Women don't choose lower pay

Alexander Pope helped pen the catch phrase that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." When he wrote "An Essay on Criticism" back in 1709 he certainly had articles in mind like the one Stephen Miller just published ("Sorry Feminists," Nov. 23, 2005).

Miller goes on a tirade about the issue of equal pay for women, and quite honestly his comments are so shockingly inane that I don't even know where to begin. He says things like "women choose lower paying professions," and "women are less likely to ask for a raise then men." The former is seldom done by choice, and the latter just might be because of an inherently male dominated work culture that discourages women from speaking up.

He then makes completely false comments about male workers doing the sacrificial work of cleaning toilets and thus getting paid more. Actually, most of that work is performed by women, mostly by minority women, and they are massively underpaid for it (you might want to try and talk with one of the many housekeepers who clean your dorms for their take on this).

I could go on and on, using his words against him, but clearly Stephen is trying to drum up interest by spouting out things he knows nothing about. Thankfully for him he still has one year of college left to take some classes that teach about workplace sexism, the real wage gap that exists and the foundations of our society and how they help reinforce the status and setting that women face every day.

Matt Cubstead

Trinity '9