I don’t think the Republicans understand something very basic that they are usually very adept at exploiting. Whether or not people have an objective verifiable reason for feeling aggrieved, they feel like they are getting screwed and telling them that they are not getting screwed is never an effective political message. Woman don’t get paid as much as men, and you are not going to convince women that this is some kind of illusion. Yes, I know that there are some innocent reasons that contribute to the pay disparity, but it’s still a political loser to try to convince working women that they’re getting a fair shake.
To their credit, the Democrats are taking a holistic approach to the issue. They know that simple discrimination is only a small part of the problem, so they are attempting to raise the minimum wage, get more access to day care (including universal pre-K), promote STEM education for women & girls, get better family leave policies, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. The GOP opposes every single one of these efforts.
And, while they’re opposing these efforts they are attempting to distort the Democrats’ position to make it seem like the Democrats think that the entirety of the problem with disparity in pay is due to simple gender discrimination. The Democrats have not made that argument, but it’s a blessing that the Republicans seem to think that women will be receptive to it. This is an example of being wrong even if you’re right. Simply by making the argument that women aren’t discriminated against in the workplace, you piss off most women. This is partly because the Republicans are wrong and partly because everyone is convinced they’re getting a raw deal regardless of whether or not it is true in their particular case.
So, by goading the Republicans into dismissing women’s concerns about the fairness of their job reviews, annual bonuses and raises, the Democrats are winning, and winning big, in this debate.
Yesterday, was “Equal Pay Day.”
And Conservatives/Republicans were all joyous that the women in this country were too “busy” to notice it.
Let then run on unequal pay in November, and see where that gets them!
Clearly you need to watch more ReasonTV videos or war out the Independent Women’s Forum (it even has women in its title!)
My friend at Cornell who researches this shit for a living had this to say:
Love reading about people who still–in 2014–deny the existence of the gender wage gap. I can promise you that I have read all of the most cutting edge research on it and it does, indeed, exist. I’ve even conducted some of my own! So they should just admit they don’t care that women get paid less than men for doing the same work already and save me the effort of rolling my eyes at them. Lol (annoyed humble brag of the day)
It’s completely legitimate to complain that “77 cents” is misleading. It’s NOT legitimate to say that, because it’s misleading, the pay gap doesn’t exist or is solely due to choice. Saying the latter also completely ignores the roles that sexism and patriarchal norms play in constraining so-called “choice”. 77 cents takes into consideration nature (i.e., women birth babies) and culture (i.e., women are tracked into lower paying jobs, and jobs with more women become lower paying; women are passed over for high-paying jobs; women who are mothers are discriminated against while men who are fathers are lauded and promoted, etc.).
Why in the world do you think they are addressing women? They are not.
It is their usual play… grievance. You are not speaking to women, but to white men, their usual audience. They are trying to convince white men that the democrats want to take some of their money and give it to women. They are trying to convince men that it is all a zero sum game, and if something is given to someone else, others must lose.
Of course a zero sum game is what they republicans want, so in a way they are right. A certain percentage to the rich, and maybe 10% to be divided by everyone else as they see fit. Percentage never to change.
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In addition to the not so innocent reasons enumerated by seabe above, there are also lack of affordable childcare, lack of paid parental leave, and the general cultural assumption that women will take on the lion’s share of running the household and caring for the children. These are not “innocent” reasons, they are structural reasons, which, added to straight up gender discrimination tend to make working women very unhappy campers indeed.
Beyond the White Man’s Grievance, there is a genuine element of zero sum calculation that makes changing the structural barriers to fair and equal pay so hard: To wit, men need to take on more of the responsibility for home life, and their work life has to be adjusted to make that possible and acceptable. Until that happens, women will not see fairness in the workplace.
But wouldn’t that make Republican Jesus very, very angry?
Who is winning here, exactly?