You Know What Punk Is?

Punk isn't being 20 something and angry / willing to do wild things in the name of rebelling against society. Punk is being over 40, tied to the system with adult responsibility of raising a family and or buried by a career, and rather than buy into the stereotype that women of a certain age are supposed to be invisible, take to the stage all over again (or in some cases never stepping off the stage).

This 30 minute documentary shows us the the ladies who helped paved the way for punk (The Slits, The Raincoats, Siouxsie, Chrissie Hynde) the first time in the '70s are on the cutting edge again by showing the world that aging doesn't have to mean playing dead.

Heads up ladies, you think sexism sucks? Wait until that seamlessly blends with ageism too. #olderwomenvoices

Mind the Gap

We hear the statement that women make less than men in the American workplace. The figure that gets tossed around is .77 per every dollar a man makes. It turns out that fact has a lot of grey area to it. Like all data, there are important variables that shape this result. The gender pay gap is also influenced by what women look for in a job, how we prioritize our lives, how we value money, our education level, the fields of work we gravitate towards, our roles within a family structure, our ability to bargain for pay increases, our fears of being judged harshly if we make stronger demands for higher pay, and the list goes on and on.

A recent Freakanomics Radio Podcast spoke to experts on the subject and they shed some light on just how gender economics works and importance of looking at the history of women working in America as well as behavioral dynamics that feed into this complex issue.

There is no one smoking gun. Think of this issue more like a low lying fog that is dense and nearly impossible to get through with ease. If you are interested in the understanding the truth behind the gender pay gap I highly recommended streaming this episode.

Stream the story here.