Gender wage gap or gaffe?

By Hannah Bleau | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Have women achieved ultimate equality, or are we still subjects of a patriarchal society? Are we living in a man’s world?

Women’s rights have been a highly debated issue for decades. It still is to this day. The current debate is about the wage gap.  In fact, April 8 was “Equal Pay Day,” and the President signed two executive orders to signify that the fight for women is far from over.

The gender wage gap argument has suddenly become the most discussed issue surrounding women’s rights. Modern day feminists pounce on the issue gleefully, more than ready to demonstrate the evils of what they see as America’s paternal society.

The gender gap statistics compares wages across all jobs. It fails to take into account that many women choose be teachers (lower paying jobs) while men would be more likely to become an engineer (higher paying jobs).

A slide on the front of President Obama’s website says, “The average full-time worker loses approximately $434,000 in wages over a 40-year period as a direct result of the gender pay gap.”

I’ve seen these figures multiple times on news outlets. They say women only make $.77 for every dollar a man makes. If that’s true, something obviously has to be done. I’ve heard this same number repeated in elected debates, news segments and radio reports. But it’s not cut and dry. Women, we’re totally being scammed.

We cannot listen to everything that the media and politicians claim. Always ask: What are their motives?

The gender wage gap is a manufactured argument crafted by political leaders to avert the general public from truth. In return, they gain popularity and votes.

The gender wage gap highly exaggerated attempt from certain political figures to entice more female voters.

Women’s $.77 for every dollar is highly inaccurate for a number of reasons. It makes a sweeping generalization, ignoring crucial details of the entire situation. It fails to take many common sense factors into account.  First, it doesn’t compare men and women in the same job categories. It doesn’t compare how much a male engineer makes next to a female engineer with the same education. They fail to compare jobs to jobs because it de-legitimizes their entire argument.

The study also says it’s comparing all full time workers. At the same time, women are less likely to work overtime than men. Women are less likely to take risks on new job opportunities. They often choose security over risk and will stay in their stable job instead of seeking higher positions.

Basic economics comes into this situation as well. Women are also more of a risk to employ for obvious reasons. They could become pregnant and gone on maternity leave in a snap. That risk is reflected in some business models.

Besides, if businesses were discriminating as much as the media says, wouldn’t they employ more women? Businesses naturally want to lower their costs, so wouldn’t they hire more women over men to save money? It’s only common sense.

In reality, young women are actually surpassing men in the rates of college degrees. According to Pew Research Center, more young women have four-year college degrees than men. In fact, they surpassed them before the turn of the century. In addition, women are making more than past generations at a higher rate than men.

I think the female rhetoric is sad. Shouldn’t it actually be something modern day feminists are against? They preach independent thinking; yet expect women to whole-heartedly believe whatever new statistics any given administration produces to advance their crooked agenda.

Feminists were giddy when President Obama mentioned women in the latest State of the Union Address. “Because I firmly believe when women succeed, America succeeds,” Obama said.  (*Swoon) Ladies, this isn’t a soap opera. Politicians lying and distorting statistical data to evoke an emotional response from us is pretty demeaning and dishonest, don’t you think?

I don’t want to be pigeonholed. Do I believe that a woman with the same education as a man get paid the same quality of work? Absolutely. But the claims made by these politicians are just plain lies. Political leaders only seem interested in pressing issues that divide Americans into more minority factions rather than unifying, and while America celebrates variety, there’s a difference between diversity and intentional division.

In the past 30 years, women have come so far. Men and women are equal as human beings, but statistic analysis gets muffled because it’s politically incorrect to point out the obvious: Men and women are equal, but different.  I know it’s passé’, but we’re wired differently, and that’s OK. Women are more likely to pursue a family life than an ambitious career. Women are more likely to major in subjects that have lower paying jobs, and that’s no ones fault. Everything comes back to individual choices. It’s not the fault of men. It’s not the fault of greedy businesses.

Simply put, women often take lower paying jobs and work fewer hours for the sake of their family. It’s nature. It’s biology.

We make our life choices. We make the final decision. Not men. Not the sugar daddy government. Women have come a long way, and we didn’t get here by the victim mentality.

Don’t believe the lies. Don’t fall for the political mind games. Foster an environment of independent and critical thinking. We can do it!