But in all honesty on that platform, I can argue the point no further. I have looked at the stats and they pretty much give the argument solidity. But this doesn't mean I close the Guardian and get on with my day excepting that the married middle classes have put me in my place once again. There is a problem that needs to be addressed and it’s not about improvements on the welfare system, it's about improvements to the self worth of women living on the bare minimum, within low income jobs or on welfare with children.
The career break is an issue, an issue that mainly effects single women with children, If experience counts then anyone that takes time out from work will be short of it. But what is the root problem we need to address here? If women choose to have kids, of course that is fine, but alas you can't have your cake and eat it. You can't be a full time parent and expect to walk into a job at three time the national average income the moment you decide to
return to work, I accept that. But for me this is why the gap is not simply addressed with a bung from extra tax credits. The basic problem is family's remain in poverty even after re-entry into work.Relative or real most ordinary people don't really give a stuff about being a high flyer, what they care about most is not being poor. There is a possibility that this problem is not new and the only reason we are aware of it is because we have fixed all the other pressing issues and now looking at the welfare state in order to reform it, this problem has revealed itself to be apparent.
There is also the possibility of something deeper going on in society. Women could actually be disengaging, the beginnings of a genuine paradigm shift in attitudes to work and wealth that is leading some sections of society, not just women alone, to turn away from traditional notions of success and worth and back to a more traditional view of what is valuable. I guess if we see a growth in the birth rate over the next ten years this would offer some support for this idea.
I feel like I’m suggesting that women have started a decline from the initial equality sort, maybe because its just too bloody hard to have children then fight to get a decent wage to feed them, so they just make do, except their self imposed fate. The stats may say there is not an inequality and that we have dealt with the shortfall to their wages by bunging them money but living on welfare or low wage sucks, I know, because as always I've been there.
How about offering single parents specifically, who take large periods away from work the opportunity for free open-learning to bring their skills back up and I mean recognised qualification, subsidised by local businesses? I don't know I'm still working on that idea. And pay no attention to people who say degrees don't matter, most of those people who say that have either got one, or have worked in the same job or within the same industry for years. Degrees bloody matter, if you enter into the job market as a graduate you are paid more and have more of an opportunity to enter a variety of fields. Without it you are gravely limited, I cite this by being unemployed at present in Scotland. Scotland takes no prisoners. When it comes to education here its free and they reward you if you take that free option, with a decent starting wage but if you don't, they hand you a vulnerable role in local industry and services. And at the moment it's grim because this recession has attacked those businesses first.
There will be more men in high paying jobs, as the majority of women take the role of looking after the children for large periods of time, there are also a lot more single mums out there as well. So yeah ok, statistically there isn't a wage gap....there is a Mothers' pay gap but I think the way to get people out of that low income poverty trap is education, a very obvious conclusion yes....but why arn't we doing it then instead of bunging tax credits at it, it needs a long term solution not means tested resolve?
