I like her ideas on the apprenticeship programs and expanded childcare access - but it needs to be the kind of access that provides swing and overnight shift opportunities - that's where I suspect most of the discrepancy is occurring in the big ticket trade jobs (cops, fire, utilities, etc)

As far as paycheck transparency is concerned, it's already about as transparent as you are going to get - at least for the rank-and-file employees.

The real thing, I think, is getting more women into the higher paying job classifications.

I disagree with the flextime suggestion. Work at home is an invasion of work into your private life. It screws both the employee (who is now assumed to always be on call and will have a hell of a time ever justifying overtime) and the employer (who gets less supervision and communication with their workers). And if an employee is working from home due to having to take care of their kids, are they really working or are they taking care of their kids? The solution should be subsidized daycare instead of this work-at-home bullshit.

Jean's getting old but she's still fiery.

@2 has set my thinking machine in motion. It really depends what type of work you do, whether WFH is effective. (Absolutely agree about the child care bit; work or don't work.)

I'm in IT Operations, so I'm effectively oncall 24/7 anyway. During WFH hours (about 10%) I sign in to Jabber/IRC and that's my "presence" with coworkers, some of whom are in different cities anyway. I generally find myself more productive when WFH; breaks are shorter, sometimes I keep working instead of commuting. Sign out of chat, and I'm "done".

I googled for some research, the first link I found was here. A Chinese company got a 13% performance increase from workers at home 100%. But that's call center work, where your presence and work rate are easily quantifiable.

What other jobs are compatible with WFH, and what overall percentage of jobs are they? Narrowed down to just government jobs? This is the research I can't find...

Jean just penned a sweet valentine to David Boardman on Crosscut.

Glad he paid her back with an OpEd opportunity to promote some good ideas.

Wow. That will what, close the wage gap by 0.003%? You seriously think that seattle has the largest gender gap in the country because of all our stay-at-home moms?

Mandate gender wage equality. Put it into law. Make discrimination a criminal and civil offense. Publish the names of companies that discriminate and by how much (Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft...)

Nice words, Jean. Now what exactly have you accomplished in your decade on the City Council?

Jean Godden died in 2007, and has been preserved, skewered on a pole and operated remotely since then. Much cheaper than having to "elect" another council member.

Speaking of Royal Babies...

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us.

We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.

They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charter…

@6 is right. Pay equality is paramount; the other stuff simply reinforces the tradition of women needing flex jobs/work at home so they can take care of the kids too. Anyone who's tried to work at home while doing childcare 1) is a woman and 2) knows it's impossible to do justice to either.

@10: Pay equality is not the only important factor. If you say that you get equal pay for the same job, you will still not make a sizable dent in the income disparity. There are also the factors of career stoppages due to having children and the disparities in the number of women in high income fields like technology, engineering, science, and the trades (electricians, mechanics, welders, etc.). Both of these factors substantially reduce the earning power for women that a simple equal pay law won't address.

Here is a nice chart showing the breakdown for bachelor degrees. It doesn't show the trades, but from my experience they are extremely male dominated.