you are interviewing 2 candidates for a 6 figure job...

[zauper]

As far as I'm aware, it isn't. If you can provide a source for that, I would very much appreciate it.

Ah, paid leave is a company/state issue it seems. California passed a bill in 2004, that's what I was thinking of.

The book "Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality" presented studies that showed that women and men of similar work histories and similar education had no statistical difference in pay.

^ "Mothers face disadvantages in getting hired". Cornell University 2005-08-04.

Here's a Cornell study that goes the other way.

Also;

http://www.womensmedia.com/new/images/Wage-Gap-2.gif

[quite]
He posited that the real pay gap comes from women taking time away from their careers to raise children, and choosing fields that they saw as traditionally women's (early education) at a higher rate than men do.
[/quote]
Women don't have to do this, though. He's positing that women MUST do that.

I'm not sure I agree with you that it's gender discrimination. I think it's future plans discrimination.

Except in the scenario he outlined, both people were planning on starting a family within the next 5 years and there was no mention of maternity leave / FMLA.

If the man told you that he was going to take 12 weeks off (FMLA) to tend to his ailing mother, then you wouldn't hire him over a woman who made no such statement.

Their future plans impact their usefulness in their position. Whether it's a woman planning maternity leave, or a man planning to take leave to tend to an ailing parent.

Agreed. There was no statement that the woman intended to take maternity leave, nor that the man intended to not take paternity leave.

 

[byteware]

Ah, paid leave is a company/state issue it seems. California passed a bill in 2004, that's what I was thinking of.

Yeah, that seemed fishy to me.

^ "Mothers face disadvantages in getting hired". Cornell University 2005-08-04.

I'm sorry. I'm in no way convinced by a study of 192 Cornell Graduate students.

This wasn't a study of hiring managers. It wasn't a study of actual job offers/ salary offers.

Also;

http://www.womensmedia.com/new/images/Wage-Gap-2.gif

This does not compare employment history/ current field. If a woman took 18 years off of work to raise children, I don't think anyone can expect her to earn as much as her male (or female non-stay at home mom) counterparts who have the same education.

Women don't have to do this, though. He's positing that women MUST do that.

Women MUST take time off to start a family, and women MUST train for lower paying fields? I don't think so.

Except in the scenario he outlined, both people were planning on starting a family within the next 5 years and there was no mention of maternity leave / FMLA.

Statistically speaking, I think EVERYBODY realizes that you can expect a new mother to take a lot more time off of work for a new baby compared to a new father.

Are you arguing that he should expect them to do the same, even though... they don't?

In countries where both parents get 18 months, fathers generally take a few months, and transfer the rest of their paid paternity leave to the mother.

If you are expecting us to treat the time off they will take as equal... then you are expecting us to look past the reality of the situation.

Agreed. There was no statement that the woman intended to take maternity leave, nor that the man intended to not take paternity leave.

So, the fact that women ALMOST ALWAYS (there are exceptions) take much more leave than the fathers do, shouldn't even be taken into consideration?

I would agree with you, if we lived in a world where the time mothers and fathers took off was generally the same, but we don't.