Gender pay gap still here--and major for some single working women

Interesting that on Christmas eve, when women are just winding up wrapping (in many homes women do most of the wrapping) for all the gifts they've shopped for (in many households women do most of the shopping) the headline story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, lifted from New York Times writer David Leonhardt, is about the persistent gender gap in pay for women.

Depressingly, though the gap for all women narrowed significantly in the 80s, it stalled in the 90s and now is even falling slightly for a particular group--college-educated women, of whom there are now consistently a greater number graduating each year than men. And while the good news is that one of the reasons may be that more highly educated married women are choosing to stay home with their children, the fact is that women still do most of the work around the house--which inhibits their ability to work extra hours on the job--and plain old discrimination is still a big piece of the puzzle. Wal-Mart is having a class action suit filed on behalf of the women employed there who say they are consistently paid less than men doing the same work. Other companies being accused are Boeing, Costco, Merrill Lynch, and Morgan Stanley.

Seems to make sense that single working women, who generally have no second income on which to rely, could be a force for helping to get this gap narrowed. Of course, they also don't have a second income on which to rely if they should take aggressive action and thereby lose their jobs, so it's a bit of a catch-22. However, whether you're a single mom or you're all alone, you fight a lot harder when you're the only one available to get the job done.

That's why SWWAN is working on finding discounts and special services for single working women. Stay tuned as we grow our list.

Could overweight be genetic?

In what turns out to be a rather confusing study, Nature magazine reports that people who are obese have many more microbe types in their intestines that are very efficient at extracting energy from food than thin people do. They also found that another microbe type that's less efficient increases as a person diets and is higher in thin people.

Lest you get too excited, as I started to, thinking okay, yeah, this means my fat is genetically determined, they're not willing to go that far yet. But they see some suspicious stuff when they take these gut flora from obese mice and implant them into normal mice--those normal guys put on a lot more fat than could be expected just from that one change. They're going to keep studying, because it's not clear yet which comes first--does the change in flora bring on the weight loss or vice versa? But there's hope that one day we might be able to take a couple of spoonfuls of something that will use our natural body composition to make us less susceptible to gaining weight and/or more likely to be able to lose it when we try.

Now wouldn't that be a joy? But it could wreak havoc with one segment of the publication industry. What in the world will the women's magazines fill their covers with? Oh, yeah, I forgot: "How to turn him on...and keep him on."

If you want more scientific details on intestinal stuff: Gut Bacteria May Determine Dieting Efficiency.

Single women who relate to SWWAN

Lots of women become widows, many remaining quite comfortable financially. Some of them relate to the SWWAN mission, but in general it's the older single women who either never married or, especially, those who are divorced and/or were single moms who empathize with the challenges of the single lifestyle, even when they are financially stable.

If you've never been completely on your own for an extended period of time, it's hard even to imagine what it's like to be in the world the way. My sister-in-law looks at me strangely. "Oh, yeah, I knew someone single once in another state." The fact is there are millions of us--and many married people hardly know we exist! Hell, half the time we don't even know many of our fellow travelers! That invisibility is something we're out to change.

For many who were on their own but are now married and comfortable, they just want to put all that behind them. Don't even want to think about how challenging that time was. For some who are successful professionally, they dread the very idea of being identified as single--as if it's a stigma or a handicap of some sort--perhaps even afraid of being considered a threat or, maybe even worse, pathetic, a loser. These are ideas we're out to change.

A smaller percentage of very young single women relate to the SWWAN message. Many are just beginning their search for Mr. Right--and it's new and exciting to be out in the world with a job and dating. But for some who've seen what it's like to surrender yourself in a bad relationship, SWWAN brings a light, too.

Welcome, wherever you are in the continuum. Welcome, even if you've gone on to the non-single life but you care. Welcome, if you're a guy and you appreciate all that single women accomplish. Welcome, everyone, to SWWAN.

Fear

For most of us, it gets in our way everyday. It can stop you from succeeding, it can sabotage what you consider your best efforts. It can alienate people you love if you express it in the wrong way or at the wrong time.

The Course in Miracles says there are only two things in this world: fear and love. And then it says that fear isn't real anyway--it's an invention of our minds.

Hard to remember, but if you consciously choose to view things through eyes of love you have a headstart on getting through life the least stressful and most gratifying possible way.

Barbara Payne
a ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.com
- sent from my mobile phone

Real Estate: Home for the Single Working Woman/Mother

It's a powerful sign of the times--22% of home buyers in the U.S. from June, 2005 to June, 2006 were single working women. This Yahoo! Finance story reports a couple of amazing facts: "The best-educated woman in America is 28 years old--the best-educated man in America is 56"--this could be the most astonishing observation I've seen in a long time.

And this one is most affirming: "Single women who might have been laughed out of a bank lobby 25 years ago are given the red-carpet treatment by mortgage lenders competing for their business."

And readers, this one makes me feel really glad that we are here for all the courageous single women of the world: "Forty percent of all births are to single women," he notes. "Those are not teenage births; teenage births have been dropping like a stone. These are adult women looking for Mr. Right who haven't been able to find him. There's no social stigma whatsoever in being a single mom, and she's got the money."

So as you think about having your baby and buying your new home, keep this in mind: If your rental cost is 35% or more lower than all it would cost you each month to own, it could make more financial sense to keep your landlord.

Women are incredibly powerful spirits. Our members are modeling single success and inspiring those who still have old messages imprinted in their hearts. Buying our own homes is just one of those things.

New hope for women against AIDS

AIDS is not arrested by any means. In many countries it's spreading without restraint where the poor have sex without protection and women are regularly raped. A first iteration has just been developed of a "molecular condom." It's a liquid designed to used daily by a woman and will turn itself on whenever sperm is introduced into her cervix and deliver a dose of anti-HIV drugs--a "microbicide."

This research will lead the way towards empowering women to take responsibility for preventing harm and unwanted pregnancies for themselves. It's not there yet, unfortunately. They're talking 10 years before a usable version comes out. But research is at least looking in the right directions. Now all we have to do is keep finding the money to support these kinds of initiatives.

Creating what you want

A lot of us SWWANs end up with "portfolio" careers--moving from one job or business to another, sometimes because we have to, and other times because we just want to. With a little luck--and the power of belief--each move leads to better things.

Listened to an interesting telephone workshop yesterday--Lyle Lachmuth of Creative Careers Unleashed interviewing a guy named Allan Allard about how to use your subconscious mind to achieve your goals. Seems Allan's had multiple careers because every couple of years he got bored or saw that he wanted something else. And each time he was highly successful--in sales, in the ministry, in sales again, then in mental health, and then in leading seminars. He's now a coach (an occupational category that's exploded lately).

Allan made some good points about how our beliefs affect us:

Unless something is true for every single person, it’s just a belief--99% of everything in our heads is a belief, not a fact. Remember that even in your dreams your are communicating with yourself. Ask yourself: Is this useful for me, or is it less than useful? Am I willing to try on a new belief?

He advises not to spend time examining old beliefs because focusing on them means you’re reinforcing them. Instead ask yourself: What new beliefs do I need to reach the goal I want? Then find a more useful belief and tack it on.

This isn't new-age crap--even science has proven that what you believe affects everything you do. And if you feel sure that you didn't ask for what's in your life, you might want to get some help to dig down and find out what hidden (unconscious) beliefs are at work. I may say that I want to lose weight, but if I have strong subconscious reasons for not doing so (like it's a good excuse for, say, not dating), I'll either not try to lose or will fail when I do try.

For a wonderful book on the subject, read Shakti Gawain's Creative Visualization. You can actually get used copies of Amazon for as little as a penny! But don't let the cheap price fool you--it's great stuff. I bought a copy many years ago when I first got divorced and I was trying to reprogram my brain more positively. It's simple, helpful, and inspiring.