experience, I was surprised to discover, in high school, that I was not really very good at math, and that PHYSICS was my worst subject. How, then, could I aspire to be an engineer? As things turned out, I finally became a "software engineer," but any dolt could tell you that a "software engineer" is a computer programmer, and not a real engineer at all.

We are not all equally good at all things. And women cannot do all of the things men do, at the same level of excellence. (OK, shoot me already!) But the author will not tolerate such thinking on any level. The preface is written by a former president of NOW, and the author himself was a committed feminist (and board member of NOW) for many years.

And this is the second strangeness. Aside from admitting, and dealing with, the obvious inequalities among people -- and here I am talking about inequalities of ABILITY, not inequalities of INCOME -- the author simply refuses to admit, or discuss, the idea that men and women are not interchangeable parts. To clownishly simplify: don't send women into combat, and don't send men to suckle the newborn.

A really strange book.

Moronic Logic.......2006-03-02

It's too bad - it could've been an interesting book.

Major flaws:

(1) His assumptions that women lack ambition and competitiveness and are unwilling compared to men to do what it takes. Clearly this man's views have been shaped by the women he personally knows. Do you know a highly aggressive, well-respected, well-liked, sharp woman who knows how to negotiate and who works as hard as any man but STILL doesn't even come close to what a man would make? Well, if you do, and in particular if you know a lot of them, you'll find this book startlingly naive.

(2) The author fails to notice and address the very simple concept that males have made a corporate structure where males succeed.

-----------------------
Here are alternatives:
-----------------------

If you want to feel sympathetic towards the difficult world that men inhabit, read:
"Self Made Man" by Norah Vincent
or
"Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys"

If you want to understand how to get more money, read:
"Getting Even : Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men--And What to Do About It"
by Evelyn Murphy

But save your money.

Discounting and Intergenerational Equity (RFF Press)

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Discounting and Intergenerational Equity (RFF Press)

Manufacturer: RFF Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0915707896

Book Description

The effects of many environmental policies made today will be felt across a number of generations. Climate change is a good example of an environmental issue with very long-term ramifications. In such cases, analysts often employ discount rates to compare present and future costs and benefits. In this landmark book, a number of the world's foremost economists reconsider the appropriate use of discounting in decision making for the far future.

Paul Portney and John Weyant have assembled a sterling lineup of colleagues to reconsider the purpose, ethical implications, and application of discounting in light of recent research and current policy concerns such as climate change and nuclear waste. Contributors include Kenneth Arrow, Scott Barrett, David Bradford, William Cline, Maureen Cropper, Shantayanan Devarajan, Partha Dasgupta, Raymond Kopp, David Laibson, Robert Lind, Karl-Göran Mäler, Alan Manne, W. David Montgomery, William Nordhaus, Jerome Rothenberg, Thomas Schelling, V. Kerry Smith, Michael Toman, and Martin Weitzman.

The editors have produced a book that looks at discounting from many different perspectives. It should go a long way toward refining the economic dimensions of public policy, particularly environmental policy. As with the policies it discusses, the impact of the book will be felt tomorrow as well as today.

Customer Reviews:

Review.......2000-03-31

This book contains the most recent thoughts on global climate change policy and the much debated issue of choosing a discount rate. Most climate change policies and abatement programs will be a cost to the present generation and a benefit to future generations. This causes complications in the decision-making process. For short-term projects (within 40 years), the costs of the project are compared with the discounted long-term benefits. Both costs and benefits accrue to the present generation, so the decision can be based on economic efficiency: are the discounted benefits of this project greater than the costs? Climate change decisions are different in that the benefits accrue to future generations. This brings up the issue of intergenerational equity and the discount rate that will give us the amount of equity that we deem appropriate.

Book Description

Much has been written about medicine and the market in recent years. This book is the first to include an assessment of market influence in both developed and developing countries, and among the very few that have tried to evaluate the actual health and economic impact of market theory and practices in a wide range of national settings.

Tracing the path that market practices have taken from Adam Smith in the eighteenth century into twenty-first-century health care, Daniel Callahan and Angela A. Wasunna add a fresh dimension: they compare the different approaches taken in the market debate by health care economists, conservative market advocates, and liberal supporters of single-payer or government-regulated systems.

In addition to laying out the market-versus-government struggle around the world -- from Canada and the United States to Western Europe, Latin America, and many African and Asian countries -- they assess the leading market practices, such as competition, physician incentives, and co-payments, for their economic and health efficacy to determine whether they work as advertised.

This timely and necessary book engages new dimensions of a development that has urgent consequences for the delivery of health care worldwide.

Customer Reviews:

What a load.......2007-01-05

Wow this book really stinks. I can't believe people get paid to write this stuff. If I didn't have to read this book for school I would have burned it after the first few pages.

In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America

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In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America
Alice Kessler-Harris
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920 (Gender and American Culture)
Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939

ASIN: 0195158024

Book Description

In this volume, Alice Kessler-Harris explores the transformation of some of the United States' most significant social policies. Tracing changing ideals of fairness from the 1920s to the 1970s, she shows how a deeply embedded set of beliefs, or "gendered imagination" shaped seemingly neutral social legislation to limit the freedom and equality of women. Law and custom generally sought to protect women from exploitation, and sometimes from employment itself; but at the same time, they assigned the most important benefits to wage work. Most policy makers (even female ones) assumed from the beginning that women would not be breadwinners. Kessler-Harris shows how ideas about what was fair for men as well as women influenced old age and unemployment insurance, fair labor standards, Federal income tax policy, and the new discussion of women's rights that emerged after World War II. Only in the 1960s and 1970s did the gendered imagination begin to alter--yet the process is far from complete.

Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis (Studies in Public Policy)

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Equity in the Workplace: Gendering Workplace Policy Analysis (Studies in Public Policy)
Heidi Gottfried
Manufacturer: Lexington Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0739106880

Book Description

This edited collection assembles cutting-edge comparative policy research on contemporary policy research on contemporary policies relevant to gender and workplace issues. Contributors analyze gender-related employment policies, including parental leave, maternity programs, sexual harassment, work/life balance, and gender mainstreaming. Equity in the Workplace thoroughly illustrates how the juxtaposition of a variety of research methodologies focused on a common theme can lead to a richer, multilayered understanding of a complex issue.

The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth: A Comparative Study

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New insight on economic growth and reduction of poverty

The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth: A Comparative Study
Deepak Lal , and H. Myint
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century
Unintended Consequences: The Impact of Factor Endowments, Culture, and Politics on Long-Run Economic Performance (Ohlin Lectures)
Poverty of 'Development Economics
In Praise of Empires: Globalization and Order
Economics of Development, Fifth Edition

ASIN: 0198294328

Book Description

This wide-ranging and innovative book synthesises the findings of a major international study of the political economy of poverty, equity, and growth. It is based primarily on analytical economic histories of 21 developing countries from 1950 to 1985, but also takes account of the wider literature on the subject. The authors take an ambitious interdisciplinary approach to identify patterns in the interplay of initial conditions, instiuttions, interests, and ideas which can help to explain the different growth and poverty alleviation outcomes in the Third World. Three different types of poverty are distinguished, based on their causes, and a more nebulous idea of equityin contrast to egalitarianismis shown to have influenced policy. Since growth is found to be the major means of alleviating mass structural poverty, much of the book is concerned with discovering explanations for policies which are found to be the most important influences on the proximate causes of growth. Lal and Mynt also consider the available evidence on the role of direct transferspublic and privatein alleviating destitution and conjunctural poverty. The Political Economy of Poverty, Equity, and Growth develops a novel framework for the comparative analysis of different growth outcomes. This framework distinguishes between the different relative factor endowments of land, labour, and capital, and between the different organizational structures of pesent versus plantation and mining economies. It also differentiates between the polities of 'autonomous' and 'factional' states in the countries studied, breaking the analysis down into further typological subdivisions and providing important new insights into the differing behaviour of economies that are rich in natural resources and those with abundant labour. These insights constitute a richer explanation for the divergent developmental outcomes in East Asia compared with Latin America and Africa. The evidence collated is used to argue for the continuing relevance of the classical liberal viewpoint on public policies for development, and to show why, even so, nationalist ideologies are likely to be adopted and lead to cycles of interventionism and liberalism. The evidence is also used to provide an explanation for the surprising current worldwide Age of Reform.

Customer Reviews:

New insight on economic growth and reduction of poverty.......2000-05-30

This an important book for international political economists, who today are focussed on poor nations' "failure to develop," and the persistence of poverty. Lal and Myint have gathered the results of studies of 16 poor countries. The studies were designed by the World Bank, and focussed on the question of whether successful growth reduces poverty or leaves the poor behind. An encouraging finding, summarized in Chapter 10, is that successful economic growth does improve the welfare of the poor, and the failure of economic growth deepens poverty. Other findings related to income inequality, social welfare spending, and social safety-nets are drawn from the 16 studies. The findings give a solid base from which to debate left-right policy positions on poverty elimination. The data and detail in this book make it ideal for an international political economy classroom, but perhaps not for the casual reader.

Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice: Institutions, Resources, and Mobilization

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Women and Gender Equity in Development Theory and Practice: Institutions, Resources, and Mobilization

Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Women, Gender and Development Reader
Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature

ASIN: 0822336987

Book Description

Seeking to catalyze innovative thinking and practice within the field of women and gender in development, editors Jane S. Jaquette and Gale Summerfield have brought together scholars, policymakers, and development workers to reflect on where the field is today and where it is headed. The contributors draw from their experiences and research in Latin America, Asia, and Africa to illuminate the connections between women’s well-being and globalization, environmental conservation, land rights, access to information technology, employment, and poverty alleviation.

Highlighting key institutional issues, contributors analyze the two approaches that dominate the field: women in development (WID) and gender and development (GAD). They assess the results of gender mainstreaming, the difficulties that development agencies have translating gender rhetoric into equity in practice, and the conflicts between gender and the reassertion of indigenous cultural identities. Focusing on resource allocation, contributors explore the gendered effects of land privatization, the need to challenge cultural traditions that impede women’s ability to assert their legal rights, and women’s access to bureaucratic levers of power. Several essays consider women’s mobilizations, including a project to provide Internet access and communications strategies to African NGOs run by women. In the final essay, Irene Tinker, one of the field’s founders, reflects on the interactions between policy innovation and women’s organizing over the three decades since women became a focus of development work. Together the contributors bridge theory and practice to point toward productive new strategies for women and gender in development.

Contributors. Maruja Barrig, Sylvia Chant, Louise Fortmann, David Hirschmann, Jane S. Jaquette, Diana Lee-Smith, Audrey Lustgarten, Doe Mayer, Faranak Miraftab, Muadi Mukenge, Barbara Pillsbury, Amara Pongsapich, Elisabeth Prügl, Kirk R. Smith, Kathleen Staudt, Gale Summerfield, Irene Tinker, Catalina Hinchey Trujillo

Crisis and Dollarization in Ecuador: Stability, Growth, and Social Equity (Directions in Development)

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World Bank propaganda

Crisis and Dollarization in Ecuador: Stability, Growth, and Social Equity (Directions in Development)

Manufacturer: World Bank Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador (American Encounters/Global Interactions)

ASIN: 082134837X

Book Description

Early in 2000, Ecuador, confronted with a serious economic crisis, adopted the US dollar as its national currency. This book examines the conditions that led to this action, describing the repeated cycles of crisis and failed stabilization that fatally undermined confidence in the Ecuadoran sucre. The book then analyzes dollarization's initial results and its effects on inflation, growth, poverty, inequality, marganilization, gender, and the Ecuadoran family. It also puts the Ecuadoran experience with dollarization in an international perspective. Economists, policymakers, and anyone with a serious interest in Latin American affairs will find this book invaluable.

Customer Reviews:

World Bank propaganda.......2007-04-04

This is nonsense from the perspective of Quito. Maybe it makes sense in their 5 star hotels hobknobbing with CEOs and investors.

Achieving Broad-Based Sustainable Development: Governance, Environment, and Growth With Equity (Kumarian Press Books on International Development)

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An interesting approach to development issues
Brilliant, insightful theorizing based on data

Achieving Broad-Based Sustainable Development: Governance, Environment, and Growth With Equity (Kumarian Press Books on International Development)
James H. Weaver , Michael T. Rock , and Kenneth C. Kusterer
Manufacturer: Kumarian Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Development as Freedom

ASIN: 1565490584

Book Description

This is a comprehensive and multidisciplinary work providing an excellent introduction to economic development. Readers build a greater understanding on subjects including: economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, international relations, gender, and Third World studies.

Customer Reviews:

An interesting approach to development issues.......2000-06-10

Most books approach the subject of development with a relatively narrow focus. Some books provide a broad-based approach to economic development, others address environmentally sensitive development, and a few broach the subject of equitable development. This book effectively meshes these often divergent subjects into one general, but ultimately workable, approach to economic development.

Certainly, no single book provides the necessary backgound to assist practitioners, elected officials, or community activists. However, this book provides a good starting point for a general, self-education in development issues.

Brilliant, insightful theorizing based on data.......1999-06-25

A very informative theoetical examination of what works in development based on thoughtful analysis of what has worked and what has not worked. Breaks the stereotypes of polictics and ideology that have been so central to development. Combines economic, political and social perspectives that remind me of the best of Max Weber. Wonderful book! A must read.

Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy

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Strongly recommended to all non-specialist general readers with an interest in educational reforms

Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy

Manufacturer: Brookings Institution Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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School Choice: The Findings
The Education Gap: Vouchers And Urban Schools
No Child Left Behind?: The Politics and Practice of School Accountability
Schools, Vouchers, and the American Public

ASIN: 0815753314

Book Description

School choice is a topic that sparks controversy on both the national and local levels. Some parents (mainly the affluent) have always had school choice, either through private school, or by buying a house in a preferred public school district. In recent decades, new forms of school choice have fundamentally altered the educational landscape. In many cases these new mechanisms—busing efforts, magnet schools, charter schools, open enrollment, and tuition vouchers—have provided less affluent families with their first taste of school choice.

Getting Choice Right assesses the basic mechanics of school choice, with a focus on the question of how, if the nation decides to expand choice, it can be implemented in a way to benefit the most students while minimizing any social costs. The first section of this book studies lessons for the design of school choice emanating from economic theory and practical experience. Essays describe what policies are needed to promote both a vigorous demand for and an adequate supply of educational choices. Addressing the valid concerns that opponents have raised, the second part examines the impact on students who are left behind in failing schools, the impact of choice on racial integration, the politics of school choice, and the implications for civic engagement of tomorrow's adult population.

By itself, school choice is not inherently good or bad, and the ability of school choice to improve both efficiency and equity in the nation's schools hinges on a number of key policy decisions. Factors such as the flow of information to parents, the inducement that the system provides for families to choose the ideal schools for their children, the regulations and funding that influence the supply of choice schools, and the incentives for schools to encourage racial and socioeconomic integration all play important roles. In Getting Choice Right, distinguished contributors analyze the potential benefits, the potential risks, and the policy options associated with a move toward a universal system of school choice.

Customer Reviews:

Strongly recommended to all non-specialist general readers with an interest in educational reforms.......2006-04-03

Deftly co-edited by Julian R. Betts (Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, San Diego) and Tom Loveless (Senior Fellow in Governance Studies and Director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution), Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity And Efficiency In Education Policy is an informed and scholarly study the includes numerous and knowledgeable contributors regarding the involvement of political education on racism, ethnicity, religious segregation, and judgment for the K-12 levels of education. Exploring the "no child left behind" act and everything it is meant to accomplish, Getting Choice Right enlightens the reader on how choice works to reflect community interest in the potential benefits of new school options and how to obtain them while avoiding choice's potential harm. Getting Choice Right is very strongly recommended to all non-specialist general readers with an interest in educational reforms, as well as K-12 faculty members and education policy makers.

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