Letters to the editor for Thursday, July 11, 2013

Column about pay for women ignored facts

After reading Bob Thomas’ recent column, I seethed, and not just upon reading his first, very patronizing paragraph. What century is Bob from?

To begin with, single mothers were unheard of “in those days?” There have always been single mothers. He mentions women taking factory jobs when men went to war. Some of them were brides, mothers, then widowed (or horror: divorced). Then, men “had few job options” so they were a better investment? This doesn’t make sense.

He goes on to say that in manufacturing, seemingly a present-day observation, “few factory jobs are performed by both men and women.” I spent years in manufacturing, from high-tech integrated circuit fabrication to heavy industry, and women were at all levels and in all roles, including technicians, engineers, scientists and leadership.

Bob also ties all of women’s decisions about whether to pursue careers to their fertility. This overgeneralization leaves out about 20 percent of women who don’t have children. He closes by telling us to “Remember, male and female employees having the same job classifications ... aren’t necessarily performing tasks of equal value.” Bob, job classifications are the standard for determining the value of a job, regardless of the gender of the person performing it. I can’t tell if this column represents an opinion, or if Bob is just nostalgic for the old days when you could use all kinds of sexist assumptions to rationalize treating women as less equal. I’m just glad he wasn’t making my pay decisions.

Susan Strating

Carson City

Mexico must take care of its own residents

We have 11.5 million illegal aliens living in the United States. This is absolutely deplorable. They are all abusing services they are not entitled to receive. It is our hard earned money that pays for Medicaid, food stamps, WIC, SNAP and welfare, subsidies on housing, electricity, heat, emergency room visits and ESL education.

We need to have an immigration policy that protects our borders and which stops the handouts to people who have broken our laws to discourage them from coming here. If we stopped all these freebies, the money saved could probably pay off our deficit, and these illegals would have to return to Mexico, as they could no longer afford to stay here.

It’s time Mexico stepped up to the plate and take care of their own people. Fat chance, I know, but one can hope. When is this country going to wake up?

Carmelita Raney

Dayton