Grace for Truth
God gives grace for the truth, not for myths
That thought has prompted me to take a good, hard look at myself.
Did you know that the gender gap in wages (21 cents) is not really a gender gap? It’s a gap between mothers and everyone else (Moreton 114).
Think about that for a second. Working mothers, not women, are paid the worst in the country.
Something happens when you become a mom. You vacillate between a soft body of squishiness holding a paper plate of Ants-on-a-Log and a powerful life-giver. You are the Every Snuggler and Every Protector. Chief Bottom-Wiper and She-Bear.
In your body, you are wholly both. You make milk. You speak out. You cook dumplins. You raise hell. You buy bandaids. You scratch predators. You read Suess. You pray for protection.
Shortly after Gavin was born, we were having one of those days. I hadn’t showered. The kids weren’t dressed. The house was a wreck. And the front door was open probably to welcome home the Love of my Life. As I was walking past the open storm door, who should walk up but some local politician glad-handing the working class neighborhood? His tie was loosened so he looked rugged and hard-working, but he was as neat as a pin otherwise. Not even a sweat stain. And he walked up my sidewalk to woo me – the worst paid, but his most-coveted voter.
I glared through the glass door. I think I might have actually growled. And shook my head as if to say, “Don’t you dare knock on my door.” And he actually raised both hands in surrender and backed his way down my sidewalk.
Heehee. “I’m so powerful.” I thought. “Scared him.”
I had that feeling, too, when some loser stole my parking place right in front of me at the local supermarket. He knew he had done it because he watched me get out of my car several spaces away — me in my 7-month-pregnant state. I saw the color drain from his face when he saw me. I saw him cower. And I saw him run scared from me too.
People don’t want to talk about that power. It makes ‘em sweat. And I’m actually wondering if that’s why we’re paid so badly. Because if we’re paid anywhere near the power we wield, we’d take over.
A certain expression of Christianity loves to talk about the squishy side of motherhood. If you heard Bob Jones, Sr. talk, his mom’s powder biscuits and gravy were the bread and wine of Reconstruction Alabama. And any one of the recent and profitable evangelical books “for women” are quick to place the articulation of women’s power in the “ungodly” column — the domain of those ugly “libbers.”
That’s a lie, you know. Or a myth. There’s no grace for lies. The truth is God made us to be wholly both. The God-fearing woman births humanity. She also judges a country. She dolls herself up to woo a pagan king. She is the first to tell the Good News. She warms milk.
And she nails the enemy’s temple to the ground.
Wow. Still chewing on this. Wow.
Oh, now THIS I love. LOVE!
Will you let me hold the mallet?
xox
Soooo good. So, so good.
Wow. Just. WOW. Love this.
Wow, Camille. You take the cake, girl–plus you can earn the fixin’s, mix and bake it!
Love your comments on SFL!
[...] felt quite powerful in fact, a la my imaginary friend Camille. And you know what? I felt very, very [...]
Fantastic! Chief bottom-wiper and She-bear. You’ve described my day.
Another truth that God gives grace for is that working mothers are less productive employees than other workers.
Mothers tend to have shorter tenures then their counterparts. Employees are most expensive at the outset of their career with a company because of training costs. Mothers, who are less likely to stick around as long as other workers, represent an increased risk for employers. Employers compensate for that increased risk by offering less compensation.
No one denies that mothers perform a massive amount of unpaid labor. Women who have decided of their own free will to take on those increased responsibilities deserve our admiration and respect.
But salaries are not meant to reward character, determination, or even hard work. Pay is a reflection of productivity. If you can supply a good or service that is in high demand, you receive concordant compensation.
Mothers – although certainly possessing character, determination, and a good work ethic in abundant quantities – are not supplying something in great demand. In a free market, no one is going to pay you for your child.
And this is a good thing. In countries where children have financial worth, child slavery remains a huge problem. In the US, through child labor laws, we have decreased the financial value of children. That, in part, is why people in the US today have far fewer children than past generations. Children are now a net drain on family incomes.
Why then should mothers be given financial compensation for having children who are financial liabilities?
Yes, Paul. Those are the stereotypical myths. The statistics simply don’t bear that out. At all.
Camille, for decades, women have been ‘at least, “40 percent” of the working force in the country’s economy! For Pete’s sake, the world’s economy in the West, would ‘stop functioning’, if all the women simply stopped showing up for work each day! So why women should ‘ever’ be paid less than men makes no sense whatsoever. Besides women have always had to work twice as hard as men, to simply earn the right to a decent wage, that recognizes their educational level! And don’t forget ‘who’ built the tanks and planes during the last world war! OR the women’s Land Army that worked the fields and farms, to grow food to feed the ‘men’! Let’s hear some ‘men’ thank the women for their hardwork during that last two world wars! How easy ‘they’ forget, eh! Myths about women have spoiled people’s attitudes towards women, for centuries. And Jesus ‘never ever’ supported such nonsense.I love one of my husband’s neatest ‘unorthodox’ sayings: “Jesus Christ was uncluttered with the customs of His day!” I love how your husband supports you on your blog. Aren’t we lucky to have such fine men in our lives! This reminds me of a really ‘happy memory.’ About Paul’s mom. She had her home going, November of 2009. We were walking to the car with mom’s grocery shopping. As mom stood by the front passenger door,waited for Paul to unlock the car, and me to assist her into the seat and attach the stubborn seat belt, she turned to me and said:” I bet you’re glad you married Paul!” I replied to her, “I sure am! I got the best one!” ( He’s the eldest of mom & dad’s five wonderful grown children, so I like to brag that I got ‘the best one!’ ) I remember the look on Paul’s face when I said that. He was beaming with joy. Every time I tell him how blessed I am to have married him, he ‘always feels so chosen.’ Yes, God chooses ‘us’. And I also believe He guides and protects us to ‘choose the best catch’ for ‘us’. You and I sure ‘got the ‘best one.’ Keep exposing the nonsense of the myths and sterotypes about women. People need to see, read, and hear this. People need to change their distorted thinking about this. We must not sweep any of this under the carpets. Esther didn’t. Deborah didn’t. Mary didn’t. and neither should any of us. By the way, what did Mary say to the wedding party worker-servants? ( John chapter four ) “Do whatever He tells you1″ Hmmmm, that sounds like, do whatever Jesus tells us. Not ‘know it all men who treat us like second class citizens!’ God I love this blog!
I beg to differ.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/tenure.t04.htm
Unfortunately, this dataset does not differentiate between mothers and non-mothers. I assume, like you argued, that the discrepancy would be even greater between mothers and men.
Discrepancy? What discrepancy? Looks pretty close to me, all told.
The difference is not significant between less educated men and women, but the discrepancy is statistically massive between educated men and women. Median tenure for PhD holding men versus women over the age of 65 is 18.8 to 8.0. That’s huge. The discrepancy is less severe but still significant for PhD holders the younger the cohort. Note in particular that young PhD holding women between the ages of 25-44 actually have longer median tenure then their male counterparts. But notice the sharp gap between educated men and women that opens up just after child bearing years.
I think this actually confirms one of your arguments, that the principal factor in wage discrepancy is related to motherhood rather than womanhood. Mothers are more likely to leave the workforce to take care of their families than fathers are.
Oh, George Will has an excellent article on the topic out today. I don’t think he’ll be giving money to your interest group:
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/25/george-f-will-new-project-for-the-gender-police.html