I loved Harrell's response. While we are at it, can we have some policies to actually address why it's so difficult to be a woman in STEM fields? That'd be great for those of us already here.

Yes, but what did the two women running for mayor say?

Bruce nailed this one. Not only did he have the best answer, he pointed out that he is already working on the damn issue. Certainly would be nice to have a Mayor who does need a million dollar study before they act.

Someone should tell Burgess not to worry his pretty little head on issues that are obviously too complicated for a silly little boy like him.

Oh, for chrissakes. Is Burgess TRYING to get dumped out of this race? The answer to "how do people get ahead in a world that is stacked against them" is not "more nepotism and white privilege".

Harris is quickly becoming my favorite candidate. Does anyone think he has a chance in hell?

Why do we even have binders full of women if nobody is using them to rectify pay imbalances? Should we stop subsidizing these binders with city money?

Could it be that Burgess was simply saying that if everyone had Daughters there wouldn't be a pay gap? It seems to me his joke was the solution to the pay gap was less men in the world, not that women aren't as smart as his daughters. I think you're trying to twist it into to something it wasn't.

That being said, It wasn't a great joke and Harrell's response blows the other two out of the water.

@3, your snark is misplaced. Transit development studies aren't the Mayor's idea.

I've been saying Harrell's being underestimated for awhile now...I think Monday was a good example of this.

That statistic is basically worthless. Among me and my circle of friends in Seattle nearly all of the men make more than the women. Is it because of discrimination? No, it's because the women entered fields that pay less. They all work in museums (not a lucrative field), whereas the majority of men work in software or engineering. The one exception is one man who works in a museum (with my wife) where his wife works in software. Yes I know anecdotes don't prove anything, but I'm pretty sure I could find the stats to back this up with a little googling.

You can't solve the problem by making those fields pay more. The only way to fix it would be to get more women interested in higher paying fields. My wife is a super smart lady. She has an advanced degree. But she's interested in museums. I have no doubt she could have been an engineer if she wanted, but she didn't.

Unless someone has the answer to get tons of women to study math, computer science, and engineering, this isn't likely to change. And it's not a Seattle issue. I would wager a pretty high percentage of the people hired to those high paying tech jobs didn't come from Seattle. I know I didn't.

I'm outraged that Cienna wrote a whole column and never mentioned her Third World rape fetish. 640 million Indian women have once again been ignored.

Just read Burgess comments to my wife, and she took it the same way as Cienna, I'm probably wrong on this one.

j2patter @8, 13: no, I read it that way too, that the solution is more girls, not "better" girls such as the ones he made. I think I'd have to hear it instead of just reading it. Tone is lost.

@11 I *did* go into a STEM field, and what I found was a lot of sexism. I can't go into too much detail without revealing where I work. Some of it is subtle discrimination, some of it is overt harassment, a lot of it is institutional. There are a lot of days when I think my gender wouldn't be nearly as much of a liability in some other field. If I had it all to do over again, I might choose a profession more friendly to women, even though I love what I do and I'm pretty good at it. I used to be all judgmental about women who went into "soft" fields, but at this point I wonder if they surveyed the landscape and decided a lower paycheck was worth the tradeoff. Instead of stopping at "women chose those jobs!", we should ask "would they choose differently in a society where no gender is privileged over another?"

If I had it all to do over again, I might choose a profession more friendly to women

Have you ever considered Mary Kay, or maybe cosmetology? Flight attendant? How 'bout cutting to the chase and making some babies?

I just read Burgess's bio -- I know right! -- and it turns out HE ONLY HAS DAUGHTERS. So MAYBE the joke was if women start outnumbering or completely replace men. No no sorry you're right he must be a horrible person and be insulting everyone else's daughters' intelligence. That must be it.

Burgess said that? Oi. Talk about not getting it.

@17 Asshole of the day award.

#21, why do you hate cosmetologists, flight attendants, Mary Kay salesladies, and mothers? These are your sisters!

@wxPDX

I don't doubt that there is sexism and subtle pushing that keeps girls out of higher paying fields. The problem is that you have to tackle that problem early, starting in elementary school. That's not a problem that the mayor can tackle. And the statistic in Seattle isn't because of any city policy.