united coalition of the universal sisterhood of equality and fairness, and a fat paycheck too

the american association of university women released a study this week showing that women still make less then their male counterparts at work, and the pay gap widens the longer women work. this has been a known fact for a long time, but the fact that it's not getting better is a bit concerning to me.

women that attend highly selective colleges (on average) make about the same as men who attend minimally selective colleges. so that means i can go ivy league and some dude who goes to state will make the same pay as me. and it's not just the old "women are teachers and nurses" story either. these researchers actually took into account all personal choices that both men and women make (i.e. occupation, children, family, marital status, race)...and when all of those are equal, women still make 20% less than men.

the national women's law center put together a report as well, with this gem of a story:

"In the largest employment discrimination suit ever filed, female employees have sued Wal-Mart for paying women less than men for similar work and using an old boys’ network for promotions that prevented women’s career advancement. One woman alleged that when she complained of the pay disparity, her manager said that women would never make as much as men because "God made Adam first." Another woman alleged that when she applied for a raise, her manager said, "Men are here to make a career, and women aren’t. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money." The Ninth Circuit recently reaffirmed the case as a class action on behalf of more than 1.5 million women who are current and former employees of Wal-Mart."

wow - remind me to not make my career at wal-mart.

but seriously, the only way this pay gap will decrease is if employers are forced to uphold certain standards of employee benefits. obviously, they can't fire a pregnant woman or something that off-the-wall, but legislation could make it much more difficult for companies to get away with it. like reporting all wages, allowing open communication between co-workers about salaries, and making employers provide detailed information when they are paying a man more than a woman.

well, that's enough of my feminist rant for today. join me tomorrow for "why women shouldn't always have to be the one to carry the baby."

st. louie isn't as bad as you think

today, i read Hopes for a Renaissance After Exodus in St. Louis, from the ny times. i guess i never thought about it, being a st. louisan all my life, but we've had some hard times when it comes the city's status. we had some good times too, like when st. louis was the fourth largest city in the country. obviously, those days are gone, and what's left is a city that is getting slammed, in more ways than one.

we all heard about our #1 spot on the most dangerous cities list. and, then there's the city schools being turned over to the state of missouri - schools in which "5 percent of 11th graders in city schools were proficient in reading." and the article even painfully brings up our nasty storms last year that knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people. let me tell you, susan saulny, if you had been without power for a week straight, you wouldn't be bringing that up to relive it.

so we have crime. so we have bad schools. so we have police officers that confiscate world series tickets and give them to their friends. but i think the things that people are trying to do for the city are being overlooked. loft buildings are being revitalized, restaurants and shops are now thriving downtown, companies are investing in rebuilding run-down areas, heck - people are LIVING downtown!

and if you talk to people from st. louis, they are proud of their city. they are cards fans, they eat toasted ravioli and tell their out-of-town friends about it, they are pissed about highway 40 construction but know it has to be done, they care when the elephant at the zoo has a baby. they are participating in the redevelopment of downtown, and are excited to see it boom. they defended it when morgan quitno's research officially said stl has more crime than detroit (and then they remembered that they beat detroit in the world series, so it all works out).

so i say, screw you ny times. just a year ago, you published an article about how young, hip, and cool the city is. and now one year later, you rip it a new arch-hole (i totally just thought of that). we st. louisans will continue to rebuild, improve and have pride in our town, and next year you can remember that and write about how great it is again.

why didn't i think of erin's list?

apparently i've got nothing to write about this week...it's been a little hectic. my office moved last week, i'm moving into a new home this weekend (if it doesn't snow)...and i truly have nothing interesting to say.

i did however, find a quite interesting way to pass time when i'm a little bored/need to take a break at work.

craig's list.

i always thought craig's list was the free, more local version of ebay. which is partly true. BUT - craig's list offers many more fun and exciting things. here is a sample:


job opps : there are all sorts of jobs to search for, pretty much something in every category. the best job i found was...

BBW's Needed for Film
Reply to: vonvolsteinslair@msn.com
Date: 2007-04-10, 4:41PM CDT

Erotic Nightmare Cinema is looking for BBW's for their upcoming film project being shot in St. Louis beginning May 5th. Nudity is required and an openness to sexual situations will be helpful, but not expected. No experience required. Good pay and closed set envirorment. Pay is based on situation of role. Interested applicants send photo (preferably full body) to Dusty Fleischman via email.

rants and raves : basically just a sounding board. but every once in a while you can find a gem like this...

I love doing this...
Reply to: pers-311299534@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-13, 1:53PM CDT
Lighting my farts on fire at night with the lights out

missed connections : these are a riot. seriously. and one time, i swear someone saw me and posted something creepy. and who doesn't fall in love every time they go to dirt cheap?

dirt cheap - m4w
Reply to: pers-311022494@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-13, 12:52AM CDT
Tall Brunette. Pretty smile, i let you go ahead of me in line. didn't get your name?

so if you've got a minute, browse through some of the local genius that is craig's list.

have a good weekend, friends.

kids drink before they're 21? what?!?!

there has been a bit of hype in the media regarding a new anheuser-busch product on the market. spykes are 2 ounce bottles of malt liquor - sold in four flavors: melon, lime, chocolate, and mango (side note: the melon flavor is actually labelled HOT MELONS...ha). they are intended to (duh) spike your beer or drink, adding a kick of caffeine, alcohol, ginseng and guarana. a-b says you can take it as a shot, but i did that with one of the lime ones - and i will advise against it. i burped up lime for a day and a half.

anyways, apparently some groups feel as though this product is being marketed directly towards underage drinkers.

"With prom season and all its attendant hazards around the corner, some law enforcers and health advocates are adding one more cause for parents to worry — a new alcoholic beverage called Spykes that is sized, flavored and priced in a way that critics say is aimed at teens. It’s also cute — about the size of a nail polish bottle — so it can easily slip into the tiniest clutch purse or tuxedo pocket." (read the whole msnbc article here)

and, with it's resemblance to nail polish, it may be overlooked by law enforcement officers who are checking girls purses. on top of that, it's 12% alcohol by volume.

have these people never seen airplane bottles of liquor? i mean, they are making such a big deal about the bottles being small and cute - i think a mini-bottle of crown royal is about as cute as it gets. and if a police offer mistakes a bottle of booze for a bottle of nail polish, he should lose his job and be heckled by the commoners...because he's obviously an idiot.

the threat of drunken students at prom is not new, i'm sure you all remember prom. oh wait, you probably don't remember because you swiped a bottle of vodka from your parents liquor cabinet and mixed it into a slurpee on your way there. if an 18 year old wants to get drunk before a dance, they are going to figure a way to do it, whether a-b makes a cute little bottle of booze or not.

and where were the advocacy groups when jack daniels made country cocktails? those were tasty treats for kids (at least they were for me). or mike's hard lemonade and the 18 lines of flavored bevs that came after it? my guess is that any liquor company developing new products like these is NOT trying to get underage kids drunk...they are trying to make MONEY. and the underage kids are not their target market, they can't buy their product legally and don't have money. you think a-b is going to spend millions of dollars creating a product on the off chance that a small percentage of under-21's with fake id's will buy? probably not.

_

so, i think that these groups trying to take on a-b should probably spend their time getting parents and schools to pay attention to what their kids are doing...rather than try to rid the world of alcohol products.