The Feminist Candidate?

Only 11 days until the election. It’s what’s on my mind, so it’s what I’m writing about.

John McCain and Barack Obama. Which of these two is the real feminist’s candidate? Which one is in favor of equal pay? Or are they both?

Let’s take a good hard look at the facts. Shall we?

During the high of the feminist movement in the 70’s, one of the main rights women were seeking was the right to be paid the same amount of money for the same amount of work. With the current national average being $.77 for a woman to every $1.00 for a man, we appear to have a long way to go. We can argue about the accuracy of these numbers and whether a disparity exists at all, but I’m willing to accept that the numbers are pretty close even if I’m not 100% willing to declare that sexism is the cause of it all.

Barack Obama supports legislation which would require employers to pay men and women equally. He would tell a business how to spend it’s own budget. Tell the boss how to pay people without allowing him/her to make reasoned judgments about how much an employee should be compensated for the work they do. I don’t think the government has any place in anyone’s checkbook, for any reason, but Mr Obama has very good intentions, and he thinks we need to legislate pay.

So what does this great feminist do himself? He pays his female campaign staff $.83 for every $1.00 that her male counterpart makes. I’m still scratching my head over this one. How is $.83 equal to $1.00? IT ISN’T! Perhaps it is because of the lack of female representation in the upper echelons of his campaign. Of his top 5 staffers, only one is a woman. In the Obama campaign, equal pay is still something to dream of.

Now let’s look at the other guy.

John McCain does not favor legislation requiring equal pay for women. He leaves it up to the women themselves to negotiate for better compensation if they feel they deserve it. He leaves it up to an employer to determine how much an individual employee is worth, and he knows that there are already laws in place to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex.

So what does he do himself? He pays his female staffers $1.04 for every dollar the men make. Hold the phone a minute! That’s more! Some might even argue that in the McCain campaign, pay equality has been achieved. Hooray! Quick,someone call Betty Freidan and tell her “Mission Accomplished, Baby!” How is it that McCain pays women more? Of his top five staff members, three of them are women. Three! More than half.

Here’s the bottom line people: One of these guys says women are still not equal and hires and pays in a way that backs up his belief, and the feminazis love him. The other guy says women are equal to men and he hires and pays in a way that backs up his belief, and the feminist wackos hate him.

Do you think they just like to yell and maybe don’t really want equality after all?

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