Day: March 12, 2012

Brazilian congress plans heavy fines to companies whenever a woman gets paid less then a man

Even in countries with Latin machismo like Brazil, feminism is almost unopposedly changing laws to unjustly benefit women at the detriment of men. They even have slut walks in Brazil on 4th of July in São Paulo.

The Brazilian congress is examining the bill 6.393/2009. If passed into law, companies will be fined retroactively every time a woman earning less than a man. The fine is five times the pay difference observed throughout the entire employment period.
The retroactive effect is one of the absurdities that inhabit that bill. Another is the direction of the fine to the affected employee. […]And the men? What will they say this measure? What can they do if your salary is lower than that of a woman?  Salários: interferência indevida – JOSÉ PASTORE  Wages: improper interference (Translation)

This is the opinion of a reasonable blogger, published in today’s newspaper "O Globo". . He worries that companies lose discretion to reward performance and differentiate pay. Probably, he thinks, the result will be that nobody gets a raise, everyone gets the base salary for his profession. So nobody can feel discriminated against.

feminista-conceicao-sampaioOf course, feminists and politicians think differently.

Mrs. Conceição Sampaio estimates that as a woman qualifies for and enters the job market she wins autonomy and thus can also change the statistics of crimes against women." […] The domestic violence, according to Mrs. Conceição, has always been an important issue and will remain so, but the quest for empowerment and independence of women is also important.

The MP emphasizes the approval of Law project No. 6.393/2009, of congressman Marcal Filho (PMDB / MS), which establishes fines to combat the difference in pay between men and women in Brazil.
"Many advances have been achieved, but we still have inequality in the Brazilian labor market. People need to get paid for what they do. This is important. And the Legislature could not stay out of this discussion, "said the councilor.

Recognition

According to president of ALEAM State Representative Richard Nicholas (PSD), the public hearing is extremely important, because in addition to recognizing the importance of women in the labor market, since they already occupy  various management positions, it shows that progress is needed. Ricardo Nicholas points out that there are data showing that women in the same work as men still receive a lower salary. "It is necessary to fight this," emphasizes Nicholas.
The President of the Legislative adds that women have distinguished themselves not only the sensitivity but also for their skill, dedication and discipline. And he recalled that the woman has more than one work shift. "She has the business and also works part to take care of family, children, home. Our tribute is for women to be placed increasingly on the labor market, with the certainty of having the same rights, "he said.

 

  1. Example how to calculate the fine: suppose the man earns $ 3300, the woman earns $ 3000 monthly. For 5 years of work, the difference would be 5 * 12 * $ 300 multiplied by 5 for the fine:  $ 90 000.
  2. Women having more days off, maternity leave, pension subsidized by men.  Warren Farrell explains the reasons for the so called pay gap.
  3. In divorce and separation, women will inherit government subsidized real estate property, decrees Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
  4. Brazil has special laws against domestic violence against women and children 2 3 and special police stations for crimes against women.

Snooker: no woman in the top 30. Do we need quotas for women?

jeanette-lee-black-widowWomen and snooker

  Women’s snooker has always been a contentious subject; the sad fact that there has never been a woman player ranked in the top thirty two seems to prove the general view that “snooker is not there game”. This is a nice way of saying “women can’t play snooker”.

         There have been many and various reasons given as to why women can not match the men in this field of sport. The first reason is the ratio of male players to female players in all tournaments; in fact it is the only sound reason known but still partly an excuse, there has to be an obvious or simple explanation.

        Woman competitors in tennis, golf, cricket, athletics; all concede they are inferior to men (in strength) by accepting a rules change for there benefit, but in snooker there is no strength advantage, nor is there any reason for a condescending rule to make lady snooker players feel inferior.^

No woman in the top 30 in snooker? As we know, gender is socially constructed. There is no reason why women would perform worse at snooker then men. Therefore, to right past injustice, the blatant discrimination by the patriarchy, women should get quotas in the top 30 snooker rankings.

Let us enforce 40% quotas, like in Europe’s boardrooms 0 1 2. This would require 12 women to be promoted into the top 30 snooker players. (please excuse our sarcasm)

But what most prevents women from reaching the boardroom, say bosses and headhunters, is lack of hands-on experience of a firm’s core business. Too many women go into functional roles such as accounting, marketing or human resources early in their careers rather than staying in the mainstream, driving profits. 3,

In sports like Tennis, chess, snooker there are objective criteria of a person’s performance. So it is ridiculous to demand to force women into the top 30 ranks, if they objectively don’t fulfill the requirements.

It does not matter why! Be it for innate deficiencies, be it for lack of interest, lack of breadth of the player basis. It does not matter, they don’t perform and thus deservedly are not in the top 30. In chess, there is only one woman in the top 100. In Tennis women painstakingly avoid competing against men, except against aging ex-champions.

In top management there are no such unassailably objective criteria, and thus it is not possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt if women are put into these jobs unjustly. Though Warren Farrell made a pretty strong point towards explaining why women deservedly rarely make it into the best paid top positions.

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