Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force • Hacker News Board

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#161

Post by hadesenia » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 8:59 PM UTC

syshum wrote: post #147

phkahler wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier? Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. It has been hypothesized that with the breakdown of families in the US, men are giving up, and that includes efforts to build a stable foundation for their family. See MGTOW but dont read too much, it can be kind of depressing.

Not all men that have chosen not to have a family are "living in their parent's basement" or have "given up" on life. I made the choice about 20 years ago to never marry, and never have children. I own my home, have an amazing career full of growth and future potential and currently am in the top 20% of wage earners. Had I made a different choice 20 years ago I likely would be married with 2 kids right now, and be ma…

Absolutely! I hope we as a society grow out of the mindset that working and having a family is the primary way one contributes to society.

There must be so many people that could’ve been revolutionary creatives if they weren’t struggling to live paycheck to paycheck.

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#162

Post by 08-15 » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

Ohn0 wrote: post #136

08-15 wrote: post #123

I'm confused. The headline talks about women holding more than 50% of jobs. But the tagline underneath says females make up the largest share of the labor market! That ain't make no sense! In the current year, not all women have a vagina. I didn't think Bloomberg was transphobic, but now I know better.

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Ahem. The topic of equality of outcome is flamebait to begin with. (Why? Because of tiny details like "encouraging" hidden it between the neutral reporting.)

The question is real, though: are trans women counted as women? If not: transphobic. If yes: what do these numbers really tell us? And there's also "non-binary" and "prefer not to say". Making sense of statistics in the current year is f'ing difficult.

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#163

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:07 PM UTC

deeg wrote: post #3

I find this fairly astounding. The typical stay-at-home parent is the mother and while it's getting closer to parity I don't think it's anywhere near even. For that reason alone I would expect more men in the work force. What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier?

[deleted]

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#164

Post by bonoboTP » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #19

deeg wrote: post #3

I find this fairly astounding. The typical stay-at-home parent is the mother and while it's getting closer to parity I don't think it's anywhere near even. For that reason alone I would expect more men in the work force. What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier?

>> What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier? Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. It has been hypothesized that with the breakdown of families in the US, men are giving up, and that includes efforts to build a stable foundation for their family. See MGTOW but dont read too much, it can be kind of depressing.

As a non-American, what's up with this basement meme? Do American homes have furnished rooms in the literal basement or is it just a joke? Or are they like half basements with small windows?

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#165

Post by standardUser » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

SwiftyBug wrote: post #139

edgarvaldes wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non-american here so pardon my ignorance: Why is "basement" so common in this case? I mean, the whole "living with parents" and the basement thing.

I second this. Unless the person has lived their entire life in the basement (which seems a little cruel) why has the person been moved to the basement after reaching adulthood? Why can't they keep their room?

Maybe the parents want to have loud sex without their mid-30's child hearing them from his bedroom down the hall.

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#166

Post by watwut » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:08 PM UTC

virtuous_signal wrote: post #114

watwut wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1.) Role models - little boys mimic men cause little kids are gender obsessed. E.g. little boys won't think of being teachers if not seeing them. 2.) There is huge bias and stigma against boy acting girl-like. So yes, at minimum little boy playing with baby will be mocked more then girl playing with car.

I believe (1) is circular: "State X is a problem because it tends to keep us in State X" - but why is X a problem in the first place?

Cause that was example. The "role model for little boys" is general statement. Plus, general diversity.

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#167

Post by twojacobtwo » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:09 PM UTC

alexis_fr wrote: post #117

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so women make up the majority of the non-farm labor force, but the labor force participation rate is 12% higher for men? How does that work? Are 12% of men either in the military or on disability? Or what?

2.3 million men are in prison in USA. The definition is “divided by the total noninstitutionalized, civilian working-age population.” As a counter-example, average IQ at the workplace is 110. Where’s everyone under IQ90? Injured, suicide, drug addicts etc.

What is the source on the average IQ at the workplace?

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#168

Post by cmdshiftf4 » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

magduf wrote: post #107

danbolt wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very true. We definitely are more lenient towards people in different ways depending on their gender, and there are a lot of relaxed social expectations that men have compared to women. Still though, I think there are dimensions of this where this is less true, perhaps in ways that men are expected to seem "confident" or "strong" or "independent" which I think can be stiffing. The typical men's section of a cl…

>perhaps in ways that men are expected to seem "confident" or "strong" or "independent" which I think can be stiffing. Yep, and women demand this too: many women's dating profiles talk about how they want a guy who's "confident but not cocky", who "makes a plan" for dates, who "takes the lead", etc. Basically, American women want hyper-masculine men who look like George Clooney (when younger), but then they sit aroun…

>Men's fashion is truly horrible compared to women's fashion

I don't believe men's fashion is horrible, but I think the sheer variety and design quality of clothing available to women is pretty impressive.

But then, to be honest, that's consumer driven. Some will harangue me for pointing out that a great majority of women love looking good and put vast amounts of time and money into it, between clothing, accessories and makeup. As such they've a much wider market of choice as producers try to attract that demand.

Men have nice options. As I brought up a stereotype above, I'll bring one up now which holds as true - a vast majority of men put little or no effort into their own appearance and with obesity rates heightening it's only getting worse.

I've only briefly touched it but check out the Thread app if you want an idea of good looking outfits available to guys at various price ranges. I'm not sure of alternatives, as I generally just shop / dress myself with some effort, but it certainly looks like it both offers great variety while also taking out a lot of the guess work, an example being you can state if you've wide thighs and they won't show you pants that won't accommodate that.

Not in any way associated with Thread fwiw.

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#169

Post by nkkollaw » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:10 PM UTC

wayoutthere wrote: post #72

nkkollaw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Women tend to choose jobs that pay less. They're on average more interested in people, so they tend to choose to become nurses, teachers, etc., while men are interested in things and become software developers, engineers, etc. I have no idea why income HAS TO be distributed equally. Unless you want to force women to become software developers..? But why.

Ignoring everything else wrong with your post, I'll just point out that most software developers were originally women before about 1960 -- it was seen as "woman's work" because it didn't require physical labor. Women were significant contributors to the development of computing from the very beginning -- in fact, "software" as a concept was invented by a woman [1]. The profession didn't become high-status or highly-…

I'm well aware of that, but now women can choose, and don't choose that.

What is your point?

Re: Women now make up the majority of the U.S. labor force

#170

Post by ewindal » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 9:11 PM UTC

danbolt wrote: post #53

phkahler wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> What are men doing if not working? On disability? Homeless? Retiring earlier? Some are living in their parents basement until they're 30 to 40. It has been hypothesized that with the breakdown of families in the US, men are giving up, and that includes efforts to build a stable foundation for their family. See MGTOW but dont read too much, it can be kind of depressing.

I agree with Esther Perel's thinking[1] that the next century is going to involve a broadening on what society deems a positive life is for straight, cis men. In the same way that we consider it acceptable for women to express themselves or live differently than the gender roles of the past, I think we'll start to do the same for men. I already see this with my millennial or genZ peers. It's not uncommon to read comm…

Men are too dependent on women and work for validation for «society» to allow a broader expression of the male gender role. Those who can’t get fullfilment through their job won’t get it any easier, and I don’t see women’s tastes in men changing much.