Another BBC radio interview on the gender pay gap

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Mike Buchanan

Yesterday I was interviewed on three BBC radio programmes in connection with the gender pay gap, following the publication of a silly report jointly produced by the TUC and the Fawcett Society. Late in the afternoon I was interviewed by Andrew Easton for BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester – here. The piece of interest is 1:32:34 – 1:41:10. Up to 1:36:35 the content is a pre-recorded interview with Scarlett Harris of the TUC, who nominated herself for a ‘Gormless Feminist of the Month’ award with her response to the presenter’s remark that women choose lines of work which don’t pay well after having children, when their natural preference is for part-time work:

Choice is a tricky thing.

Why, those pesky mothers! If only they’d do what the feminists tell them to do, hand over their distressed children to child minders, freeing them up to work 18-hour days to smash the patriarchy. Then everyone would be happy.

About Mike Buchanan

I'm a men's human rights advocate, writer, and publisher. My primary focus is leading the political party I launched in 2013, Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them). I still work actively on two campaigns I launched in early 2012, Campaign for Merit in Business and the Anti-Feminism League. In 2014 I launched The Alternative Sexism Project, aiming to raise public understanding that the sexism faced by men and boys has far more grievous consequences than the sexism faced by women and girls.
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  • Great stuff Mike.

    That claim about the pay of male versus female solicitors made by Scarlett Harris sounded very questionable. We have seen feminists trying to cook the statistics, so as to give the ‘desired’ outcome by comparing apples with oranges, so many times before.

    Firstly were the two groups really comparable? What were the respective average years of experience, for the two groups? Did they tend to specialise in different areas of law which could account for these differences? Are there regional or sector differences in solicitors pay, which could have affected the figures?

    Secondly if there were sex discrimination, wouldn’t solicitors be the best equipped to challenge it, because of their legal knowledge?

    • Thanks Paul, you make a very good point, one that should have occurred to me. I understand many female solicitors specialise in family law – some driven by a desire to advantage women over men, no doubt – and as a result of supply v demand, this line doesn’t pay very well compared with, say, company law. I knew this, yet it didn’t occur to me at the time, possibly because I was flagging after having done my first interview of the day at 07:05. I’d bet my right foot, though, that male solicitors on average bill for higher fees every year than their female counterparts. I’d be amazed if it wasn’t a damned sight more than £10,000 p.a. on average.

      • I think that a good working principle is to ask: when do you know that a feminist is lying?

        The answer is: when their lips move.

  • This whole pay gap nonsense really drives home the difference between feminists and men’s human rights activists. We all know that your average gender feminist lies or manipulates stats almost without thinking, but it’s also interesting to see the difference in exactly the type of thing each campaigns for.

    Feminists, endlessly go on about wanting more power, wealth and privilege. they demand more money for less and easier work, they want to be given jobs in politics and boardrooms regardless of merit and they want to widen already huge gulfs in the justice system and be immune from even going to prison.

    The foremost mens’ equality issues include:
    – maintaining presumption of innocence and helping the falsely accused
    – reuniting fathers, families and children
    – protecting ALL children from genital mutilation
    – suicide
    – homelessness
    – life expectancy and healthcare (and in places such as the US, not being sent off to your death in meaningless wars)

    The contrasts really couldn’t be much more stark. Greedy middle-class feminists demanding ever more power and wealth compared with compassionate, genuine human-rights campaigns we stand for, such as bodily integrity, having a family, a roof over your head and simply staying alive.

  • @hequal

    Very well put. That’s a very concise and insightful summary of the differences between the MHRM and feminism