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This seems to me to be a very abstract, and silly, question to ask. For equal merit in performing a job with equal responsibilities, and with equal credentials and equal reliability - you get the idea - in a self-purported free society there's no rational justification for paying women less money than men.

There are many mitigating socioeconomics factors that obstruct the attainment of pay equality; for starters, as was brought up in other articles, the homemaking work for which many (most) women are left responsible, for various reasons, is seen as a detriment to her work ethic in general, no matter the tremendous research that's demonstrated that a child reared in day care, or by compassionate but otherwise detached volunteers, has a much greater likelihood of developing social or emotional problems than the child who's directly attended to by their parent(s).

From a corporate perspective, it's an understandable concern. While nobody (who considers themselves compassionate) could honestly say that, presented with the hypothetical mutually exclusive choice between completing a full day's work and their child's health, they would choose the former, one should also consider that capitalism is rarely seen to be compassionate. From a strictly corporate standpoint, businesses prefer those who prize their work and job more than, to put it very broadly, personal affairs. The real underlying issue, which also appears in general employment-type disparities between genders, is the various abstract social and cultural forces that push men and women into particular roles.

It can be statistically seen that there are several jobs that men will voluntarily take and others that women will. While viewing those jobs against each other directly would produce an incomplete and inaccurate assessment of the forces I'm referring to, they do illustrate their effect. What is the general social conception of a woman truck driver? 'Butch'. 'Bull-dyke'. Of a male nurse, or daycare worker? 'Wimp'. 'Fag'. There are stigmas associated with particular jobs, and as these jobs are voluntarily chosen by their workers, it's tough to draw the line, or attribute either one entirely, to 'general biological differences' or social pressures.

Similarly, in our society, the typecast of a male role is hard, determined above most concerns including self and sentimentality, strong to stand alone, aggressive. The female typecast is passive, compassionate above rationality, in search of a

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