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The Unfeminine Feminism of the “Pay Gap” Debate
We begin with an anachronistic soapbox derby using laughable safety equipment on a course no rich-piggy liberal who drives an Audi would let their kid within a mile of. The voiceover begins: “What do I tell my daughter? That her grandfather is worth more than her grandmother… Her father is worth more than her mother… she will automatically be valued as less than every man she ever meets…” Then ends with the words on the screen, “Audi of America is committed to equal pay for equal work. Progress is for everyone.”
You’ve got to wonder what country (and what century) Audi is talking about. The ad executives and writers of this idiocy have obviously never had any contact with any real daughters, mothers or fathers, or grandparents. Let me tell the story of a typical family — mine. In fact, it’s a stereotypical family since a cop being married to a nurse is almost a cliché.
When my wife graduated from nursing school, I had been on the force for three years. She immediately got a job that paid 25¢ an hour more than me. Think about that for a minute. We each had a BS degree from one the largest public universities in the state. I was in a primarily male occupation with three years of experience and pay raises, and her wage as novice nurse was larger than mine. But she did not earn more than me that year, or for several years afterward. She never worked more than 40 hours a week. I very seldom worked fewer than 50 hours a week.
When John F. Kennedy was elected president he surprised both Democrats and Republicans with a bold tax-cutting plan to solve the problem of a moribund economy. He had campaigned on “getting the country moving again,” and had set a 5 percent economic-growth target, but he never specified how he was going to do it. Then he opened everyone’s eyes with a plan to lower marginal tax rates across-the-board.
The #AskHerMore Twitter campaign encouraged reporters to ask female Oscar nominees about more than just than their fashion choices. Hearing more about their films? Great. But hearing more from nominees, of either gender, about public policy is often not a path to viewer enlightenment — particularly if their film has nothing to do with that particular issue. Example:
Tuesday, April 8th, marks “Equal Pay Day,” the fictitious “holiday” liberal women’s groups have manufactured to expose the so-called “wage gap.”