atw: Re: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
- From: "Warren Lewington" <wjlewington@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2012 23:58:25 +1100
The gender/pay argument doesn't work at all. Gender balances and
relationships to pay rates is spurious at best - it is right down there with
low IQ test results proving immigrants will lean towards criminal behaviour!
Yes, IQ tests do assist in determining how some people will assimilate into
a society or a community. But not because they are stupid. It is because IQ
tests demonstrate the skills you need according to what is being measured.
Please be careful how you analyse gender balance. Gender balance is a
complex sociological and political and societal issue, a complete science in
its own right. The numbers discussed here cannot support the postulation put
forward, but these numbers are a great start.
There are many accountants I know who earn less per hour than I do and they
are more highly qualified. Engineers I know, one friend in particular, (a
world specialist on sonar systems) earn less than I do - even in permanent
roles I can make more than he earns. Many engineers sit in salary ranges
around the 70K mark. I don't talk about how much I earn - the old rattle
nothing when you own the world is a good idea. Retaining engineers in
Australia is very difficult at the moment because salary rates are so low.
My last census entry also doesn't allow you to answer the question properly.
If you are a contractor like me then the swings and roundabouts mean that
you may earn more than $1000 per week, but for how many? In reality, my tax
returns (a much better reference) don't show the "real" income at all. So we
need to do a regression analysis against tax returns for those who claim to
be technical writers at the ATO before we can get a real picture of incomes
for technical writers.
Pay rates as an average in many careers listed in the statistics we are
reading here are often skewed in extreme directions by a large number of
outliers earning millions (accountants at the VERY TOP earning seven and
eight figures versus the salary men and women on 70k), while the median and
mean rest (vast majority) earn below or at the average.
Without some regression analysis, and some comparative regression analysis
at that, and using standard deviation measurements (the current numbers or
sample space are also extremely small), these statistics only mean as much
as they say in the tables. They say, overall, we earn above the average
wage. That is a really good start. We deserve to be earning more than the
average too. As for the hours, that makes sense. Half of us are women - more
statistically likely within society to be working part time than men
-especially in the thirties and forties age groups. Men in this case are
skewing the results I bet back to full time hours. Moreover, the age
distributions also account for part time hours - as we close towards
retirement the tendency is to work part time or decidedly work less full
time hours through the financial year. Again, results skew.
Further to the gender comments. Most creative professions - technical
writing crosses both technical and creative art making it unique - have been
skewing towards women. My Comms degree has a larger spread of women than
men. Most Fine Arts degrees tend to have more women than men. Allan Charlton
and Michael Lewis may be able to provide more stats on that. Michael Lewis,
how many women and men are majoring in English Literature at Mac Uni this
year? Most editors come through this pathway. Yet the overall statistical
reality is that the technical writing gender balance is equal. Note too the
age discrepancies, why is there a drift towards ageing - why can't we
attract younger people into the field? This is a weakness for us that means
we are not getting the best out of the profession - we get middle agers
retraining, not career makers starting and pushing the professional
development along. Experience doing 'over' decades not 'a' decade makes a
huge difference. There are several reasons for all of this I think and they
need to be examined, tested, analysed and strategised for.
Men tend to go for technical roles - IT is the modern equivalent of the old
trades that I was a part of. Effectively your average hack IT guy at the
office is a glorified fitter and turner. Seriously they aren't that bright.
These sorts of jobs were never that attractive to women, although they are
now becoming that way.
Remember too that most women take time off work for their children, and many
don't come back into the workplace doing what they did when they left. This
is the fact for most of my friends (bar one family who were better served
with my close friend Chris being house-dad while Biru went back to work to
earn squillions more than the average because of her IT engineering
background in complex telecommunications systems. And boy, does she skew the
numbers there. If I ever have kids I would love to be house-dad, Chris and
Joey their son are the coolest father and son team I know!
Back to the gender balance - you little beauty. WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT. I
wouldn't mind betting we are one of the VERY few professions to have
achieved that. That's worth a press release. Who has written that?
Another not so significantly pointed argument. THERE ARE SO FEW of us. That
is telling me something about market power. We need to START EXPLOITING
THIS!!! Have a look at what Actuaries have done and SAP specialists have
done. Dismal? You betcha! Dismal for anyone looking for one of us hey?
Opportunity knocks my friends. Be proud, we are part of a unique, limited
and extremely rare group in the workplace. Show pride in that! Live it.
Great work James. REALLY GREAT WORK. What you have done is put a line in the
sand and started what should become a game changing discourse for us.
Everyone take note. Everyone.
Awesome conversation!
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Peter.Martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, 16 October 2012 18:01
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Rhonda: Yes, I guess it does, and I have no evidence whatsoever for it, and
didn't and don't espouse the view (although I've heard a few variations on
that theme before).
And BTW, some of us male TWs made the same choice quite consciously and
deliberately, too.
But more generally, James' argument has some chicken and egg issues to deal
with:
Is the industry sector badly paid because women are in it?
or
Are more women in it (cf other industry sectors) because it's only a lowly
paid job (and: somebody has to do it/men don't want it so much/the
competition isn't so fierce/the discrimination's less ? -- take your
pick.)?
or
Maybe even more women are better at it than men, and are just catching up
and ready to bypass males ?
or...
A whole host of other possibilities and combinations of any of the above.
What concerns me a little, is that if we follow the argument James has put,
and if and when we start to get sensible improvement in gender balances in
various industries, any good news about women's work participation can be
assumed to be bad news unless the pay rates in that industry sector are
higher than average. I don't see that as an argument that always works,
and I'm not at all sure it works in the TW area.
Peter M
From: Rhonda Bracey <rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 16/10/2012 05:30 PM
Subject: atw: Re: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Sent by: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____
Peter M said: "Or is it just that "They wouldn't let them into the
development area, but they couldn't keep them away from the writing... " ??"
This *assumes* and generalises that those (females) who go into tech writing
do it as a stop-gap or alternative to what they really want to do but were
perhaps prevented from doing.
Where's the evidence that that's the case? (and no, I haven't had time to
look at James' report yet - thanks for compiling it, James)
Rhonda, who *chose* tech comms as her second career and never wanted to be a
developer
<mailto:Rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Rhonda.bracey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Website: <http://cybertext.com.au/> http://cybertext.com.au
Blog: <http://cybertext.wordpress.com/> http://cybertext.wordpress.com
From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [
<mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Peter.Martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, 16 October 2012 2:04 PM
To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: atw: Re: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
To be fair to James, he does go on to make an argument as to why this might
be seen as part of a "dismal" picture. I think his argument is debatable,
but may be worth the debate, when you read it all in context.
I still think, however, it illustrates what kind of context changes can be
brought about by argument orders.
I think I'd have been inclined instead to have led off with:
3. Only 64% of technical writers were, in 2006, paid at a level equal to or
greater than average weekly earnings.
4. Only 72% are in full-time employment. defined as working 35 or more hours
per week
2. Have are aged 45 years and over. Only 12% are aged under 30 years
1. Half of all Australian technical wirters are female.
The conclusion he draws from the combination of these four points is that
"Jobs that are interesting but pay poorly often have a high percentage of
female workers...." etc and hence the "dismal" tag..
Which is the bit that may be questionable when related to tech writing,
perhaps. Maybe a case of a glass being half empty ?
An alternative view is that this one of the areas where the glass ceiling is
cracking or has cracked. Certainly there's a case to say that the TW area,
locally and internationally, has women in some key positions and held in
high respect. We all know the names -- and see them on the book covers and
in seminar speaking lists...
Or is it just that "They wouldn't let them into the development area, but
they couldn't keep them away from the writing... " ??
Hmm.
Peter M
From: Mairead Cleary < <mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailto:austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 16/10/2012 03:50 PM
Subject: atw: Re: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
Sent by: <mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____
Did Tony Abbot have a hand in this report?
On 16/10/2012, at 3:37 PM, Peter.Martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Er, a juxtaposition that might have been better avoided ???
"The picture that emerges from the 2006 census is, on the whole, a rather
dismal one.
1 Half of all Australian technical writers are female. "
.....
Peter M
From: James Hunt < <mailto:writerlyjames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
writerlyjames@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailto:austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: 16/10/2012 03:27 PM
Subject: atw: Statistics on Australian Technical Writers
Sent by: <mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____
People,
I have collated available Australian Bureau of Statistics figures on
technical writers, and compared them with data for book editors. Available
data is from the 2006 Census, and the very last items were published in
March of this year (and yes, there was another Census in there).
It would be interesting to extend the tables to include data from the 2011
Census, but that data may not even be available yet.
The report is too long and too complicated in layout for an e-mail, so I
have put a PDF version into Dropbox, at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6had7fkn8vj6zo4/shortage.pdf
If it doesn't work, write me. This is a reduced version: I have removed
almost all commentary and analysis.
JH
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