Little Men with Even Smaller ....

There's a study just released that says women STILL make less than men in the same jobs. The results of the study show that when they're fresh out of college, women make 80 cents on the dollar compared to a man, and ten years later they make 69 cents compared to a man's dollar wage. That's pretty pitiful. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though. Women are still discriminated against, and not respected-- and I don't think it's always race-related, though that happens too.
It's pretty telling that a top-ranking state official was let go after being sued for sexual discrimination-- the Missouri Dept. of Ag's Fred Ferrell was always a chauvinist, even when his kids were little. I remember him always being the "big man" when he was around-- and his wife seemed to cater to his demands. Now, I wonder if he's so big, since he was publicly embarrassed? His spin is probably that she was a "bitch" and made it up.
Gender discrimination happens everywhere, though, and I guess it shouldn't be surprising that women are still paid less for the same work. Recently I was made aware of a church in the Missouri Annual Conference which was getting a new pastor. This new pastor was a woman, to replace their previous male minister. They actually tried to lower the salary for this woman-- and would have gotten away with it, if the District Superintendent or Bishop hadn't insisted on pay equality. If I'm not mistaken, the staff-parish relations committee had as many women as men on it, so apparently even the women were okay with the unequal pay.
My niece is quite an athlete, as is her older brother. She's thirteen months younger than he is, but by far the fastest runner in her grade, and possibly his also. Last fall she wanted to play on his Queen City baseball team, which had several kids from the elementary school on it, and was coached by a friend of the kids' parents. The coach allowed her to play at the try-out game, and by all reports (from other parents, not hers) she did better than some of the boys. Yet the coach told her she couldn't be on the team, using her age as an excuse (she is 9, and the age range is 9-13), and then after she left dejected, he made several comments about her gender, which the boys on the team repeated. Her brother quit the team in protest, an act of which we are quite proud. This spring he wanted to play on the team again, trying to get past his anger over the slighting of his sister. The coach is seemingly punishing him, making him play outfielder, and also has made several comments about girls. This guy isn't just some ignorant joe off the streets-- he's a veterinarian, and one would think he would know better. His wife was a herpetologist for the Omaha Zoo before they married, and is quite educated-- yet she must put up with this.
I get so frustrated when I think about how this kind of behavior perpetuates more discrimination-- it just goes on and on. He'll raise his sons this way, and some of the kids he coaches will think that way, too. It makes me think of a poem by Nikki Giovanni that starts out, "He was a very small man."...