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Thursday, June 7, 2012
News / Opinion Yet again, Republicans deny women their rights
Posted By Erin Tracy-Blackwood on Thu, Jun 7, 2012 at 5:22 PM
Senate Republicans have asserted that if you have female reproductive organs, you should not expect to receive equal pay for equal work. How such simple concepts of fairness are up for debate, let alone a vote, in 2012 is beyond me.
On Tuesday, the Senate Minority blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act. Based on their political motivations, I see why they chose to filibuster.
Republicans didn't stand to lose much ground with women voters for not supporting the act. After their War on Contraception and the Violence Against Women Act fiasco, if Republicans still have any female supporters, they will obviously never leave the party's side. Support for the act would've annoyed a large part of the GOP's base, including corporations and business owners who do not want to pay a dime more than they must for anything, including their staff.
I recently left such a company. My last job was in the motorcycle industry: a man's world. I held a high position in marketing, and for a while, my supervisor was female. She was a model employee who had a hand in every aspect of the company. I remember the day she resigned. Our chairman said it felt like he'd lost his right arm.
She left because they brought in a man to take over part of her duties, and she discovered they were paying him double her salary. Double.
He wasn't more qualified or educated. His work ethic didn't exceed hers. It was simply because he was a man. He was paid double her salary for half her responsibilities and, unlike her, no one ever once thought to ask him for a cup of espresso.
This was an extreme example of the culture pervasive in America. Nationally, the average ratio of women's pay to men's is 77 cents on the dollar. The Obama Administration has been visibly trying to change this. Before introducing the Paycheck Fairness Act, the White House created the Council on Women & Girls and supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
Republicans, most notably Mitt Romney, have been largely silent since the vote. On Tuesday, Sen. Dean Heller of Nevada was the only Republican who had enough balls to attempt to defend his party's vote on the Senate floor. He must be the highest paid person in the GOP.
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