BrianGarst.com

John Stossel on the EEOC.

. . .Sears found itself in the EEOC’s cross hairs because more men than women held jobs selling things like lawn mowers and appliances. The disparate numbers themselves were proof, said the government, that Sears discriminated against women.

Sears denied discriminatiing: “We asked women to do those jobs. It’s just that few women want to sell things like lawn mowers.”

Is that too politically incorrect a concept for government lawyers to get? Men and women do have different interests. Go to any Wal-Mart and you’ll see women looking at clothes, men in the hardware department. There are exceptions, of course, but the sexes do tend to have different interests.

More men selling lawn mowers and more women selling cosmetics does not imply evil discrimination that requires armies of lawyers from the State. Show me women who want to sell lawn mowers but are being required to sell cosmetics instead — or men who want to sell cosmetics but have to sell lawn mowers — and we have grounds for discussion. But if the women choose the cosmetics counter, any discrimination is their own. . .

gender issues