We all heard Patricia Arquette calling for wage equality and women’s rights last night on the Oscar stage, with her new Supporting Actress award in hand. Meryl Streep and J-Lo just about went nuts cheering on her feminist speech and Planned Parenthood was giddy with glee on Twitter.
COSIGN ALL OF THAT, @PattyArquette: "It is time for wage equality...and equal rights for women in America!" #Oscars2015 #fyeahfeminism
— Planned Parenthood (@PPact) February 23, 2015With their passionate pleas for gender equality in the workplace, I wonder how these same figures and women’s organizations will react to this morning’s news that Hillary Clinton paid women on her staff only 72 cents for every dollar paid for men while working in the U.S. Senate. From the Washington Free Beacon:
During those years, the median annual salary for a woman working in Clinton’s office was $15,708.38 less than the median salary for a man, according to the analysis of data compiled from official Senate expenditure reports.
The inequality in Clinton’s office is a bit ironic, considering the causes the former Secretary of State professes to promote.
20 years ago, women made 72 cents on the dollar to men. Today it's still just 77 cents. More work to do. #EqualPay #NoCeilings
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 9, 2014Those “ceilings” she speaks of seem to have been right over her and her staff’s own heads.
In June, the Free Beacon also broke the news that in the 1980s Clinton defended a man who raped an underage girl – a scandal which will be remembered as The Hillary Tapes.
In other words, she is hardly a feminist hero.
Yet, groups like Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List continue to honor her “efforts” on behalf of women. And as for those same A-list celebrities who cheered for wage equality last night, they appear to have no problem being chummy with the former First Lady.
I wonder, after these pay gap revelations, if Clinton will now feel the wrath of these famous feminists and popular women’s rights groups, or if the latter will continue to air their grievances against the “real threat” – the suffocating patriarchy.
The answer is too obvious to be placed inside one of those golden envelopes.
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