The Female Factor
A timely series of news bytes from the Independent Women’s Forum
In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, feminist icon and University of Michigan law professor, Catherine MacKinnon painted a bleak view of the state of American women while arguing for an Obama presidency.
“American women are wealthier, healthier, and better educated than at any time in our history. Yet Professor MacKinnon casts women as under-siege in America and victims of a system stacked against them,” said Carrie Lukas, IWF’s vice president for policy and economics. “She sees a bigger and more activist government as the cure women’s ills. Unfortunately, big government policies tend to backfire on women, leading to a less flexible workforce, fewer job opportunities, slower economic growth, and less freedom for women and their families.”
“Perhaps the most outrageous suggestion Professor MacKinnon makes is to institute a comparable worth regime. Like many radical feminists, she’s frustrated that women, on average, gravitate toward different careers than men, often opting for more flexible and personally fulfilling jobs over those with high pay,” added IWF’s Allison Kasic. “She says that she wants ‘equal pay for work of equal value.’ What that would mean in practice would be government bureaucrats micromanaging the wages of every job in the land. You don’t have to be an economist to recognize that this would be a disaster leading to shortages in some professions and oversupply in others, not to mention the potential for corruption and politicization of such a process.”
“What women really need is for government to get out of the way of private enterprise by lowering taxes and reducing burdensome regulations that prevent entrepreneurship and innovation,” added Carrie Lukas.
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