When women bosses discriminate against men

When I first read this story I got all worked up and hot and bothered. It was lunchtime, I was really steamed about it, and could barely wait to finish the work day so I could go home and give the world a big piece of my mind.

By the time I got home, I realized I was about to write another one of those posts that would end up pissing off many of my like-minded Progressives that make up the bulk of my readership on the left in addition to those on the Right that I don’t mind pissing off.

So, I chickened out.

I figured that, since I’m trying so hard to make something happen for myself right now – since I moved here to Washington to try and make something better of myself (but, because of the economy, ended up working at Kinko’s) that it would be better for me if I didn’t write something that would make me enemies.

But after some careful thought, I decided that if I refrained, it would be a punk-ass way to go, so here’s the rant:

If there’s anything I hate more than corporate greed, it’s discrimination.

Health care fight becomes a battle of the sexes

Insurance rates for female-dominated businesses much higher than average

While the difference in pricing is certainly wrong, and a relatively easy thing conquer with some simple political marketing.  MY rant isn’t about health insurance costing more for women.

MY rant is about this tidbit I pulled from the story:

“The Pennsylvania home health care company Linda Bettinazzi runs is charged about $6,800 per worker for health insurance – $2,000 more than the national average for single coverage. One reason: nearly every one of her 175 employees is a woman.”

This woman admits, without a hint of shame, that she employs almost entirely women, and then has the audacity to complain that they’re being discriminated against in health insurance pricing?

If she had some diversity (that’s right, I said diversity, because I’m one of the few people left in the country who thinks that “diversity” should really mean ACTUAL diversity) in her company, her insurance rates wouldn’t have to be raised to compensate for the gender bias in her hiring practices.

“There’s a great sense of unfairness,” Bettinazzi says. “I feel angry, and maybe betrayed would be a good word.”

Oh, really? How do you think the men feel who’ve applied for jobs at your company?

Oh, sure, I get it, believe me – women have historically been discriminated against in the work place, there’s a glass ceiling, and women make 75% of what men make. That’s wrong.

But if you don’t feel one lick of sympathy for all the men who didn’t get jobs after interviewing with Linda Bettinazzi, well, that makes YOU wrong!

There’s a big difference between equality and payback.

I ask you, what is it we’re trying to achieve? If it’s payback, than congratulations – Bettinazzi is your hero for managing to hire 175 women and almost no men. But if we’re trying to achieve equality, then Bettinazzi is a piss poor choice of spokespeople to make the case that insurance companies shouldn’t be charging women more for health insurance.

Now, while it’s true that health plans are higher priced for women, most employers don’t experience the uptick because they have something of a balance between the number of men and women they employ, so there is no price increase passed on to their employees. I guess we can thank Bettinazzi for being the proverbial canary in the coal mine showing us this disparity, but I doubt her employees appreciate the higher health insurance costs they’re paying due to the female-only hiring chip she carries on her shoulder.

Women already make less money than men, says Judy Waxman, vice president for health and reproductive rights, and to force them to also pay more for health insurance is blatantly unfair. Moreover, the extra money an employer must pay to insure a group of women often gets passed along to workers in the form of higher premiums and deductibles. “It’s time to level the playing field,” she says.

If powerful business women want to help undo the inequalities against women in the workplace, it’s a poor strategy to try and do it by sheer force, singlehandedly, as a woman in power. They have to do it by being better than the chauvinistic men that have held those positions in the past. They have to do it by using objectivity in ways that all those old white haired men failed. They have to do it by being right, and using their power to set an example, and setting new standards of fairness.

Choosing sides just won’t do.

I have worked for and with many business women who epitomize progressive values – and even better – displayed true objectivity in management, while being effective in their roles. They should be the leaders on these issues; not someone who is proud to state that she hires almost entirely one sex and then has the nerve to complain about discrimination.

The nerve of some people!