VIDEO: IT’S TIME FOR STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT THE WAGE GAP
Women Have More Choices and Opportunity Than Ever Before
(WASHINGTON D.C.) – Independent Women’s Forum, in a continued effort to set the record straight about the real reason for the statistical difference between men and women’s earnings , releases an informative, stop-frame animation web video – Straight Talk About The Wage Gap. The video explains how women’s choices ultimately determine how much they earn and how government intervention in the workplace can backfire on women.
Next week, feminist organizations and their liberal allies in Congress and at the White House will celebrate “Equal Pay Day,” a made-up holiday predicated on the idea that women all suffer wage discrimination and earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same work. This is a mischaracterization of the opportunities that women face in the economy and ignores the vast research that shows that individuals’ choices about career, education, and other factors have the greatest impact on earnings.
Alarmists’ claims like these hurt women by discouraging them from understanding how the choices they make influence earnings, pegging all women as victims of an inherently sexist society, and by portraying women as victims in need of special government protection.
According to a poll by the Independent Women’s Voice, 501(c)(4) sister organization of IWF, the vast majority of women (74 percent) agree at least somewhat that workplace discrimination is a serious problem; but this doesn’t necessarily translate into support for more government regulation to “solve” the problem.
When government tries to pass legislation, like the Lilly Ledbetter Act or the Paycheck Fairness Act, to help “close” the wage gap, it can in turn have ill-economic ramifications. Instead, we should be encouraging women to think about the choices they make, stand up for themselves when negotiating a fair salary.
Independent Women’s Forum Executive Director Sabrina Schaeffer issued the following statement on the video:
“Today there is so much good news for women and girls that it is really unfortunate that traditional women’s groups and our lawmakers in Washington continue to paint society and the workplace as hostile toward women. Women are outpacing men educationally, soaring to the top of nearly every professional field, and are increasingly becoming the breadwinners. We all know that choices can be difficult. But it’s the ability to choose that makes us human."
"Straight Talk About the Wage Gap"
About the video production:
The stop-frame animation consists of a sequence of digital photographed frames, roughly one every second, creating the illusion of movement when the frames are played in a continuing sequence.
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Independent Women's Forum is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and educational institution dedicated to expanding the conservative coalition, both by increasing the number of women who understand and value the benefits of limited government, personal liberty, and free markets, and by countering those who seek to ever expand government in the name of protecting women.