Women have rights, too

Women get paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. In a land where all are suppose to be equal, why is it that women still fall short?

Forty-five years ago, President John F. Kennedy enacted The Equal Pay Act because women were only getting paid 59 cents to the dollar (National Women’s Law Center). So we have moved up in the world, but we’re still not quite there

Lilly Ledbetter, Goodyear Tire and Rubber supervisor from Alabama, has helped women in the United States move a step closer to become equal to men, in wage compensation that is. Ledbetter realized towards the end of her career that here male counterparts, that held the same position, were getting paid more. She went on to sue Goodyear for pay discrimination, but lost in a 5-4 decision because she didn’t file her suit within 180 days of the date Goodyear first paid her less than her peers.

But on January 29, 2009, President Obama heard her cry for equality and responded by signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He said he did this so ‘we can uphold one of the nation’s first principles: That we’re all created equal and each deserves a chance to pursue our own version of happiness.” The new act would be more effective than the last because it includes the Paycheck Fairness Act. Instead of having to file within 180 days of a woman’s first paycheck, the Paycheck Fairness Act would allow a woman to sue their workplace up to six months after her most recent paycheck.

Some may think the wage gap is a petty matter. It’s only 22 cents less than a man’s salary. Only 22 cents? Have you ever sat down to do some math? According to the Center for American Progress, a woman with a bachelor’s degree or higher loses $713,000 over a 40-year period. To put it into greater perspective, that would be a 17 percent increase in additional money single mothers could take home if they were paid fairly. They wouldn’t have to base their lives around the monthly child support check anymore.

As we earnestly wait to see if the Senate will pass the act, I wonder if it will even matter. So yeah, we’ll receive equal compensation as the opposite sex, but the question is, will we be treated the same?

I can’t even begin to number the times I’ve heard sexist jokes directed towards women. ‘Do you know why God made women’s feet smaller than men? So they can stand closer to the stove.’ Or that women are only good for two things: cooking and, well, you know the other one.

That goes to show where women stand.

As I head into the real world, I’m beginning to wonder the respect I’ll receive in the male-dominated world of sports. I can talk the lingo and hold my own in a room of guys, but to others who don’t know the true me would generalize ‘oh, she’s a girl, she doesn’t know anything about sports.’

When I worked on set for the NFL Network during this year’s Super Bowl in Miami, the big story was about Dwight Freeney, the Indianapolis Colts defensive end, being hurt. Before the pre-game show on Super Bowl Sunday, two of the anchors were joking about Freeney’s injury being over talked. I though it was funny so I chuckled to myself, but one of the anchors heard me. He turned to his co-worker and said. “If she knows what we’re talking about then you know it’s bad.”

Goes to show that they looked at me as a “typical” girl who only knows athletes by the colors they wear or how good they look wearing those colors.

It’s not just in sports though. It abounds in every job arena.

Women aren’t taken seriously for a position as a Chief Financial Officer because it’s a man’s job to take care of the finances or in factories where men are paid more than women because their ‘man’ power is more useful.

When the Senate goes to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, it will be another advancement for women’s rights, but there are significant disparities that remain and I don’t know if any act will really help.