by Mary Pagay

Created on: May 24, 2007

Like Lady Justice, the pay offered for a given job should be blind to age, sex, and race. As insane as it may sound, this country gives higher pay for the same job to men over women even if the woman performs better on the job. What sense does that make? Non-sense.

In this country where "all men are created equal", the very foundation of our economy is based on hypocrisy. As a society, we collectively define the male as "top dog" in almost all professions as well as service jobs. A woman earns only a fraction of what her male co-worker earns for the very same job. Obviously, all men in America are created equal. AND, all men in America are considered to be better than women. And we criticize Iran and Iraq for treating women like they were worthless nothings? How are we different?

At one time in our past, men were considered the breadwinners of the family. Perhaps at that time when men had to earn a living to put food on the table for their home-bound wives and children, it made sense to offer the better-paying job to a man over a woman. After all, the female candidate did not have to support a family, presumably. But, in today's day and age, this argument no longer holds water. Women are just as likely (and sometimes MORE likely as single moms) to have the responsibility of taking care of the economic needs of not only themselves, but their family as well. And, the antiquated ritual of giving the man the higher pay for the same job is due for an extreme makeover because the very foundation upon which that practice is based is no longer true.

The practice of giving men the better pay for the same job is so ingrained in our society, that even some women accept it at face value without even questioning its validity. Defining ourselves as the lesser of two sexes has become part of our own self image; and with all the education we have been given over the years of the male-oriented society telling us that we are not good enough, we have assimilated those same values into our own sense of self worth. Ultimately, we came to believe that we are indeed the lesser of the two sexes, and that we are not worth the same as men.

Today, as women take up arms and fight beside their male counterparts in wars far from home, it becomes abundantly clear that we are as smart, as tough, as enterprising, and as capable of living and dying with equal strength, fortitude, and abilities as are men. And, as society is willing to accept women standing beside their male counterparts in uniform, it's time to face the fact that women are indeed equal in every way to men, and that it is the moral responsibility of this nation (that professes equality and morality) to take a stand and legally define that equality in terms of pay and respect in the workforce. It's time America puts its laws where its mouth is and CREATE that equality it never had.

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