J. Steven Svoboda is a member of TheMensCenter Advisory Council, an Independent attorney active in human rights law and Executive Director of Attorneys for the Rights of the Child (ARC).

Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap—and What Women Can Do About It. By Warren Farrell, Ph.D.

A new book from Dr. Warren Farrell is of course eagerly awaited by all of us who care about gender equity. I dare say that each of his books represents an evolution since the publication of the previous one, both in terms of Warren’s own growth and in terms of society’s developing awareness of, and willingness to hear more regarding, pertinent men’s and women’s (and people’s!) issues.

Why Men Earn More is both more of the same from Warren and at the same time, something fairly different from anything we’ve seen or heard before, not just from him but from anyone. It’s more of the same in the very best way. The book is meticulously researched and packed with those mellifluous, instant-slogan encapsulations that no one else seems to be able to put together quite like this particular author. Even someone who has read relatively widely on gender issues is bound to learn a number of new points and viewpoints from each of Warren’s books, and this one is no exception. Why Men Earn More retains Warren’s focus on gender equity through development of awareness regarding current gender inequity.

And Why Men Earn More is different too. It moves toward its goals in a different manner, by focusing on what women can do to earn more in the workplace. I believe Warren is again blazing his own trail in writing a book that treats this topic from a perspective aware of men’s rights as well as women’s rights. This is no Trojan horse; the book is genuinely a guide for women, and a highly instructive one at that. Along the way, there are plenty of opportunities of which Warren avails himself to discuss men’s issues. (And by the way, folks, this book is this year’s lead title from that well-known “radical” group, the American Management Association.)

Ways that women can expand their earning power are smoothly connected up to central issues in each of Warren’s past gender transition movement books. For example, women who use his 25 steps and thereby get higher pay will not need to feel the need to “marry up” and, as Warren phrases it, “the man doesn’t feel he has to compete to be the ‘up’ in order to earn her love.” (See Why Men Are the Way They Are). Warren takes previous analyses of the benefits of competitive team sports (which teach how to strike a balance between individual and team needs) one step further with a detailed explication of the particular advantages of pickup team sports. He writes, “If organized team sports develop managerial skills for a corporate setting, pickup team sports are more like training to be an entrepreneur.” (See Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say). Fear of male sexuality leads to blatant discrimination against men in such jobs as social worker, dental hygienist, massage therapist, obstetrician-gynecologists, nurses, nursery school teachers, and elementary school teachers. For some jobs, e.g., elementary school teacher, dental hygienist, and would-be restaurant hosts, cocktail waiters, hotel housekeepers, and clothing salespersons, men face an absolute level of discrimination not faced by women anywhere—a virtually complete inability to get a job (See The Myth of Male Power).

Why is it, Warren asks, that we were comfortable telling people unused to females in certain jobs, “Tough, get used to it,” but we are not willing to say the same thing today now that the tables are partially turned? Yet our children suffer horrendous damage from the absence of men in the family and in elementary school. Warren combines a neat mnemonic device with a pithy formulation when he writes of “the five D’s” that are much more common in single-mother homes than in single-father homes—depression, disobedience, delinquency, drinking, and drugs. (See Father and Child Reunion). Then there is the 5-to-1 “genetic celebrity” pay gap in such areas as modeling. (See Women Can’t Hear What Men Don’t Say).

Why Men Earn More is not a men’s rights book, however. It is a book about how women can expand their earning power, by taking one or more of 25 steps that men (and some women) have used to justify expanded compensation for their work. Warren is now a (step)father of two daughters who are just reaching college age, and thoughts of their future possibilities clearly influenced his work on this book.

The author is constantly ferreting out of sources like the US Census Bureau figures that are unpublished and, I would guess, that no one really wanted ever to be publicized. So we learn, while still in the book’s introduction, that a part-time working woman makes $1.10 for every dollar made by her male counterpart, and also that, when education is held constant, never-married men earn only 85 cents for every dollar earned by never-married women. Want to learn about (count ‘em!) 39 fields in which women earn at least 5% more than similarly qualified men? Turn to the chart on pages 12-13. Want to see apparent pay inequalities disappear as dissimilar factors between men and women are accounted for? Turn to Table 12 and watch a 141% ratio of male physician salaries to female physician salaries turn into a dead-even 100%, right before your eyes.

Of course, as the author notes on the same page, studies that do not find a pay gap against women are never repeated, so it is hard to get the truth out. Contrary to popular belief and media myth, prior to the age of 40, women are an astounding 15 times more likely to become top executives at major corporations. Despite the fact that “men executives work more hours, travel more, move more, and … make more of almost all the sacrifices discussed in this book.” And that’s not all: “Ironically, the government sponsors for women what it condemns for men: the buddy-boy network is called discrimination; the buddy-girl network is called the law.”

From March 2003 to July 2004, 195 male US Marines died in Iraq. Want to guess how many female Marines died during the same period? Ten? Five? Try ZERO!!! Although active-duty military personnel are 15% female, only 2.3% of the soldiers killed in hostile action in Iraq lack a Y chromosome.

Warren points out that hazardous jobs are oh so much less hazardous for women, who typically glean the extra hazard-based pay without being subjected to the same dangers on which the extra compensation is based. So one way to raise your earning power as a woman is to work in a hazardous region. Typically, you won’t be in danger; only your male colleagues will be! Another similar strategy is to work in a hazardous field such as police, firefighters, or US Park Service rangers, again with the likelihood that you will receive extra pay without the same extra danger men face. A related observation the author makes later again imports men’s issues: “When male disposability backfires into female disposability [as when a falling rafter that killed a woman pedestrian led to stricter construction safety regulations], the political will surfaces to pass legislation that forced the modification of rules.”

One strategy for raising pay is to choose a job where you can’t check out at the end of the day. As Warren aptly phrases it, “We get prestige and pay to become psychologically enmeshed, or, if you will, career codependent.” Another strategy is to take on different responsibilities even when your title is the same; corporate vice-presidents in charge of finance or sales (more typically male positions) are paid more highly than vice-presidents in charge of human resources, communications, and public affairs (jobs more often held by females relative to finance and sales).

The author adroitly notes a logical fallacy in the common assertion that low pay for teachers “is a sad commentary on our values.” It also reflects positively on our values; we love children so much that we have a large supply of potential child-raisers, whom we only need compensate modestly in order to keep them at such an appealing job. Warren boldly predicts that in the coming decade, as we come to appreciate children’s need for both male and female caretakers and role models, the biggest teaching opportunities will be for men in elementary and junior high school. (I hope he is right.)

Similarly, the author comes out in defense of hierarchies, which “were and still are men’s way of creating standards of holding each other accountable.” Far from being “a strategy designed to benefit men at the expense of women,” the author notes that hierarchy was “a strategy to get men to pay the expenses of women!”

Warren’s skills at uncovering little known facts and his writing craftsmanship are both on display when he notes that “homes in blue-collar towns such as Erie, Pennsylvania, had separate basement entrances so the husband could rinse and change rather than get the home dirty. (A man’s home was his castle as long as he obeyed that little unwritten sign: “Husband must enter through the basement… with a paycheck”!)” Two pages later, we learn that women (and men) can raise their pay by seeking a field requiring the need for updating knowledge: “Currency begets currency.” Who can help smiling at the author’s passing reference regarding boyhood sexual experiences to “the end of rejection (also called sexual intercourse)”?

As if all this wasn’t enough, in closing, Warren neatly, quickly decimates two possible leading counterarguments against this book: 1) He explains why pay often decreases in a field after women enter it in greater numbers, and why this does not represent anti-female discrimination. 2) He cuts to shreds as simultaneously sexist and classist both the economic and philosophical bases for the monstrosity known as “comparable worth.” The author provides us with six take-home recommendations to do what you love, be with those you love, and still be economically secure: put in the hours, hire, work from home, form community, choose your partner carefully, and help you children use your time and their time well. He also lists five critical points: 1) Women make more money than men for the same work. 2) Many other women make the same money men make for fewer sacrifices. 3) Many unskilled women have jobs rarely available to men. 4) Many skilled women have careers in which it is much more difficult for equally qualified men to find employment. 5) Some women professional athletes can make a living for achieving at a level not afforded to a man achieving at that same level. Why has all this come to pass? Partly because, regardless of the evidence, we are psychologically and genetically invested in the belief that women earn less than men.

 J. Steven Svoboda ©2005