Those are the words spoken by Wisconsin senator Glenn Grothman (R). To avoid any conflict over ‘picking and choosing’, here is his full statement: “You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious. To attribute everything to a so-called bias in the workplace is just not true.” (http://www.care2.com/causes/wisconsin-equal-pay-law-repealed-because-money-is-more-important-for-men.html#ixzz1rTIInZoF)
This is just another example of the huge disconnect that the (mostly heterosexual white cisgender male) Republican Congress has. In actual reality, there is a huge pay gap between the sexes. In the U.S., women only make about 77 cents to every dollar their male counterpart makes (http://www.pay-equity.org/). That means that a man making $40,000 a year is bringing home $9,200 more than a woman working exactly the same job with exactly the same credentials. This is not about who finds money more important, this is about sex discrimination pure and simple.
If Grothman wants to discuss who is going forward to become a breadwinner, maybe he should consider that the majority of households are dual income. That means the family relies on both husband and wife, wife and wife, or husband and husband. It may also startle him to discover that most single income households are run by women, thus making it more important for women to make more money than men (if viewed through that particular lens; I am not advocating any type of pay inequity).
With this towering heap of facts, I think it is very safe to say that there is a serious bias in the workplace. Women are still not valued or compensated equitably for their work. Not only do statistics call out Grothman’s lies, but women’s own experiences. Consider the massive lawsuit that female employees brought against Walmart. Runaway harassment and discrimination against women started what would have been the country’s largest discrimination lawsuit. A poor decision on the Supreme Court’s part has put up yet more roadblocks, which is also very telling in how our legal systems view women’s importance.
Women make up nearly half of the workplace, yet they hold a much lower percentage of administrative and upper management positions. The statistics for women of color are even more abysmal, especially when poverty is stirred into the mix.
For even more proof, let’s look at our country’s governing body. Women only hold 90 of the 535 seats of our government. That translates to women only having about %16.8 of the say in what goes on in our country (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/levels_of_office/Congress-CurrentFacts.php). That is a chilling number and a slap in the face to our daughters, mothers, wives and coworkers. Also consider that when legislation is passed that cuts programs that specifically help women or restricts their reproductive rights, it is mostly men who decide on it. Case in point, the infamous all-male panel in Congress that discussed whether contraception was really important for women (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/birth-control-hearing-was-like-stepping-into-a-time-machine/). Let’s also not forget that 2011 saw an historic amount of proposed legislation restricting women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
So, senator Grothman, in conclusion you are relying on faulty evidence. Women value money as much as men. Women work just as hard for even less. And women are more likely to seriously consider the value of their dollars since they are the only source of income in their households.
If women held an equitable amount of positions in the workplace and our government, I do believe you would be out of a job Mr. Grothman.
