59 Cents: The Value of a Woman
Back before women had effective birth control and a right to abortion, back in the days when women were excluded from many high paying jobs because of their biological “differences” and help wanted ads were segregated by gender, we did not make 79 cents on the dollar that a man in the same job made. We were lucky to get paid half of what our fathers, brothers, sons and husbands made.
Then, in 1963, “Fair Pay” became the law of the land. Laws limiting our reproductive freedom were struck down. Equal educational opportunities were offered. And slowly---oh, so slowly----we climbed out of the pink collar ghetto.
Now, Mitt Romney stands ready to plant his foot in our collective faces and kick us back into the hole. This is his not so secret plan to bring jobs back to America. No single, childless man would accept the kind of wages and work conditions that they tolerate in China. But, if American women can be saddled with a couple of kids while in high school---because abortion has been outlawed and birth control is beyond their reach---and if those young mothers can be thrown into the work force as low skill workers whose children are absolutely dependent upon their mom’s pittance wage for survival, then companies stand to make a killing. Wages can be slashed by a half or more. The possibility of pregnancy can be used as an excuse to keep women out of managerial or skilled jobs---they are too unreliable. They have to leave early to “fix dinner.” Single mothers living in poverty will become the whipping boy---sorry, the whipping girl of society, responsible for every ill from violent crime to drug addiction. “Men only need apply” will become legal again, as businesses declare “We can’t be responsible for the safety of our female employee’s unborn children.” Educational progams can discriminate by saying "It is silly to invest so much in training a woman to be a ____when pregnancy will force her out of the workforce. We need to invest our money in reliable workers. We need more professional men."
The Koch Brothers do not love your unborn fetus any more than they love you, my sisters. What they love is the prospect of hiring you at less than minimum wage to slave for the rest of your days in one of their Dixie Cup factories.
And Mitt Romney---a bishop within his church---does not value you as a person. Your only path to Mormon heaven is as a wife or servant of a Mormon man. So, whatever you do, don’t interrupt him or try to correct him. One day, he is going to be a God with his own world, his own Creation, and your salvation or damnation will depend upon how low to you bowed to him in this life.
