To begin, let’s get all the stale sexist jokes out of the way quickly.
“Hey Jane Everywoman, shouldn’t you be in the kitchen baking bread, making babies, simultaneously cruising Pinterest, shopping for clothes and watching Gossip Girl on your laptop while pretending to know things about sports and driving well?”
Get it? Because women have silly values and are good at multitasking.
Now that that’s out of the way, you can skip the commentary for most of this season’s Tosh.0 — unless you want to catch more tired racial observations and a gay joke that’s been four seasons in the making — and we can take a moment to grow as a nation and actually consider gender equality.
Why does it matter? For starters, just more than half of all LSU students will be affected.
Don’t worry, guys, we’re in the clear.
Ladies, however, will be upset to find that women make 18 percent less than males after graduation, according to a new report from the American Association of University Women. This amounts to an almost $8,000 gap, not including the significant burden some women experience due to accumulating interest on student loans.
If you plan on staying in Louisiana, this won’t get much better for you. A separate study from the AAUW revealed that our state has the second-largest salary gap in the nation, with women making 31 percent less than men.
The first study does cite some causes of the gap that are less horrendous than outright discrimination.
Men, it says, are likely to work more hours and obtain degrees that yield higher-paying jobs. When all factors — job, hours worked and college degree – are equal, however, women still make 7 percent less than their male counterparts.
Some seem uninterested in enacting change for various reasons, whether it’s complacency, resignation or fear of the “feminist” label. When asked about the issue, several female students in the Quad prefaced their opinion with something along the lines of, “Well, I’m not a feminist or anything, but…”
“Feminist” has become such a dirty word. We associate it with perpetually angry women shouting over things like the Bic “Just for Her” pen.
The pen – with its “diamond engraved,” pastel-colored body, slimmed down for womanly hands — is not a real issue. It’s a product. We voice our disapproval for products by not buying them or, as some did, posting sarcastic reviews on Amazon.
Unlike the pen, however, the disparity between the salaries of men and women will not disappear by ignoring it. The Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are supposed to protect against this type of discrimination. You could try closing the gap with a 10-year-long lawsuit, but that would just be duct taping a broken machine.
Instead, you’d have to address the bigger picture. It’s hardly worth starting up the endless nature vs. nurture argument, but let’s try to agree on some things.
Men and women are naturally different. Our personalities, however — our values, our preferences, our views of ourselves — are shaped by environmental factors.
Let’s also agree that this has nothing to do with weighing the non-monetary value of certain professions or hobbies. A person’s choices are his or hers to make, but it’s worthwhile to understand why we make those choices. It’s also important to speak up when someone else’s choice infringes on your innocuous, inarguable right to equality.
This issue will likely never be resolved until it comes to the forefront of our attention, but it’s not there yet— not by a long shot.
But if you’re not going to do anything about this issue today, at least lay off the overdone sexist jokes. If lowbrow humor’s your thing, why not go with the old fashioned, equal opportunity fart joke? They’re mostly harmless and almost always a better contribution to conversation.
- Women make 18 percent less in salary than males after graduation.
- When all factors — job, hours worked and college degree — are equal, women make 7 percent less than their male counterparts.
- Louisiana has the second-largest salary gap in the nation, with women making 31 percent less than men.
