Downtrodden Women

I have written much recently about income "inequality" and the true nature of the debate.  Another subject which needs discussion and which is closely related is the "gap" between what women and men earn in the USA.  In the State of the Union address, president Obama said that women earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in this country, and he called the situation an embarrassment.  The problem with that claim, however, is that IT IS NOT TRUE.

In an article yesterday in the Daily Beast, Christina Hoff-Summers breaks down the statistics and explains why the small difference between the wages of women and men (it is something less than 5% rather than the 23%  that Obama claimed) is the result of career choices freely made by the sexes.  I will not repeat her main points.  She did too good a job.  Her article is well worth reading.

I would point out, however, that there is nothing new about the truths regarding income differences between the sexes.  For at least the last decade, it has been well known that the supposed "gap" does not really exist once the proper comparison is made.  What that really means is that Obama's claim in the State of the Union address was just another of those lies that Obama tells.  So what else is new?