Isn’t it the case that our society values money more than services? Teachers don’t get paid as much as those, male or female, who work in professions that create wealth for the wealthy. They make the rich richer so they’re valuable. Those who work in teaching or care roles, like nursing make less because they don’t make as much money - that’s a failure in society’s values but not sexism. Equally there are plenty of male dominated professions or occupations that are far, far lower paid than female dominated professions. Think of the car wash workers, construction labourers, farm labourers, security guards, gardeners, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, waste collection - many of these areas are male dominated but to suggest they get paid less because they are male dominated is absurd - it’s because society views these professions as low skilled, despite many of them being physically extremely demanding or dangerous. Society has a problem with what it values certainly, but I’m not convinced that teachers get paid less because it’s female dominated - high school teaching, for example is not female dominated it’s much more balanced but teachers will never get paid as much as those work in the private sector - but they will get paid a lot more than many make dominated professions.
How do we know whether a job is poorly paid because of the economics of the work, or because society undervalues work traditionally done by women? And equally, how do we know low paid male dominated occupations are not because society now undervalues work done by men?
