Friday, March 26, 1999
Announcements:

- None

1. Gender Inequalities and Discrimination

1. Female Circumcision (mutilation!) – An injustice against women – performed in African nations and some Islam countries (Ethiopia, Somalia). It is considered a rite of passage for teenage girls and it increases the value of marriageable girls. This is done to 85-100 million girls with no anesthesia, mainly to increase the sexual pleasure of males
2. Educational Disparities – 600 million illiterate women worldwide, concentrated mainly in Southern Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

1. Scandinavian Countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark) have many women enrolled in universities.
2. In the US, women are enrolled in less lucrative areas of study than those of men

1. Income Differentials

1. In Sweden, women make 80% that of men. In the US, women make 75 cents to every dollar men make, and in Japan women make 51% of what men make
2. Human Capital Factors (HCF) – education, experience, aptitude – men have higher HCF than women. Example: OBGYN men make $30,000 more than female OBGYN. Example: At MIT there is discrimination against women and the salary gap between male and female professors is widening.

1. Dual Labor Market – sex segregated occupational structure

1. Primary Sector – White males, high level skills, high status, prestige and income
2. Secondary Sector – Women, minorities – service jobs, low-skilled jobs, low pay, prestige, and income. Example: 90% of secretaries, nurses, and teachers are women. Pink collar ghettos – women concentrated in low paying, low skills, low prestige jobs. All societies have Dual Labor Markets

1. Professional Advancements – "glass ceiling" – entrenched male prejudices and beliefs that create invisible institutional barriers. Example: 2 CEO’s in Fortune 500 businesses were women. Example: Of CEO’s and Chairmen in the Top 100 US companies, 3% are women.
2. Wage Disparities: Comparable Worth Issues – Even though jobs are different if they are of the same difficulty then men and women should be paid the same. Example: Men’s and Women’s basketball coaches should be paid the same. Democratic Socialism – (Scandinavian countries) encourage women to become active in the work force because they are given paid maternity leave and free child care. Three countries with no paid maternity leave law: USA, New Zealand, Australia
3. Women in Afghanistan

1. Taliban – Islamic fundamentalists who exploit and oppress women excessively
2. Example: If a woman gets sick and needs a doctor they must find a male relative to take them to the doctor. The male then will have to tell the doctor what is wrong with the woman and the doctor prescribes medicine for the woman based solely on the male’s description of her illness; he never examines the woman at all.

1. Abortion – Of 20 million legal and illegal unsafe abortions, 90% occur in LDC’s. Of 80,000 deaths resulting from abortions, 95% occur in poor nations