If political and cultural pressure for sexual equality in employment outcome has the effect the Feminists predict, then STEM employment in Scandinavian countries should be closer to 50/50 than it is in supposedly more “patriarchal” societies.
The precise opposite is the case. The social experimental results are in:
“[G]reater availability of material and social resources facilitates the independent development and expression of individual-specific preferences, and hence may lead to an expansion of individual differences in more developed and equal-opportunity countries.”
In other words, a higher standard of living and a cultural (Western Civilizational) emphasis on individualism provides more choice for everyone. The Enlightenment values of “dead white men” empower women, and when offered that advantage women act less like men than they do without choice.
Duh. But try to convince Sen. Mazie Hirono, or Dr. Catherine McKinnon, or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, et. al..
So long as our institutions operate as if the lack of a 50/50 split by sex in a given job category is evidence of oppression (of females, not of males – nobody is complaining about nursing or bricklaying), the Feminists have it both ways. The results they decry are increased by the policies they favor, so they can continue to demand more laws favoring females.
James Damore was fired for asking Google to consider this. Jordan Peterson is routinely excoriated for explaining it. Brett Kavanaugh was almost destroyed in servicing the idea.
Further evidence from Harvard of choices as determinative, not a “patriarchal conspiracy:”
Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men? Evidence from Bus and Train Operators
Even in a unionized environment, where work tasks are similar, hourly wages are identical, and tenure dictates promotions, female workers earn $0.89 on the male-worker dollar (weekly earnings). We use confidential administrative data on bus and train operators from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to show that the weekly earnings gap can be explained entirely by the workplace choices that women and men make. Women value time and flexibility more than men. Women take more unpaid time off using the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and work fewer overtime hours than men. Men and women plan to work similar overtime hours when they are scheduled three months in advance, but men actually work nearly 50% more overtime hours than women. Women with dependents value time away from work more than do men with dependents. When selecting work schedules, women try to avoid weekend, holiday, and split shifts more than men. To avoid unfavorable work times, women prioritize their schedules over route safety and select routes with a higher probability of accidents. Women are less likely than men to game the scheduling system by trading off work hours at regular wages for overtime hours at premium wages. Conditional on seniority, which dictates choice sets, the weekly earnings gap can be explained entirely by differences in operator choices of hours, schedules, and routes.
“My body, my choice;” it’s the Feminist mantra. Except when it isn’t.
Feminists will counter that the patriarchy operates in a larger societal context, one which places the burden of child care mostly on females, and we have to do something about that. Well, we did:
The Long-Run Effects of America’s First Paid Maternity Leave Policy
Abstract: This paper provides the first evidence of the effect of a U.S. paid maternity leave policy on the long-run outcomes of children. I exploit variation in access to paid leave that was created by long-standing state differences in short-term disability insurance coverage and the state-level roll-out of laws banning discrimination against pregnant workers in the 1960s and 1970s. While the availability of these benefits sparked a substantial expansion of leave-taking by new mothers, it also came with a cost. The enactment of paid leave led to shifts in labor supply and demand that decreased wages and family income among women of child-bearing age. In addition, the first generation of children born to mothers with access to maternity leave benefits were 1.9 percent less likely to attend college and 3.1 percent less likely to earn a four-year college degree.
H/T Marginal Revolution for all these references.