There were two (at least!) stories this week where the rhetoric doesn’t comport with the facts when it comes to women, so I want to address those first with a little fact checking.
Abortion
From the Guardian: We are witnessing the final days of reproductive freedom in America
The bill – which makes abortion a felony – indicates that the state, like most legal observers, expects the US supreme court to overturn Roe
https://www.theguardian.com/…
Of course, there have already been SCOTUS decisions that undercut birth control, www.npr.org/… with more likely under way if Roe v. Wade is overturned, www.msnbc.com/… The GOP wants states to decide whether or not people can access birth control. Since access is always an issue with affordability, expect to see more attempts to restrict payment, as well.
But the GOP refuses to acknowledge: The #1 reason for abortion is unplanned pregnancy:
According to the Guttmacher Institute:
Induced abortion is common across the globe. The vast majority of abortions occur in response to unintended pregnancies, which typically result from ineffective use or nonuse of contraceptives. Other factors are also important drivers of unintended pregnancy and the decision to have an abortion. Some unintended pregnancies result from rape and incest. Other pregnancies become unwanted after changes in life circumstances or because taking a pregnancy to term would have negative consequences on the woman's health and well-being. As a result, abortion continues to be part of how women and couples in all contexts manage their fertility and their lives, regardless of the laws in their country. Thus, safe abortion services will always be needed.
Studies have shown that abortion rates are the same or actually increase where their legality is restricted — possibly due to accompanying laws that further limit women's rights and/or absence of counseling for women deciding what to do about their pregnancy:
Abortions occur as frequently in the two most-restrictive categories of countries (banned outright or allowed only to save the woman’s life) as in the least-restrictive category (allowed without restriction as to reason)—37 and 34 per 1,000 women, respectively.
Women abort for many good reasons, so abortions will continue. But the main effect of restrictive laws? Lack of safety; women die; tell me again how this is “pro-life”?
Of all abortions, an estimated 55% are safe (i.e., done using a recommended method and by an appropriately trained provider); 31% are less safe (meet either method or provider criterion); and 14% are least safe (meet neither criterion). The more restrictive the legal setting, the higher the proportion of abortions that are least safe—ranging from less than 1% in the least-restrictive countries to 31% in the most-restrictive countries.
Further study showed that of about 121 million unintended pregnancies per year worldwide, 61% end in abortion. Again, they found that restrictions do not work as lawmakers would prefer:
In countries where abortion was restricted, the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion had increased compared with the proportion for 1990–94, and the unintended pregnancy rates were higher than in countries where abortion was broadly legal.
Bottom line, do you want to restrict abortions? Are you sincere about saving lives? Then provide widespread access to family planning, and let women decide for themselves when or if they need to end a pregnancy.
hard work
"Men work harder than women," says Kansas legislator,
A Hutchinson state representative purportedly declared aloud during a bipartisan Kansas House floor recognition of Women’s History Month that women earned less in the workplace because men worked with more intensity at their jobs, two female legislators said.
-snip-
Then I heard him say, ‘Well, it’s a statistical fact.’ And that’s when I was really like, OK, fine, you want to double down on this.”
Is it a statistical fact?: Do men work harder than women? Nope. (I bet you guessed that!)
From the World Economic Forum: Women are more productive than men:
According to Hive, women work 10 percent harder than men in today's offices. This conclusion is the product of two other statistics. First, both men and women actually complete about 66 percent of their assigned work. However, women are assigned 10 percent more work than men these days — that they achieve the same completion rate tells us that they're being more industrious.
Why are women being given more to do? Hive cites research that finds it has to do with the kind of work allotted them, noting that, "women are assigned and spend more time on non-promotable tasks than men [our emphasis]. These non-promotable tasks are any activity that is beneficial to the organization, but does not contribute to career advancement." So basically, things men don't want to do are begin handed to women.
Also, a 3M study examining privacy filters for computer work in and out of the office found that women work harder than men, as summarised by Tesh ("Intelligence for your life”):
As researchers were going through their data, they noticed a trend. Basically, with or without the filters, females consistently got more work done than men! For example: During an average 10-minute stretch at work, women were observed working 18 percent more time than men. And women were 14 percent less likely to leave their desks and take breaks, compared to men. In other words, female employees were less prone to distraction, and more likely to get the job done! And that’s even if no one can see what they’re doing!
I finally found the study itself, 3M Research Report: Visual privacy productivity study: From their summary of the five most important findings:
Gender makes a difference. Female employees appear to work longer and harder than their male counterparts. The positive effect of the 3M privacy filter on employee productivity appears to be stronger for female versus male employees.!
And from “key findings”:
Gender also makes a difference with respect to the walk away versus continue working response during the experimental waiting period. Accordingly, 55 female subjects (38 percent) walked away rather than worked on their computer during a 10-minute waiting period. For male subjects, 67 (52 percent) walked away during the waiting period.
OTOH, I found some studies suggesting that men tend to work longer hours, and men think they work harder than women. But of course if you goof off during work hours, it’s not surprising that you work longer to get work done! So no. Men do not deserve higher salaries because they work harder!