The Myth of Systemic Workplace Oppression
This insistence that women are still systemically oppressed in the modern workplace is a peculiar and troubling thing. An infographic presents a host of high-level metrics as if they were a set of damning evidence for a workplace injustice affecting women that commands immediate attention. But what is it that this presentation lacks? Complexity. Nuance. The deep, multidimensional factors actually shaping outcomes in the workplace for both men and women.
We have a dangerously simplistic and deeply misleading narrative here. These statistics are underpinned by the assumption that any difference in observed outcomes between men and women is necessarily due to systemic barriers, oppression, or unconscious bias. This is catastrophically unidimensional thinking. It fundamentally ignores the complexities of individual choice, the reality of biological differences, and the intricate web of economic factors that affect the decisions and lives of men and women.
Metrics Do Not Equal Reality
Take, for instance, the statistic that states women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. This figure is frequently used as evidence of a dastardly wage gap, one that supposedly must be fixed with some form of mandatory, interventionist pay equity. But when we break this down correctly when we get serious and analyze the data like good economists should the gap mostly vanishes.
On average, different careers are chosen by women and men. They also tend to work fewer hours especially when you consider that many women are taking up the majority of the “tending” roles in their families. And there is something to be said for the kinds of allegiances that women give to the “tending” roles they play (which, as the authors point out, comes with a “very important caveat” that many women do have jobs and work very hard). But again, these are not simply the result of oppressive forces; they have biological and psychological underpinnings as well.
Aspiration vs. Systemic Barriers
The fewer women who aspire to management is taken as evidence of a “barrier.” But this is really absurd. Aspiration is not something dictated by corporate policies; it is something dictated by personal ambition, temperament, and the cost-benefit analyses made by individuals. When given the choice between a high-pressure, high-stakes job and another that is less demanding, many, if not most, women choose the latter. And yet they still expect us to believe that there is some sort of obstacle keeping women from aiming for the top.
And why shouldn’t they? Why must we take it as a given that society benefits in some way when more women climb the corporate ladder? Maybe women just want to allocate their time to something other than trying to get into the upper echelons of supposedly high-paying jobs. This is a perfectly sensible choice, and I admire it. The idea that women can’t be allowed to make this choice without thereby sending some kind of message to impressionable young women is what in my view makes calls for women to achieve “parity” with men in the high-status, high-paying portions of the workforce so hard to take seriously.
Parental Roles and Trade-Offs
The flawed premise of systemic discrimination is exposed by the infographic. It says that 42% of moms cut back on work hours; only 28% of dads do the same. It also says that 39% of moms take off significant amounts of time; only 24% of dads do. Now, do we assume that the reductions in work hours and significant amounts of time off were forced on these individuals by some corporate cabal intent on suppressing the ambition of women? Or is it more likely that these are conscious, family-responsive decisions made by these individuals?
In general, women pay more attention to their families than men do, especially in the critical childbearing years. This is not a deficiency. This is not subjugation. This is an inherent aspect of human nature, with roots in evolutionary history, and no amount of governmental program or societal dictation is likely to change it. To pretend otherwise is to engage in the fantasy of ideological thinking.
The Modern Workplace is Not an Oppressive Structure
This infographic centers on the idea that women are still held back, that they face some remaining impediments to success. Yet, even within the data it presents, we see clear proof that women have made truly amazing strides in the world of work. Indeed, the female millennials are now more educated than the males of their generation, and they earn, on average, 93% of what the guys make. If there’s some vast, secret, or even well-known, not-to-be-talked-about patriarchy out there determined to keep women from reaching the next rung on the ladder of life, a lot of the data in this infographic dealt them some real misses.
Truly, the remaining gender disparities are not due to discrimination but to distinctions in choice, aspiration, and priority. And this is just as it should be. There is no moral imperative that demands perfect parity between men and women in every domain. A healthy society allows both individuals women and men to pursue paths that perfectly align with their skills, interests, and values.
The Dangers of Oversimplification
This infographic is a prime example of what happens when an ideology takes precedence over careful analysis. It picks its statistics with care, ignores deeper causal factors, and presents the appearance of discrimination where none seems to exist. In reality, things are far more complex. These high-level numbers do not tell the whole story.
The modern workforce does not oppress women. It allows them to make choices rational and self-directed that lead to varied outcomes. And that variance is not a problem that needs to be “fixed.” It is something of which our society can be proud, a testament to the way it permits all its members to mold their own lives.
An authentic analysis of gender and work would not presume oppression as its starting point. It would start instead from the acknowledgment that, on average, men and women have a different set of priorities, make different kinds of choices, and achieve different sorts of outcomes. Not oppression. Not anything like injustice. Just the way things are.
