MY NEW HERO
Kari Schott
For every dollar a man makes a woman makes only 77 cents so we’re having the cookies be a dollar for a man and only 77 cents for a woman. It’s not fair that just because I was born a woman that I get paid 77ยข. So this is an issue in my life and I thought I may as well start raising awareness starting young.
Just when I begin to despair that the younger generation might be too callow, self-absorbed, and attached to their electronic devices to care about what’s happening in the world, something happens to renew my faith in humanity…or at least forestall my inevitable capitulation to despair and foreboding.
It’s no secret that women on average make less than men for the same work. It’s always been thus, and circumstances show no signs of changing any time soon. It may well be up to the next generation to close the gender pay gap…if it’s even possible to do so, since many women seem willing to participate in their own subjugation, and too many many acquiesce. Selling cookies may not seem like a recipe for changing hearts and minds, but it seems Ms. Schott understands that the key to solving a problem lies first in making people aware that a problem exists. Few reasonable people would think paying women 77 cents on the dollar for performing the same work as men is fair, but many aren’t even conscious of the gender pay gap.
Bake sales are to be a popular way to illustrate problems, whether real or perceived. Some Republican groups on college campuses have sold cookies with different prices for different ethnic groups to highlight what they feel to be reverse racism against Whites. Generally speaking, though, a bake sale can be a good way to highlight a problem a person or group feels needs to be addressed…and the gender pay gap is certainly a legitimate and seemingly intractable problem.
While some students have called into question the accuracy of the statistic for the US, the most recent statistics (from 2013) show that the “typical woman working full time, year-round” earns 78 per cent of what a typical man earns.
Furthermore, a recent report from the UN’s International Labour Organisation showed that the 77 per cent figure is correct worldwide.
It estimated that the figure has only improved by three percentage points in the last 20 years and will take another 70 to close altogether at the current rate.
I’ve never understood why the idea of paying the distaff half of the population the same wage for performing the same work done by Penis-Americans is such a radical idea. Shouldn’t equal pay for equal work be a given? And why is it that we’re still having the same conversation about the gender pay gap we were 25-30 years ago?
Equality isn’t something that should be considered a good idea. It should be the law. Why the gender pay gap still exists in the 21st century is something I can think of no rational explanation for.
Kudos to Ms. Schott for taking up the torch and focusing a spotlight on the gender pay gap. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette…or in this case, bake cookies.
It’s possible there may be hope for future generations after all.
