Between the town-hallers and racial contretemps (here and here), I didn’t get a chance to note that yesterday was Women’s Equality Day.
While we have come a long way, baby, women still earn less than men. And women are still more likely than men to hold jobs that don’t offer healthcare benefits.
A study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found:
Median weekly earnings for men are higher than those for women in almost every occupation. Of the over 500 individual occupational categories for which there are sufficient data to calculate a wage ratio, in only five occupations do women earn as much as or more than men. Among ‘counselors’ female and male median earnings are identical at $787 per week (women are two-thirds of ‘counselors’). There are four occupations where women marginally outearn men. Two of these are traditionally male occupations, where women account for less than four percent of all workers. Another is ‘special education teachers,’ where women are the large majority of workers, and the fourth is a subcategory of ‘physical and social science technicians,’ where women are just under half of all workers. In all other occupations, women’s median weekly earnings are lower than those of men in the same occupation.
In a proclamation, President Barack Obama observed:
Today, our country renews its commitment to freedom and justice for all our citizens. As we prepare to celebrate this women's day of equality, we reflect on the sacrifices once made to allow women and girls the basic rights and choices we freely exercise today. The future we leave to our daughters and granddaughters will be determined by our willingness to build on the achievements of our past and move forward as one people and one Nation. The fight for women's equality is not a woman's agenda, but an American agenda.
For more info, check out the White House Council on Women and Girls.
