Do Women Make Less Than Men?

The answer is “Yes” and “No”! Just recently, the liberal left has been pushing the idea that the Republicans are engaging in a “War on Women”. They make it sound like the Republicans want to suppress women and hold them down by paying them less than men, and other dastardly acts like depriving women of contraception. This is a phony argument made up out of whole cloth by the liberal left and the left-leaning media.

This argument was started in earnest during the late 60's and 70's, when the militant, anti-male, feminist movement caught hold (agitated by the likes of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem), and the emotionally charged figure of 77 cents was put forth that that was what women earned in the marketplace as compared to the dollar earned by men. That bogus figure has now arisen again as the Democrats want to portray that the “evil” Republicans want to continue the so-called “War on Women”.

When I was growing up, most mothers were stay-at-home moms, the exceptions being women who chose the professions of teaching, nursing, and retail sales. When I was doing my under graduate college work, 90% of my fellow classmates were male. It wasn't until the late 60's and 70's that women began to enroll in college in much greater numbers and begin to prepare to start careers in areas other than teaching, nursing and retail sales.

Since that time, the opportunities for women to succeed in the business world have dramatically increased and now in certain areas, women have become the new, young dominant executives and entrepreneurs in certain professions and industries. I read somewhere that women are in the majority in law schools, as an example. This cultural change could also account for the birth rate in the U.S. becoming more like the declining birth rate in Europe and other Western countries. Career women have inordinately lower birth rates than stay-at-home moms, and for good reason.

This turnaround by the women, has sort of turned that false figure of 77 cents on its head. Those women who decide to pursue a career instead of becoming a full or part-time mother, are on a par, wage-wise, with men. More and more women have become CEO's and have entered the ranks of middle and upper echelon management than ever before. They make as much and sometimes more than their male counterparts, and all this has occurred in just the past 30 years.

But, once the equation of raising children comes into play, the pay for women declines, not because they are women per se, but because they work less hours and tend to choose jobs to revolve around the caring of their family and its obligations. So, when the left liberals try to float that canard that the Republicans want to engage in a “War on Women”, and want to pay women less than they deserve, look at the situation as of today and not go back 30 years or more. Women (and men) will generally get paid, not for the hour they work, they'll get compensated for the value they give for the hour they work. So, a woman with the same credentials as a man, will in the vast majority of cases, be treated equally as to that of a man in both pay and responsibility.

The phony “War on Women” is just a political ploy by the Democrats and Obama to try to divert attention away from Obama's pitiful record as President. It is Obama and the Democrats who are waging a “War on All Americans”, not just women.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann