Feminism Is For Everyone

Sep 17, 2008,3:02 PM

Michelle Obama, Equal Pay, and the Election

Yesterday, Michelle Obama blogged about her upcoming campaign stops, including the one going down today in cville in about an hour. Mrs. Obama's post gives a brief explanation of who Lilly Ledbetter is--a woman who is joining her at her appearance tonight, along with Dr. Jill Biden:

For nearly 20 years, [Lilly] worked for a Goodyear tire plant. She was the only female supervisor—so you know this is a tough, hard-working woman. One day, someone sent her an anonymous letter with a list of salaries of her co-workers. That’s how she found out that she was making less than the men she worked with—even men who were less senior than she was. And we’re not talking about a few dollars. Some of her male counterparts were making 40 percent more than she was—for doing the same work.

So Lilly did the brave and difficult thing. She confronted this injustice. Her case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And in a 5-to-4 decision (screw you ALITO), the Supreme Court ruled that, according to the law, Lilly only had 180 days to complain about the pay discrimination. So because it had taken her 20 years to find out the truth, she had missed her chance at justice.

This in turn sparked the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which Republicans in Congress--including John McCain--strongly oppose. To sum it up (from wikipedia), the bill's purpose is to close a loophole in an American law intended to protect women and racial minorities from pay discrimination. The republicans claim that enacting this bill would result in too many "frivolous" lawsuits. Which is funny because, I'm pretty sure people who are paid less than others for doing the same work in the same place probably wouldn't call their lawsuits frivolous. But here's the best part: The conservative right are the ones that are saying that pay inequality is all a lie anyway!

As an aside, The president of everyone's favorite Feminist Haters Club, Kathleen Bracken, even called the study put out last summer by the American Association of University Women "clearly bogus" when discussing it on a blog, citing her credentials as an E-schooler. Warning: She also assumes that the AAUW was biased towards liberals because they support Community Action Projects: "Community action projects? I am sure it is more than reasonable to assume they would not fund a right to life rally or march." I'm sure in your poor, nobody-understands-me-I'm-young-and-conservative mind, it seems reasonable. But really, you say we're the ones who play victim? Haha.

So what I'm trying to say is that if Republicans don't think a pay gap exists, why not pass the Fair Pay Act and then let those "frivolous" lawsuits come up and be shot down? Oh yeah...because what they mean when they say the pay gap doesn't exist is that the pay gap doesn't affect them. Oops!

Anyway.

Here's the breakdown: Obama = FOR the Fair Pay Act. McCain = Against the Fair Pay Act.

Say hi to Michelle for me!!