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From: smb@ulysses.UUCP (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Do Statistics Prove Discrimination Against Women?
Message-ID: <951@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 7-Aug-84 16:57:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.951
Posted: Tue Aug  7 16:57:22 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Aug-84 08:26:09 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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I have to discount Lisa's stories, because they're anecdotal (as opposed to
statistically significant).  But I've seen *many* Labor Department studies
that back her up -- discrimination does exist, even after one corrects for
education, experience, interrupted careers, etc.  In fact, there was one
that appeared within the last year.  One that I saw about 5 years ago was
restricted to scientists and engineers.  Guess what -- same effect.

Now, the magnitude of the salary gap is certainly due to many factors other
than discrimination, though I suspect that most of them -- sex-stereotyped
jobs, lack of math/science background by women, etc. -- can be attributed
to prevailing sexist attitudes.  But don't kid yourself -- equal pay for
equal work may be the law, but it's sure not reality.