Gender Inequality - It's a Thing

We just got home from a pinning ceremony for the Collegiate Academy at our son's high school.  It's a program where students take advanced courses, complete additional projects, and perform community service. In exchange, the students can take dual enrollment courses (get college credit in high school FOR FREE ***HOLLA!!***) and have access to our local university's resources (MTSU).  

My wife and I noticed that the student population being pinned were overwhelmingly female - 112 to 53 to be precise.  And we thought back to awards ceremonies at the kids' middle school and noticing that the award winners were mostly female.  So why is it that females seem to achieve more in school?  And why do they get to the workplace and be paid less than their male counterparts?

Dude be like, "psst, what's the answer to #7?"

An article in The Economist suggests a few possible reasons for the disparity in school performance. 

1. Girls read more than boys, and reading and comprehension are key to everything educational.
2. Girls spend more time on their homework.  They simply care more about school, while the "too cool for school" attitude is still pervasive in boys.
3. Boys spend much of their spare time in front of a screen, watching TV or playing video games. No mom, it turns out those games aren't educational...and your hand eye coordination from playing video games means jack in the real world.

I put a lot of credence in the "too cool for school" reasoning.  It seems like it always has been and always will be.  I remember being called "school boy" in elementary school just for making good grades, like it's a bad thing.

It's funny though, and sad I guess, that the stuff above makes me want to be encouraging to boys to work hard and care more...but then I think about what happens in the workplace and take a step back.

I work for a large computer company and from what I know we have a good reputation for being inclusive and for promoting equality.  But facts are facts, and the facts are that women are paid less than men for equal work.  I'm wracking my brain about what to do about this and one answer keeps popping into my head - JUST FIX IT! 

Obviously, there's more to fixing it than what my man Keenan is saying, but the disparity is something that everyone knows about and no one seems to have a handle on. 

Really, all I wanted to do here was point out how many more girls than boys are killing it at school.  Good for them!  Their work ethic and perseverance will serve them well later in life, and hopefully one day soon they'll get paid dollar for dollar for the same work as their male counterparts.

Don't do it Alan...Don't...

As I've gotten older I've developed more of an interest in politics.  I guess that's pretty normal, right?  I still don't like or trust most politicians - and I generally think they don't work to enact the changes they said they'd make.  On top of that the amount of money spent and ultimately wasted by losing candidates is sickening. 

I DON'T want to steer folks toward a candidate.  That's your decision.  We're still super early in this process and a lot will change between now and NEXT November.  Yeah, a candidate has peaked my interest and I did some binge posting about said candidate a little while back. Maybe I'll stick with him, maybe not.

But here's what I want to say....

In my view, the political world would be a better place if folks would pay more attention to the individual candidates and not their parties.  Maybe you're a lifelong Democrat - but you don't HAVE to choose between Hillary or Bernie...or random other guy no one has ever heard of.  Maybe you've always voted Republican. You don't HAVE to choose among anyone in the plethora of candidates running.

Personally, there are 3 candidates I feel I could vote for with a clean conscience.  I don't agree with everything they say, including on some moral issues - but for me, they're the few in the pack that seem qualified to lead the country, which is a pretty big job, right?

OK - one last thing, and this is directed at Christians. Some of the candidates touting their faith publicly are the same ones advocating for Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture), consider war before diplomacy, claim Pro-Life, but won't fund programs to help the poor, etc.  

Christians - let's seriously see how our candidates stand up to our Lord's command to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.