Rationalizing pay inequity: women engineers,pervasive patriarchy and the neoliberal chimera

This article argues that neoliberalism with its pervasive patriarchy and co-option of feminism, renders women tacitly complicit in gendered pay inequalities. We show that in New Zealand, one of the world’s most neoliberal nations, women who might precisely be best equipped to argue for equal pay – engineers – do not do so because neoliberalism makes many feel responsible for, and accepting of, their lower salaries. In interviews and focus groups, many women engineers talk of deserving less pay than men because of their ‘choices’, their ‘personality’ and their lack of ‘responsibility’. In a disempowering environment, some women show agency by disavowing gender as a reason for the pay gap. Such narratives of individualized shortcomings reduce hope of collective action that might uncover and dismantle the systemic causes of pay inequity, which are not due to a woman’s choice or personality but rather what we frame as the neoliberal chimera.     

The Psychiatric Aspects of Solitary Confinement

Mental health workers who work in correctional facilities frequently have to assess and treat clients in solitary confinement (SC). SC is used as a procedure in correctional facilities for a variety of reasons including punishment, protection of the person, security of the institution, or for more intensive observation. In this article we have taken a fresh and critical view of the literature to attempt to delineate the effects of SC on mental health. The research in this area reveals mixed findings. Some studies extrapolate findings from social isolation experiments and the findings from prisoner of war (POW) camps. Many other studies have severe limitations. Most of the better studies suggest that SC is not harmful to the majority of people but conclude that some may be less resilient due to their personality construct or perhaps due to mental illness. Further research is needed to clarify this issue.