Letter to the Editor: WMU student questions “Quotes & Comments”

Last week, in the “Quotes & Comments” section, Brian Diefenbach criticized an argument a lawyer made about gay marriage. Brain wrote:
“Women generally earn less money than men in the same job position. Should all women quit their jobs over the inequality too?”
I’m not going to comment on gay marriage right now, but Brian’s above statement about women’s pay is very, very strange.

First, Brian seems to imply that it’s legal for women to earn less than men for the same job. It is not. It hasn’t been for a long time. If Brain was not implying that it was legal for women to earn less than men, why would he have brought it up in his argument at all? After all, the original issue was about the legality of gay marriage, how would Brian feel that bringing up the issue of the legality of unequal pay would help his argument about the legality of unequal marriage?

Second, he seemed to imply that because women sometimes are paid less than men for the same job, they shouldn’t quit over it. Why not? Yes, it does still happen, despite being illegal. But just because something is happening doesn’t make it right. Is he trying to say it is OK for women to earn less than men? He seems to be, because again, if that was not his implication, why would he even bring it up? I think a woman would be perfectly justified in not only quitting their job, but suing their employer if she got less pay for the same job.
The equal marriage debate can be argued later, but the equal pay debate really should be over by now.

—William Menta
WMU senior

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=5327

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Mar 31 2009. Filed under Letters to the Editor, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com