Power in this argument that is:
The US needs 1m more electricians to hit climate goals. Can it recruit more women?
Women face barriers in the sector, including harassment and exclusionary unions, but they would help resolve a crucial labor shortage and could also help close the gender wage gap
Women working the same hours in the same jobs as men do get paid the same amount of money. So, if more women do the same jobs as men – for the same hours, under the same conditions – then they’ll get the same wages, won’t they?
Or, as we can also put it, the gender pay gap is at least in part because women tend to choose different jobs than men. And what an injustice that is, eh?
Has a great power ever won a major war against a near-peer opponent while deliberately throttling its own energy supplies?
That’s usually something you want to do to your enemies, via JDAM.
Of course, women wanting to do certain sorts of jobs also means that you get a massive increase in the supply of labour in journalism, law, marketing, which is going to lead to a fall in price.
One of the reason why the old trades are paying better than a lot of these jobs is that half the workforce aren’t interested.
Interesting to see Grid Alternatives offers women-only training. But at the same time, they need men to be mentors and to support women.
Does this mean that they believe women can’t hack it on their own?
Bboy – Does this mean that they believe women can’t hack it on their own?
Obvs, yarp.
Women don’t believe they can fix anything, which is why most female complaints are about why haven’t YOU fixed it yet, you lazy, weed-smoking bastard.
most female complaints are about why haven’t YOU fixed it yet, you lazy, weed-smoking bastard
Bill Burr has a made a number of amusing rants about women’s sport and its constant demands for more from men.
Now, here’s a thought. Overwhelmingly the people in favour of all this Net Zero bollocks are the tossers. The professional & desk jockey classes. B Ark people. They’d be incapable of building this Net Zero World for themselves.. Generally, the practical people who are capable of doing it, are far less keen on the project. So why don’t we just tell them to fuck off? They’re not going to get their costly inefficient heat pumps if no one’s willing to install them. Ditto to all the other bollocks.
We need to organise ourselves here. Even if the tosser classes are in the majority, we’re the people who hold the power. Literally.
BiS “They’re not going to get their costly inefficient heat pumps if no one’s willing to install them. Ditto to all the other bollocks”.
I suspect the engineers who understood how the grid operates are long gone because, as with my old game, anyone who knows something actually works is persona non grata amongst the degree holders that now infest every facet of industry.
But as government is determined net zero will go ahead no matter what, they’ll continue to give away billions of taxpayers money in subsidies to ensure there’ll be enough ‘just practical enough people’ to step up to put their snouts in the trough.
BIS
“Now, here’s a thought. Overwhelmingly the people in favour of all this Net Zero bollocks are the tossers. The professional & desk jockey classes. B Ark people. They’d be incapable of building this Net Zero World for themselves.. Generally, the practical people who are capable of doing it, are far less keen on the project. So why don’t we just tell them to fuck off? They’re not going to get their costly inefficient heat pumps if no one’s willing to install them. Ditto to all the other bollocks.”
Because they like getting paid.
I do a whole lot of stupid IT for various levels of government, about half of which gets put on a shelf and is never used. I was politically active against it, far more than most people. I’d rather that money didn’t go into government. But as it does, as nearly the whole population can’t seem to do anything but get conned by the Tories or just want a bloated nanny state, I’m going to take as much of that cash as I can.
The problem with women in trades is lone working. A bloke comes round your house to fix your taps, he feels safe. A women comes round, she’s scared of what you might say or do to her. You can’t report customers to HR for saying “would you like to use my tool?” – at least not yet.
Most of the Stuff Needing Done is grid work.
Where you hit the “Why do women live longer than men” jockularity…
Then again, I’ve a suspicion the writer of the Grauniad article has no idea how dangerous electricity can be, especially in bulk.. Without even reading the article.
(Says Grikath as he is checking his tool backpack for the first of the “let’s lay 125A cables in wet grass and branch off from there” excercises this Festival Season.)
I bet women will be less willing to work overtime or unsocial hours so will still earn less then men. Women GPs work far less hours.
If there was a problem the market would have fixed it so either they’ve messed up the market so much the signal mechanism of higher wages is being blocked or the problem only exists in only in policy driven computer models.
As it’s a non profit called retiring America im going with the latter as the primary cause.
@BoM4
Like I say, maybe we need to organise. This is a political matter. Money isn’t everything. Why participate in building a world you don’t want to live in?
@ KJP
That’s like betting the Moon will wax and wane during the coming month. We *know* that women work fewer hours – even if you limit the comparison to those working “full-time” (just over half of women)
In February 2023 employed men worked 610 million hours and employed women worked 440 million hours. Women are now 47% of employees so that means employed men work, on average, 23% more hours. The *real* difference is greater when you take into account the self-employed as the 48-hour limit is unenforceable and a lot of self-employed men put in 60 hours or more in a week.
But as government is determined net zero will go ahead no matter what, they’ll continue to give away billions of taxpayers money in subsidies to ensure there’ll be enough ‘just practical enough people’ to step up to put their snouts in the trough.
Indeed. So drain the coffers dry without actually achieving anything.
There was is a little experiment conducted in a capital city not far from you a few years back over a controlled parking zone. It’s amazing how ruinously expensive pay & display machines are & how long the lead times are on obtaining the gubbins they contain. And how much they dislike the injection of building foam. Bit of overkill really. Pretty well any electronics is vulnerable to high pressure salt water. Just takes a bit longer for it to fail but fail it does. Irreparably. As do any of the moving parts.
One notes London’s proposed ULEZ is losing cameras faster than they can be installed. If you think about it, the ER tossers are fucking amateurs when it comes to disruption.
MC – Bill Burr knows what’s what, women seem to be genetically programmed to get annoyed if they see a man enjoying himself.
Sorry – I should have said that women working “full-time” is either 63% of employed women or 52.5% of women (presumably you pick and choose whichever is the more relevant).
Personally, I think anyone who wants a useless and expensive bit of kit like a heat pump deserves it. Equally, those that prefer a nice cosy gas boiler should enjoy the comforts of the same.
JG – my cats love our oil boiler.
Gonna be some very pissed off lions if we’re ever forced to replace it with a shit-pump. (Also a very pissed off wife who just bought an Aga).
Radicalized middle class Mum insurgency when?
BiS – who knows? The Canadian freedom convoy was encouraging, but obviously got inevitably crushed as the plebs have no institutional support.
The French and Dutch are revolting (obvs), but we’ll have to see if that leads anywhere.
I’d be more sanguine about Britain’s prospects if 75% of the population hadn’t recently proved themselves to be credulous imbeciles who will support health fascism and beg doctors to inject them with mystery drugs because they’re SCARED.
On t’other, Jesus only needed 12 apostles to save the world. So let us pray.
“Women face barriers in the sector, including … exclusionary unions”
I have a solution, but I don’t think the Guardian will like it…
So what do we do, make it illegal for women to work fewer hours? After all, personal choice hasn’t worked, so enforcement is the only other option.
“…exclusionary unions…”
Gonna call Bullshit on that one.
@ Dennis
In the UK, not all that long ago, there was a court case because Birmingham City Council had conspired with (or been bullied by) male-dominated unions to pay women less than men doing the same/equivalent jobs. There certainly have been in my lifetime in the UK (maybe not in yours – and I immediately confess to my ignorance about the USA) unions that excluded women – although I do not know of any that still do.
John77
I think that was the case were dinner ladies were considered to be the equivalent of plumbers. Somewhat insane, but there you go.
bloke in spain,
“Like I say, maybe we need to organise. This is a political matter. Money isn’t everything. Why participate in building a world you don’t want to live in?”
I stood for election during lockdown because for once in my life I couldn’t find someone I wanted to vote for, so I voted for myself as a Libertarian candidate. And I didn’t expect or even want to win the seat, but I thought if there was ever a moment that Libertarians could take some votes it was then. And we got handfuls of votes.
It was a moment of clarity where I realised that outside of places like this, most people don’t really give a shit, don’t really think about what is going on. They vote for these cartoonishly stupid parties with half-baked ideas and histories of incompetence. And nearly everyone wants to interfere in other people’s business rather than standing on their own two feet, accepting that other people should be free. They’re more interested in mind-garglingly stupid television or whatever their Qatari owned football team is up to.
@ Eddy
NO – that was the infamous Cammell Laird case where the Tribunal was asked to look at the nominal hourly pay rates after the extra pay for working outside in winter was consolidated into the shipwright’s hourly rate and to ignore the regular paid breaks that the cooks were given [so the cooks were actually paid more per hour actually worked, albeit less per “working hour”]
Andrew M @ 11.02, “A bloke comes round your house to fix your taps, he feels safe”.
You reckon?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2hgAsi8Ae4