How much do we pay women and men?

It's common knowledge that women and racial minorities get paid less than white men for the same kind of work. We call it the "Wage Gap." Many people will inexplicably tell you it's a myth but there's a lot of reliable evidence that it's definitely real. Here's what I mean, with current numbers from the government:

Women make up 51% of the workforce,

Women and men exactly the same high school, college, and graduate education graduation rates,

YET

On average, women make 21% less than men.  These disparities are more egregious when you factor in race. Actually the wage gap between men of racial minorities and white men is alarming as well and should be addressed as well.

Women: Do you honestly believe you work 21% less hard than men?

But what about equality? Why should women get more?

First of all, if you broke down the amount of time in history that men were assumed to be superior to women, it would be like 89% of the time. This is impossible to measure so I just made up that statistic, honestly, it feels overly generous to our forefathers and foremothers. So why not give us a shot at being on top?

Second, women are notoriously bad negotiators. It seems like you can't go six months without some lady publishing a book about how women need to Elbow Up because men are always elbowing and we are trained by society to keep our elbows in, like a thin, unobtrusive bouquet. So this is kind of a negotiation power move, shooting high and hopefully landing at at least equal.

Third, women's lives are more expensive. Female doctors and female daycare providers and female janitors and female construction workers--you'll notice we all wear makeup. Men tell women our power comes from our looks, and they control the power, so we naturally want to control how we look. A great example of this is how much effort and money Black women are expected to put into making their hair conform to what white men feel comfortable with to be respected in the workplace. Pay women more than men so that we can afford to accommodate these expectations.

Fourth, babies are expensive. We make them and we do a lot more work in raising them. A woman’s body has a lot of extra organs to accommodate the creation and nurturing of children. Childbirth is just one of many of the regular functions of a cis-gendered woman’s body that is treated like a disease in our society. Diseases are very expensive in our healthcare system, which is designed to make money off the malfunction of the body. Women spend more time and energy raising kids than men. This is assumed to be an outgrowth of the bond women have to their children from physically producing them, and despite the clear evidence that this isn’t necessarily true, we still tend to conform to this assumption. Let’s pay women more to compensate for the career experience lost when women take maternity leave at much higher rates than men. Let’s pay women more to compensate for when they have to quit a job to have and care for a baby because they don’t get maternity leave from their job. Let’s pay women more to compensate for being expected to be sweet at work, but being emotionally exhausted from doing a disproportionate amount of emotional labor in their homes. Let’s pay women more to compensate for the fact that they are more likely to get custody of a child, which requires a lot more effort than paying child support does.

Most cis-gendered women bleed for several days a month. This is correctly intimidating and frightening to men as it is visually shocking and because it is connected to the movement of the moon, but since they’re in charge we have to make extra sure to hide it as well as possible at all times for their comfort. We do this by buying special tools, making a market that mandates a woman’s participation. These tools, often called menstrual supplies, are expensive. Men are trained from a young age to be so upset by these tools that they should not feel comfortable even buying them. We can compensate for this by paying women more than men.

More reasons:

More women go to college than men. That’s a lot of student loans.

Women live longer than men.

Women get more migraines than men.

Women have to wait in longer lines because of gender segregated bathrooms.

Women are physically abused and raped at much higher rates than men.

Women are taken less seriously as artists. See: Romantic Comedies, the concept of “Chick Lit,” home cooking vs. chefs, woodworking vs. textile crafts, Beyonce vs. Beck, etc.

Men will get paid so much more if women are paid more than men. You know it’s true.

Pay Women More Than Men--It’s What’s Best For Everyone