Earlier this month, President Barack Obama gave a campaign speech packaged inside of a commencement address to this year’s graduating class at Barnard College.
Barnard College is a private women’s liberal arts college, and the president’s message was mostly aimed at new female college graduates. In part of the speech, the president told the graduates that society will subject them to ‘unique challenges’ due to their gender. He told them because of this, it is their responsibility to ‘stand up and to be heard, to write and to lobby, to march, to organize, to vote.’
Although Obama did not direct the audience to vote for specific politicians or parties, he touted his signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a piece of legislation targeting the gender pay gap. Moreover, the president stated that before he signed this legislation, ‘We lacked some of the tools we needed to uphold the basic principle of equal pay for equal work.’
Obama’s message is that women should expect sexism in the labor market and need government to correct it. This is a campaign message.
The conservative position is as follows: Women should not expect sexism in the labor market, but if they find it, instead of waiting for and depending on government help, they should reject the offending employer. As an aside, it should go without saying that conservatives want fairness for women.
However, the prevailing attitude is conservatives are against women. For example, late in April, Senate Democrat Barbara Boxer stated, ‘Women out there, whether you’re Republican or Democrat or Independent, if you’re a self-respecting human being, please vote for President Obama, and to the men who care about women, do the same thing.’
Nevertheless, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll last week, 46 percent of women – up from 43 – support Romney, while only 44 percent of women – down from 49 -support Obama. It seems Boxer would consider 46 percent of American women not self-respecting. Despite what Boxer and some others say, no right-wing American woman’s political affiliation stems from a lack of self-worth.
The gender pay gap issue addressed by Obama in the commencement speech and the contrast between the right and left-wing solutions illustrate this point. Conservatives offer a free market solution while liberals offer a government solution.
For example, the presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney refused to vow support for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, likely because he thinks women are capable of taking care of their own pay. On the other hand, almost every Democrat in Congress voted for the legislation, likely because they believe government can help women more effectively than women can help themselves.
In short, conservatives such as Romney recognize an American woman’s ability to take care of problems, but liberals do not. For example, suppose one of Barnard College’s 2012 female graduates is sitting for a job interview. Presumably, both Romney and Obama would recommend the applicant do research in order to recognize a fair starting offer and be prepared to negotiate.
However, despite negotiation, suppose the interviewer refuses to do any better than a bad starting offer. In this case, a liberal would suggest the woman applicant take the job, lurk around the workplace for a couple of years gathering intelligence and then sue the company because that is the easiest way for her to get the rest of the money to close the gender pay gap.
Conservatives like Romney offer a better solution. In this hypothetical interview, the easiest way for the woman applicant to close the pay gap would be to decline the bad offer, leave the building with her head held high and immediately apply for a job at one of that company’s competitors.
In Boxer’s style of persuasion, women of Syracuse University, please vote for Romney because he believes in you more than he believes in government.
Michael Stikkel is a junior computer engineering major. His column appears online weekly. He can be reached at mcstikke@syr.edu.