Tuesday, March 13, 1S34
Daily Nebraskan
Pacj3 5
Equal laws don't bring equal pay
Oklahoma's legislature debated equal rights for
women and voted no.
A bill specified that women should be "equal
partners" in a marriage. It was defeated by a
substantial margin when opponents demonstrat
ed that it would make wives responsible for indi-
(y
Paul
narvey
vidua! debts and would make wives equally re
sponsible for providing family income.
With today's discriminatory pay scales, it was
unlikely many wives could provide "equal income."
Incidentally, during the debate some lawmak
ers demonstrated a lot of nerve quoting Scripture
when everybody sees them out nights "floozy
izing." That is a quote.
The law is specific, men and women shall be
paid equally for performing equal work.
But they're not.
Further, of 400 occupational categories, women .
are employed, with rare exceptions, in only 20.
Women, in effect, are "segregated" into a limited
number of occupations which are low in status
and low in pay.
It is argued that "given time" the laws of supply
and demand will balance things out. Not neces
sarily. '
In recent years, despite severe shortages of
nurses, pay increases for nurses have been min
imal. At the same time, despite an oversupply of doc
tors in some metropolitan areas, their pay has
continued to increase.
Our present prevalent practice dating back
to categorization of womens' professions a
hundred years out of date pays librarians and
nurses with years of education and experience
far less than the man who paints the house or
fixes the faucet.
However gradually, women are beginning to
bypass the entrenched male-oriented establish
ment. '
Women are now sole owners of 2.8 million small
. businesses, quadruple the number five years ago.
In the sciences and engineering, overall employ
ment of women is increasing more than twice as
fast as for men.
. One woman went to work in an underground
coal mine 10 years ago. Of, all coal miners hired
last year 8.6 percent were women.
Yes, "a woman's place" is still in the back of the
bus when it comes to pensions, tax policy, insu
rance, child support and alimony enforcement,
dependent care services, government regulations
and average wages.
The president and the Congress promise "legis
lation to eliminate discrimination."
Yet, equal pay for equal work was legislated 20
years ago and the average man still takes home
$388 a week, the average woman $251.
1S34, Los Angeles Timet Syndicate
Policy
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' B ' Letters
Cartoon offensive
The Chancellor's Commission on the
Status of Women would like to go on
record as one of the many groups
andor individuals objecting to the
Daily Nebraskan's serendipity cartoon
in the March 5 issue. Not only is it
offensive to women but it multiplies its
offensiveness by also degrading the
Mexican American people.
This lack of sensitivity by the editor
and staff members responsible is some
what appalling in this day of apparent
awareness of both ethnic and sexual
discrimination issues. Learning through
our mistakes is part of the educational
process but such obvious mistakes in
judgment are worth some time for
reflection rather than merely passing
them by as expected human error.
We request that the staff members
responsible discuss why this issue was
overlooked before publishing this car
toon. If this is done, maybe you can
turn this mistake into a productive
error rather than just concluding that
it is in the "every issue will offend
somebody" category.
Deanna B. Eversoll Ph.D.
Chair, Chancellor's Commission
on the Status of Women
Cartoon abominable
Congratulations! Misogyny and rac
ism all in one cartoon!
"Serendipity" (Daily Nebraskan,
March 5) took a crack at both women
and Hispanics when it showed senor
throwing senorita out of a window for
tequila. We are dismayed, to say the
least, to see such a lack of conscious
ness on the part of the editorial staff ,:
regarding the dynamics of social op
pression. To promote such under the
guise of humor is an insidious abom
ination. Kit Boesch, Director
Lincoln-Lancaster Commission
on the Status of Women
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