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Equal Pay For Equal Work? Not In Obama’s White House (And Surprise – Stay-At-Home Mom Job Not Work!)

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Remember when Obama became president (I know, I know, how could we forget)? One of his first acts was to sign the Lily Ledbetter Act:

(Photo credit: en.wikipedia.org)

Not that Obama did a whole lot to get it passed, mind you, but since he was president, he was able to sign it into law. This he was able to take credit for it to woo women, and was GIVEN credit by women’s organizations. Typical.

Well, guess what? Once again, Obama demonstrated that one is supposed to do as he says, not as he does. Just like when he was a US Senator, he is paying the women on the White House staff EIGHTEEN PERCENT LESS than the men on his staff.

I am not surprised by this. This was the case for US Senator Obama, too. Not only did Obama pay women a lot less on his staff then, there were fewer of them in the upper echelons:

[snip]Based on these calculations, Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397.

Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.

Why this disparity? One reason may be the under-representation of women in Obama’s highest-compensated ranks. Among Obama’s five best-paid advisors, only one was a woman. Among his top 20, seven were women.[snip] (Click here to read the rest.)

I realize that was then, and this is now. When it comes to the Inner Circles of the Obama White House, Dee Dee Myers had this to say:

“Women are Obama’s base, and they don’t seem to have enough people who look like the base inside of their own inner circle.”

Uh, yeah. And Obama has the nerve to chide Mitt Romney about how HE treats women? Yes, yes, he does:

[snip] Just today, for instance, Obama’s official Twitter page wrote, “‘I was shocked and disappointed to hear that Mitt Romney is not willing to stand up for women and their families.” The tweet was criticizing Romney for not yet endorsing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which makes it easier for women to file gender discrimination suits.[snip] (Click here to read the rest.)

In case you are keeping score (and really, who isn’t?), Mitt Romney does support the Lily Ledbetter Act. Obama? Clearly not so much, as it turns out.

Once again, I hate to say, “I told you so” (oh, who am I kidding? No, I don’t!), but I did try to tell people that Obama was absolutely NOT the friend to women he was being portrayed as by the media and some women’s groups. Amy Sullivan wrote an article for Time Magazine detailing a lot of the ways by which women are excluded from Obama’s inner circle:

[snip]Look at the senior women meeting with Obama in this White House photo at a dinner they called to discuss their invisibility. Look at their faces and body language. They are pissed off.

Coverage in the Washington Post and a new book by Ron Suskind has focused attention on the frustration of Obama’s female advisers. But the problem has been obvious almost since Obama took office. And while the explanations so far have blamed members of the mostly-departed boys club–Robert Gibbs, Rahm Emanuel–Obama himself is responsible for a work atmosphere that marginalizes and ignores women.

(MORE: What Suskind’s Confidence Men Says About Obama–and America)

The first time I noticed something was awry, I was flipping through the White House Flickr album from Obama’s first 100 days in office. About halfway through, I realized something was missing. Shot after shot showed Oval Office meetings filled with men in dark suits. But apart from occasional appearances by Hillary Clinton and Valerie Jarrett–and one photo of an Oval Office meeting that included Jarrett and several other female advisers–women were mostly absent from the workplace shots.

This is just the beginning of the ways in which Obama excludes women. I encourage you to read the rest of Amy Sullivan’s article, especially the part about Obama, his sports, and women. Very interesting, and telling, indeed.

Oh, but wait – there is more! DNC Strategist and adviser, Hillary Rosen, made quite the statement about Ann Romney on CNN:

“What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country, saying, ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues, and when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.’ Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” Rosen said.

“She’s never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing, in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school, and why do we worry about their future,” Rosen continued, adding that Romney “just seems so old fashioned when it comes to women.”

Are you freakin’ KIDDING me with this? Holy smokes. I was not fortunate enough to be able to have children, but after having my 7 1/2 yr old grandnephew here all last week, anyone who thinks taking care of children isn’t “work” is seriously deluded. Ann Romney was a little nicer in her response:

[snip] Rosen’s comment also prompted Ann Romney herself to make her twitter debut.

“I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys,” Romney tweeted. “Believe me, it was hard work.” [snip] (Click here to read the rest.)

So, all of you stay at home moms, how are those bon-bons you are eating every day while you just sit around the house? Ahem.

Mrs. Romney said an interview this morning on Fox and Friends that she made this CHOICE to be a stay at home mom, and that not only do lots of women make this choice, but a lot of men make this choice, too. She also said that her husband told her frequently that she was doing the harder job, and that hers was longer lasting than his would be. Yeah, no kidding. (By the way, in case you think her life has been SOOOO easy, Romney is a breast cancer survivor, and has MS. Hardly an easy-peasy kind of life, in case having 5 boys wasn’t enough.) Here is the video of that interview:

Bottom line, it was just this kind of hypocrisy, condescension, arrogance, duplicity, and sexism that forced me to leave the party to which I had (blindly) been a member for decades. And I am sick to death of all of these women acting like Obama is SO great on women’s issues, or for women. The numbers don’t lie. This is a continuing pattern for him. Take off the rose-colored glasses already, and do the freakin’ math. And, for women to disparage other women for choices we make is simply unacceptable. Enough with that crap already.

As for the women in the White House, I sure hope they file suit under the Ledbetter Act. That would be some poetic justice, I think. How about you?

44 thoughts on “Equal Pay For Equal Work? Not In Obama’s White House (And Surprise – Stay-At-Home Mom Job Not Work!)”

  1. Ferd Berfle says:

    Bottom line, it was just this kind of hypocrisy, condescension, arrogance, duplicity, and sexism that forced me to leave the party to which I had (blindly) been a member for decades. And I am sick to death of all of these women acting like Obama is SO great on women’s issues, or for women. The numbers don’t lie. This is a continuing pattern for him. Take off the rose-colored glasses already, and do the freakin’ math. And, for women to disparage other women for choices we make is simply unacceptable. Enough with that crap already.
    =============================
    Spot on. That One lies when he thinks. As a matter of fact, his entire life is one big lie.

    WAKE THE HELL UP, PEOPLE.

    • Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy says:

      Helenk, that is mighty interesting abt Ms. Rosen. Greta has a post she fired off before heading out of the country abt her friend, and how she was talking more abt the economic aspect. I love Greta, but I have seen that tape a ton now. Rosen’t attitude, the way she spoke, abt Ann, and Mitt, was not someone who was just talking abt economic inequality.

      Btw, Obama has managed to get in a dig at the Romneys, too, while saying that of course, being a stay at home mom is a good thing. Such a piece of work.

      Ferd, you are so right – civility is not something the Dems can claim to have.

  5. Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy says:

    Here is a link on Obama’s comment: http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/obama-romney-working-mom/2012/04/12/id/435678

    Though I understand he made these comments last Friday. So, was he telegraphing Rosen’s comments or was he trying to make himself look like he was poor when they were making a pretty decent living? Regardless, I think considering the things he has said abt the Romneys and their wealth, I would think this was directed at them in one way or another…

  7. Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy says:

    Ohmygosh, y’all – I had mentioned at FB abt the Twitchy.com thing, and how horribly offensive the comments were toward Ann Romney. My total Obot sister wrote this: Good grief! And no doubt some of these same people lambasted Rugh Limbaugh for his remarks about Sandra Fluke. It’s WRONG, no matter which side of the political divide you’re on. Ann Romney is not [those words] JUST BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN THEY DON’T LIKE.

    Can you believe it?!?! I am shocked – in a good way, that is. Not that she has said anything abt how crappy he pays women, but I guess this is a start!

  11. yttik says:

    Meanwhile, the real irony is that Ann Romney (and even Michelle with her hospital “job”) both have far more actual work experience than President Obama. Not only is it sexist and misogynistic to attack Ann Romney, it’s hypocritical. They went and elected somebody who has no economic experience, indeed never even had an actual job, who has gone on to make a complete mess of our economy.

    • Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy says:

      WTH is wrong with them?? To claim there is a lack of “imagination” on their part is just absurd. This constant urge to divide, divide, divide, is really deplorable, especially coming from other women.

    • Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy says:

      Thank you for this, binky. I appreciate that. I agree that it displays a real internalized misogyny by Rosen. Very disconcerting. Thanks for the link!

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