Why do women get paid less than men?

[Mich the Tester]

Yep,

my mum started me on Ballet

ended up going via martial arts to silly sweaty sports and systems engineering degree, and getting paid more than my peers

Now that's just cruel unless you expressed an explicit interest in dancing as a kid.

I went out with a ballet dancer for a year or so and saw how she trained; those women are seriously hard. At least, the ones that are good at it are hard as nails. The pain she went through, day after day, to eventually go professional would make many serious sportspeople cry out for their mummy. I gained a huge respect for professional ballet dancers from knowing her. Having said that though, lots of them put in more and harder training than pro sportspeople and really punish their bodies, but then do booze, fags and rock and roll which can't really be very helpful. I used to get home from the rugby club after what I thought was a hard training session, have one glass of wine with some food, then a bath, then go to bed, contrary to the stereotypes about rugby players. After a day of dance practice she happily drank a few vodkas, smoke some fags, ate a bag of chips and then got up at 7 the next morning to do it all over again; somehow that isn't likely to work beyond about 22 years old.

[Dallas]

I went out with a ballet dancer for a year or so and saw how she trained; those women are seriously hard. At least, the ones that are good at it are hard as nails. The pain she went through, day after day, to eventually go professional would make many serious sportspeople cry out for their mummy. I gained a huge respect for professional ballet dancers from knowing her. Having said that though, lots of them put in more and harder training than pro sportspeople and really punish their bodies, but then do booze, fags and rock and roll which can't really be very helpful. I used to get home from the rugby club after what I thought was a hard training session, have one glass of wine with some food, then a bath, then go to bed, contrary to the stereotypes about rugby players. After a day of dance practice she happily drank a few vodkas, smoke some fags, ate a bag of chips and then got up at 7 the next morning to do it all over again; somehow that isn't likely to work beyond about 22 years old.

punishing to the point that my plie was beautiful

but i now run like a penguin.... and slower than brillo

dont know whats worse

[formant]

I gained a huge respect for professional ballet dancers from knowing her.

Oh it's a seriously tough sport. My comment didn't intend to discredit ballet - just saying that making a male child do ballet if he's not explicitly interested in it, is bound to make life a little socially awkward for him. Forcing a child into any kind of sport, even those stereotypical for their gender, is already questionable enough.

[Dallas]

Oh it's a seriously tough sport. My comment didn't intend to discredit ballet - just saying that making a male child do ballet if he's not explicitly interested in it, is bound to make life a little socially awkward for him. Forcing a child into any kind of sport, even those stereotypical for their gender, is already questionable enough.

shall i tell her .....

[shaunbhoy]

Oh it's a seriously tough sport. My comment didn't intend to discredit ballet - just saying that making a male child do ballet if he's not explicitly interested in it, is bound to make life a little socially awkward for him.

Too true. In the worst case it is a downward spiral from there to Politics.

[Mich the Tester]

Oh it's a seriously tough sport. My comment didn't intend to discredit ballet - just saying that making a male child do ballet if he's not explicitly interested in it, is bound to make life a little socially awkward for him. Forcing a child into any kind of sport, even those stereotypical for their gender, is already questionable enough.

Agreed; best to encourage kids to do what they naturally want to do and do it as well as they can. Although apparently Vicky Pendleton never actually liked cycling, she just enjoyed being bloody good at it.

[shaunbhoy]

Agreed; best to encourage kids to do what they naturally want to do and do it as well as they can. Although apparently Vicky Pendleton never actually liked cycling, she just enjoyed being bloody good at it.

I naturally "want to do" Vicky Pendleton................. and I don't need much encouraging!!

[BrilloPad]

punishing to the point that my plie was beautiful

but i now run like a penguin.... and slower than brillo

dont know whats worse

You were faster at swim and run than me. Your cycle was slow - maybe if you didn't stop to stretch every 2 minutes you might have been faster?

[BrilloPad]

Agreed; best to encourage kids to do what they naturally want to do and do it as well as they can. Although apparently Vicky Pendleton never actually liked cycling, she just enjoyed being bloody good at it.

She was rubbish at dancing. Dallas the penguin would have been better.....

[formant]

Agreed; best to encourage kids to do what they naturally want to do and do it as well as they can. Although apparently Vicky Pendleton never actually liked cycling, she just enjoyed being bloody good at it.

Well that's good enough. My older stepdaughter doesn't have any particular interest in any particular sport. But she's athletic, competitive, and likes to win. So we take her to a super competitive gymnastics club. She loves it, but somehow I'm pretty sure that's just because she's good at it, not because she actually cares about gymnastics.

The younger one on the other hand is completely uncompetitive, just likes to learn stuff. We're letting her try out dance for a bit, but TBH I see her going more down the musical instrument route (that's what I did anyway) rather than doing any serious sport.