Is Obama wrong on the gender pay gap?
The gender pay gap enjoys plenty of press coverage, but much of the reporting looks the same, pointing to discrimination and glass ceilings. Sen. Barack Obama has discussed the gap in similar terms, and how he’s in favor of quashing it. But perhaps we should be looking more carefully at the nuances behind the gap, and be more scrutinizing of Obama’s hiring practices among his own staff. One of my sources, a supporter of Obama, says he thinks Obama is wrong on the issue of gender pay equity. Dr. Warren Farrell, author of “Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind The Pay Gap–And What Women Can Do About It,” says Obama is barking up the wrong tree by underscoring how women make 77 cents to the man’s dollar: ” … this inaccurate analysis doesn’t help our daughters–it gives our daughters victim power but not genuine empowerment.” Farrell notes in a 2005 New York Times op-ed that the gender pay gap can’t just be attributed to discrimination: “After years of research, I discovered 25
