Did you know that a female engineer in Sweden gets about a hundred Euros less in her first pay cheque than her male counterparts do? Sounds terrible right? Even in the gender equal nation of Sweden, in as an educated and progressive field as science, fresh engineering graduates still labour under the patriarchal yoke. Seems like there’s just no escaping it, huh?
Except that… it’s unsubstantiated. Impossible to tell if its true or not based on the information we’re given.
No, shut it, I’m not finished yet! This column isn’t about any gender gaps. It’s not about inequality. And it isn’t about fucking illegal hiring practises or gender fucking bias! That’s not the point. The point is, that despite at least three different, well respected, Swedish publications ran the story of how female engineers make less on their first job than their male colleagues, we actually have no idea if that’s true. It’s about poorly executed journalism. Again.
Allow me to elucidate…
The story goes, that once upon a time in a homogenized gender debate, this information sprouted from a “fresh study” made by one of the engineer unions in Sweden. The information stipulated that female engineers, on average, make 105.36 Euros less than their male counterparts. We’re never led to understand how the statistical data showed this conclusion. We are simply informed that this is statistical fact. And it’s possibly true. It coincides with the mainstream narrative, doesn’t it? The original article, run by a tech magazine, goes on to interview a chief of negotiations from the very union that published the results. The Neg-Chief goes on to explain that women are too insecure to ask for a phatter contract. At least, that’s her take-away from the statistics. Later publications only headlined and mentioned the pay gap, cutting out the theory-craft of women being meek, impotent negotiators.
So what? Sounds not implausible, right? We’ve all heard the stories of gender pay-gaps. This is the narrative that we’ve been told for years. Women make less money than men. We keep being told that. But do you know what an engineer does? Do you think that just because two people are engineers, that they do the same work? Have the same job? The same responsibility, or the same amount of education?
Let me tell you as a feller that once studied to become one. Let me tell you as a feller that knows quite a few engineers. Let me tell you that no two engineers are the same. They’re like precious little snow-flakes. Unique, strange, kinda nerdy, and quite often a little bit odd. Comparing one to another can be as relevant as comparing mayonnaise to cake frosting. They’re both great. They’re both toppings. But if you mix them together you’re going to look pretty stupid…
Do you know how many different areas you can be an engineer in? Because I lose track. Is it in chemistry? Physics? Construction? Design? Do you think any of those fields work with the exact same things? And how many different specializations do you think exist in each of the dozens of fields there are? Here’s a hint; mayonnaise and cake frosting.
Do you think that just because two people take the same courses and graduate the same year that they have the same goals? Of course not! Some go straight into the private sector to work with practical applications. Yet many stay at the universities and continue on to earn their doctorates. Do you think that practical engineers and doctors of engineering do the same work? No. They do not. And engineers that want to become doctors in their field tend to be paid a lot less than those in the private sector. And ‘lo and behold, many female engineers stay on to become doctors in some mind boggling slim field. Like, a doctor in chemistry, with a specialization of how arctic ice caps bind mercury, or how to build cellular membranes that open and close in reaction to light. Mayonnaise and cake frosting.
Do you think that just because two people take the same courses and graduate the same year, that they get employed by the same companies? Of course not. And most companies that employ engineers do so in many different departments. Do you think that the sewage constructors do the same kind of job as a high-rise designer? Mayonnaise and mother fucking cake frosting!
So… to reign the story back to where we started. That female engineers make 105.36 Euros less than male engineers, and me trying to make you understand why that information is completely taken out of context. Well, it’s because you cannot compare engineers in a broad sense. It’s impossible. And it’s infantile to try.
But that’s what the Swedish tech publication NyTeknik, the national news agency TT, and one of the largest news papers in the country DagensNyheter did. They published a juicy story about statistics that didn’t mean a gods damned thing. Possibly out of malice. More likely out of laziness and ignorance. Because we all just know that women make less money then men, right. It’s part of the narrative. It’s just one of our intrinsic truths.
So why would anyone do their journalistic due diligence and see if it’s actually true or if it’s an utter fabrication from irresponsibly compared data. And why would anyone in the audience ever doubt such a headline. For why can’t we all just jump onto the hysteria bandwagon and rage along with the narrative as it’s been fed to us.
/Sebastian Lindberg 9/4-2019
WastedWords 