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Return to Article: FEATURES Women's Work

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  Dear U.S. Customs Inspector:

  You are correct. The government is not an Equal Opportunity Employer. What is so aggravating is the years many employees spend being lied to and playing the EEO game until they realize that the cards are stacked against them.

  You are right in that just as many unqualified women and unqualified men get promoted in the government. However, "qualified" is a purely subjective evaluation, depending on what the hacks in your local personnel office are told to do.

  Ex-Navy

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 23, 2007 10:56 AM
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  Dear Ms. ex-Navy
  I'm sorry to hear of your problems, and have first hand experienced them. But the government is not an equal opportunity employer, neither is private industry. My sole point was that, obviously all employees at a certain GS level get the same pay. I'm not condoning "the old boys" club. But neither am I happy with the phony EEO mess, which, in my federal service promoted just as many unqualified women as men! Of course women can do the same jobs as men, (minus combat) in the federal government. But anecdotal accounts don't tell the real picture. It depends on the agency, staffing needs, cronyism which has increased in DHS, etc. Once again, I'm not arguing your point, just trying to define the problem.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 23, 2007 10:32 AM
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  I was a federally employed woman working in the worst boys' club on earth (otherwise known as the DoD). I was a GS-11 technician and worked there over 10 years. I also got an engineering degree by going to school at night. I was the only female - and could not get promoted to GS-12, in spite of the fact that every male technician that the management didn't absolutely hate got accreditation of duties promotions to GS-12. When I graduated from engineering school, they wanted to convert me to engineer, and demote me to GS-7, saying that I didn't have the qualifying experience to take a GS-11 or GS-12 engineering position.

  Before I left, I produced numerous lists of ex GS-11 and GS-12 technicians that went to night school to get engineering degrees, and later got promoted to GS-12 engineer and beyond. Some of them didn't even finish school. One of these dropouts became a GM-14 manager. All of these people were men.

  The agency insisted that this wasn't discrimination. You draw your own conclusions.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 22, 2007 9:38 AM
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  Dear (Ms?)Skeptical, sorry to disagree with you, but read the article again. The year is 2007, not 1920.The only women (IMO) who may really need help here are the working poor, the very ones disregarded by the Labor Department. You can subtract all of the women working for any public service entity, federal, state, or local, 'cause all employees in a particular job title get the same pay!

  And the women going to the beach during the week in a Humvee aren't working too hard, their husbands usually have two jobs to support their indolence. Disparate pay for equal jobs in private industry is a different matter; take it up with the company.

  But for every woman butting her head against the so-called "glass ceiling", I've seen three or four who didn't do the same job as a man, whether in private industry or government. Next time you pass a construction site on the road, check to see who is wielding the shovel, and who is holding the heavy stop sign. Then it all becomes clear.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 5, 2007 2:49 PM
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  You've got to be kidding. The "soccer Mom" is driving the jointly owned and paid for humvee. If not for Mom, Dad would have to pay for child care and figure out how to get kids to the soccer game on time. Men are still dying earlier than women? Try doing it without women in the picture. Let's get over the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" mentality. Women make up 50 percent of the workforce, still earn less than a man when compared job for job, and still keep up the home and raise children. In other words, a man and woman doing exactly the same job still don't earn the same salary. But I can tell you're starting to feel the heat! That's good!

  Skeptical Posted February 5, 2007 10:57 AM
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  Sexist, heck yes! American women are, by any international standard spoiled and soft. Go to India and watch women unloading containers right along side of the men. Then watch some suburban soccer mom racing around town in her husband's Humvee with a cell phone stuck in her ear on the way to the beach.

  As the article points out, women frequently take lower paid jobs to spend more time with their family. Great, but don't expect to be paid more for these service jobs. Men, on the other hand still die several years sooner than their mates, so I guess that equality does exist.

  GovExec.com reader Posted February 5, 2007 6:31 AM