Equal Pay Day

Today I wore red to show solidarity with women around the United States on Equal Pay Day.¹  This year Equal Pay Day took place on April 20th.  That means that it took almost four full months into a new year for the average woman's income to break even with that of her average male counterpart in 2009, since we still only make about 77 cents on the dollar.   In other words, the difference between average income for men and women is about $12,000 per year and could pay for groceries for a family of four for about two years or for about nine months' worth of rent/mortgage and utilities.  To my mind this is clear evidence that the fight for true equality in and out of the workplace is not something that is over for women.  We literally cannot afford to treat feminism as if it is a dirty word.

 1. Dress - Red Dress Shoppe (remixed)

Cardi - Target (remixed)

Tights - TopShop (remixed)

Boots - Fluevog (via Ebay and gift)

Ring - Boutique in Salamanca (remixed)

Necklace - Gift

Scarf - H&M (remixed)

I think many of us have wanted to assume that the hard battles have already been fought, and that once more women received equal levels of education in the US that we would make significant gains in pay and make up a larger number of the managers, CEOs, endowed chairs, etc.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  And the gap in pay seems to be largest among those with the highest levels of education.  I wish I had definitive answers for how to achieve parity, but in the meantime things you can do include writing to your senators and attending rallies in your area. 

On a different note, even though, I don't own all that many bags, I decided to participate in a challenge with Franca.  She is challenging herself to carry a different bag every day for a week, and so am I.  For the first day, I carried my Virgin of Guadalupe tote bag that I got on a research trip to archives in Mexico a few years back.  It went well with my lecture on the Spanish Inquisition, which included an example of a priest who delivered a sermon with rather unorthodox views on the virgin birth and immaculate conception....

Did you wear red for Equal Pay Day?