Something not mentioned in the article is the extra hours often worked to get a higher wage.

Also a woman who stays married is likely to be twice as wealthy at retirement age as an unmarried or divorced woman, and unmarried or divorced women are generally no happier that married women.

The last two facts are rarely or never mentioned in our feminist society.

'This gender pay gap has a significant impact on women's lifetime earnings. '

But what impact does it have on their lifetime spendings? That's a much more pertinent question. One that forever goes unanswered. As does the amount of money transferred from men to women over a woman's lifetime.

'The fact that women are not being employed in the jobs to which their skills and experience are best suited, or, if they are, their contributions are not being fully valued, represents a colossal waste of talent as well as a drain on productivity.'

Just how does this work? The more women who take up full time work, the more men would have do part time work to look after the kids. So any productivity gains from the women now in full time careers would be lost by the qualified men dropping to part time careers. A zero sum game.

The more you pay childcare workers, the more secondary earners (male or female) would be forced out of the workforce due to effective marginal rates of pay when taking into account childcare costs.

'Clear public support'? Hahaha. Ask any question like 'Should job X be more valued' and people will say yes. Ask whether people want to pay more for childcare and pay more tax and you'll get a different answer altogether.

'a colossal waste of talent as well as a drain on productivity.'

What if women choose not to employ themselves in paid work, because they believe they are suited to child rearing? A 'waste' of my partners university degree to the author is not a waste to my partner, my children or myself in the very valued work she has chosen in caring for our children. The gender pay gap she may experience is irrelevant.We are free to choose what work/life balance suits us as a family, what sacrifices we are willing to make, and how we choose to spend OUR income.

Some interesting ABS figures on the Community Service Sector at

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/6306.0/

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/D872404088A9E974CA25774B0015648C

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/8696.0Contents12008-09?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=8696.0&issue=2008-09&num=&view=

http://www.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/abs@.nsf/dd0ca10eed681f12ca2570ce0082655d/26122932a97a2adbca256a95008004a0!OpenDocument

R0bert

name me one country on the planet where there is equal pay for equal work and for work of equal value. and why not?

Oh, let me guess, "the economy can't afford it".

Like the famous footwear mob would put it, "Just do it.!"

Nareen Young,
Yes, there is inequity between the take-home pay of men and women but, unjust as it is, this inequity pales to insignificance compeared with the wages of the top income earners and those of the bottom ones in our so called ‘Democracy’.
There would certainly be less discord between man and woman if the ratio between the earnings of the chiefs and those of the indians of our world were reduced to a reasonable factor

Professor Warren Farrell explained it well in his heavilly researched book "Why Men Earn More".

In short, Men do all the dirty, dangerous and low-status jobs. Not many women work as farm laboureres, building labourers, garbage collectors...

A good illustration is when I'm on my way home after a night out, 'who do I see working at 3am?' BarMEN, Pub SecurityMEN, male taxi drivers, male cops, male garbos, male long distance truckies, male construction and road workers working for penalty rates... and prostitutes.

In effect, they are all prostitutes, all sacrificing their bodies and their sanity for money... and that's their choice. But to then complain that they get more pay because they are willing to do the sh!tty jobs... well I say "good on them!"

The other side of the equation is the really top end of income earners...the CEOs... these very few men, they earn heaps. These exceptional men skew the averages dramatically. But how do you get to be CEO or top-of-your-field in anything... long years of long hours.

But it is rare for women to do long years of long hours... very few women work long hours once they become parents. They choose the lovely 'work-life balance'. It's a good life.

Women are moving into the work-place in droves aren't they? No! Look at the figures, over the last 40 years there has been NO increase in women working FULL-TIME... women aren't moving into full-time jobs... they are chhosing plesant work-life balance between motherhood and work... and choosing less-stressed jobs, and chhosing lower pay for this easier life.

Meanwhile, despite deeply wanting to spend more time with thieir kids, men are presured into INcreasing their work hours once they become dads.

To see how much women earn based on gender alone, look at men and women under the age of 30... women earn MORE than men. Men's average raises only once the cream of the female population choose not to work seriously once they have kids.

PartTimeParent@pobox.com