Who lives here in the patriarchy? – Diepresse.com

Good morning!

I recently went on a trip to the city library with my children. A book fell into my hands that asked the question in the blurb: « Spieglein, mirror on the wall, who is the biggest sexist in the whole country? » A children's book, mind you, with the title « Smash the Patriarchy », which, according to its own statements, goes to the search for the origin of the patriarchy. Because, it continues: The « genius » Aristotle, Darwin or Freud were basically contemptuous for women and would have represented the opinion that women were naturally inferior to the man. This would have laid the foundation for a society in which women are systematically disadvantaged: the patriarchy.

I don't want to deny that at all. It is no secret that the view that women were private ownership of men, inferior beings, not full -fledged citizens who were not more widespread than the wife. But what this book, which exemplarily stands for a widespread worldview, insinuates: that this patriarchy continues to this day and that we still live in a society that systematically suppresses women in the West.

But of course that is wrong. At the latest with Kreisky's family law reform, the last remains of the institutional patriarchy in Austria were disposed of. Nevertheless, it is still often used as an explanation that women earn less than men, do more housework and can be found less frequently in management positions. Above all, self -proclaimed feminists use this argument. Drawing the woman as the weak, oppressed gender – is it more unfeminist?

This statistics belong to

Nevertheless, the wrong view of the supposedly continuing patriarchy is cheerfully celebrated, for example on today's Equal Pay Day. Traditionally, statistics are thrown around as if there is no tomorrow. On Tuesday, a working paper from the Momentum Institute fluttered into the mailbox. The authors locate a « standstill at the gender pay gap », because: compare the middle gross annual income of all full and part-time women and men employed in Austria, you get a wage difference of 34 percent. Four percentage points less than in 1997. Compare couples with children, the wage difference even scratched the 50 percent mark.

But this kind of unmistaked wage statistics says nothing and has actually been disposed of for a long time. Unless you want to express that some people earn less than others. You don't need any studies for this finding. Firstly, part -time employees earn less than full -time employees, and women work much more often than men. Secondly, variables such as training, industry, professional experience, hierarchy in the company etc. are not recorded in these unmoved statistics. Here the chairman of the board is compared to the warehouse worker, the primary with the supermarket cashier, the 23-year-old university assistant with the 60-year-old Ordinaria.

The reality is closer to the Statistics Austriathat based on Eurostat-Dats compares the average gross hourly earnings of women and men in the private sector and thus comes to a wage scissors of 18.4 percent for 2022. If you include the officials where there are less scope for wages, the Pay Gap shrinks loudly WIFO to 13.5 percent.

And then there are other data from Eurostat that are dismissed about characteristics such as industry, work, duration of company affiliation, age, training, etc. This gives you a wage scissors of 10.8 percent in 2018 (these are the latest data). But you have to find this data that EU-Statistics authority hidden it quite well.

You can see: There are many types to calculate the gender -specific wage difference. They have one thing in common: everyone shows that women earn less on average than men – but the range is huge. It is of course not good that there is still a wage difference even after the departure of explainable factors. But the numbers with which the Equal Pay Days, Equal Care Days and Women's Days are handling of our time are sometimes quite nice – so as not to say: manipulative.

And I am convinced that women are not serving them. Because this is how the debate into an ideological battle with numbers that does not bring us. Especially since it is counterproductive to suggest women and girls to à la « Smash the Patriarchy » that they are victims of a oppressive system.

Because if you are talked out that it is discriminated against, you believe that and it behaves. This is suggested by a 45 -year -old experiment by the American psychologist Robert E. Kleck. A scar was made up before they were sent to a conversation situation. At the last moment, however, the make -up was removed unnoticed. So the women went into conversation in the assumption that they had a distortion on their face. And they were all sorts of unpleasant behavior of their counterpart, which they related to the scar, even though it was no longer there.

Of course there are cases of discrimination. Systematic to assume it is simply wrong in Austria of the 21st century.

Sincerely, yours

Jeannine Hierlander

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