Epic Mansplainer Wonders Why Women Can’t Just Shut Up About the Gender Wage Gap Already

[obamanut2012]

Katie J.M. Baker

Newsflash, ladies: you need to stop jabbering on about this so-called "gender wage gap" thingamajig. You're not being discriminated against; the totally inconsequential pay difference is, if anything, your fault for working less hours and being kinda flakey! Are you on your period or something? Calm down!

That's the TL;DR version of National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru's Bloomberg op-ed on how the gender wage gap (which he calls an "obsession" of feminist groups) is NBD. "Here's the truth you won't hear," Ponnuru writes. "The pay gap is exaggerated, discrimination doesn't drive it and it's not clear that government can eliminate it — or should even try." Tell us more about how it's cool that we get paid less than our male peers, oh wise one!

Ponnuru's regurgitated talking points are nothing new: he says the gender wage gap is a result of how women choose to work fewer hours than men — "choices made by women concerning the amount of time and energy to devote to a career," because when they're off work they're probably just painting their nails and watching Real Housewives — and how they're more likely to "have gaps in their employment history and to enter lower-paying fields."

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http://jezebel.com/5934551/epic-mansplainer-wonders-why-women-cant-just-shut-up-about-the-gender-wage-gap-already

[Scuba]

1. Equal pay for equal work matters not only to women....

... but to their husbands, sons and daughters, as well as to our economy which is suffering from lack of demand.

Duh.

[4th law of robotics]

2. If women are working fewer hours, in different jobs, and with less seniority

shouldn't their pay rates reflect that?

If not then it isn't equal pay for equal work.

[obamanut2012]

3. This is an inappropriate argument for this group

Which is a safe haven group. Please refrain from posting POVs that do not reflect the SOP of the Feminist Group SOP and purpose. We do not debate the limitations of women's rights in this Group. Thank you.

Obamanut2012
Feminist Group Co-Host

[4th law of robotics]

4. I don't think that's a fair representation of what I said

(arguing for limitations on women's rights).

But I will respect your forum and rules and refrain from posting further.

Tschüss

[Gormy Cuss]

5. The body of evidence shows that even when those are factored in, there is a wage gap.

And most honest research seeking to answer the why have come up short in terms of explaining away all of the difference. That's why for feminists there is no debate on whether women cause the difference themselves. It's a given that there is a discriminatory element not just is wage comparisons within the same fields but in comparing the average wages in fields dominated by women to the wages in fields dominated by men.

As for women working fewer hours with less seniority, the presumptive role of women as the workers who step out or step down in the workforce while raising children accounts for much of that. It's one of the reasons second wave feminists made such a big deal about placing an economic value on stay-at-home mothers. If fathers shouldered the same responsibility for dialing back their work lives, perhaps our society would value work differently and set pay based on actual contributions rather than softer markers like seniority -- and more fathers would have the opportunity to be more involved in their children's lives.

[LeftyMom]

7. Are those women doing unpaid work in the remaining time?

Do men devote a proportionate amount of time to unpaid work?

[Rex]

6. I use the backpages of the National Review

as toiletpaper.