The Myth of the Gender Wage Gap | 5 Minute Videos | PragerU

Women in America are the freest in the world, yet many feminists tell us women are oppressed. They advocate this falsehood through victim mentality propaganda and misleading statistics, such as the gender wage gap myth. In five minutes, American Enterprise Institute's Christina Hoff Sommers tells you the truth about feminism.

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Script:

Women in the United States and in Western Europe are the freest and most liberated in human history. In many ways they are not merely doing as well as men, they are doing better. Women's emancipation is one of the glories of Western civilization and one of the great chapters in the history of freedom.

So, why then are those in the women's movement, such as the leaders and members of activist groups like the National Organization for Women, the professors in Women's Studies departments at our colleges, and many women in the media, why are they still so dissatisfied?

These feminists hardly acknowledge women's progress.
Yes, they concede, that some advances have been made, but the fact that most women reject their activist brand of feminism and think of themselves as free is, for this crowd, proof of just how entrenched patriarchy and inequality truly are: women are so oppressed, they don't even know it.

Year after year these activists make claims about women and violence, women and depression, women and eating disorders, women and workplace injustice -- to support their views. Over the years, I have looked carefully at many of these claims. What I have found is that much of the supporting evidence, mostly victim statistics, is misleading and often flat out wrong.

Consider the issue of the so-called gender wage gap. How many times have you heard that, for the same work, women receive 77 cents for every dollar a man earns? This charge is constantly repeated by feminist activists and their supporters, yet it is so deeply misleading as to border on outright falsehood.
The 23-cent gender pay gap is simply the difference between the average earnings of all men and women working full-time. It does not take account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week.

Now, wage-gap activists in groups like the American Association of University Women or the National Women's Law Center they say, no, no -- even when you control for these factors, women still earn less. Well it always turns out that they have omitted one or two crucial data points.

Take the case of doctors. On the surface, it looks like female physicians are clearly victims of wage discrimination -- they appear to earn less for the same work. But dig a little deeper beneath the surface and you find that women are far more likely than men to enter lower paying specialties like pediatrics or family medicine than higher-paying cardiology or anesthesiology. They are also more likely to work part time. And even women who work full time put in about 7 percent fewer hours than men. Women physicians are also far more likely to take long leaves of absence -- usually to start a family. Now, there are exceptions, but most workplace pay gaps narrow to the point of vanishing when one accounts for all of these relevant factors.

[guyonacomputer]

"Women in the United States and Western Europe are among the most Liberated..."

Its okay, Canada, someone will recognize you one day...

[NoobMaster-izpr]

A teacher once told me about how women get paid less
I simply told her to watch this video and she said,
"you are sexist"
she got sued because she made too many accusations about how one of the men got paid more but then the head teacher gave more money to men until she found out that she was working part time and the guy was working full shifts

[korymillett]

Here are 8 reasons why I am against feminism.
1."Typical male" = harmless banter  "Typical female" = sexist insult
2.Naked man = harmless fun  Naked woman = objectification
3.Looking at a man's chest = harmless attraction  Looking at a woman's chest = stare rape.
4.Women's rights = progressive, important  Men's rights = misogynistic, stupid, not important.
5.Defensive woman = brave, empowered  Defensive man = pathetic, misogynistic
6.Woman abused = illegal, considered vile  Man abused = "doesn't exist", considered funny.
7.Woman in power = extraordinary, wonderful  Man in power = patriarchal, oppressive.
8.Feminist opinion = gospel  Everyone else's opinion - heresy!!!

[izzieluv]

I feel more opressed by feminists than I do by men and "the patriarchy." Don't tell me that I chose to be an elementary school teacher because I am so deeply brainwashed. I chose to be an Elementary school teacher because I care about children and education is very, very important to me, specifically Literacy. To make an impact on society in those areas that are important to me, being an Elementary school teacher is the only career field that made sense to me. I am on the path to becoming a teacher because I want to, not because I'm brainwashed.

[DarPower]

"Women in the United States, and Western Europe..."
I love how everyone forgets Canada and Australia as part of the advanced Western world.

[malsahth]

I came here for angry feminist comments. I'm actually quite disappointed.

[LTMknights]

Men are last to leave a sinking ship, we are drafted to needed wars, we are firefighters and coal miners, we get screwed w divorce, usually pay for wives personal needs and kids tuition for college, depression and suicide bc of this, domestic abuse is ignored when men are the victims and men cant strike back, prostate cancer is ignored, 1in 8 women get breast cancerand 1in 7 men get prostate cancer, but breast cancer is looked on more, 70% of the homeless are men bc women could just marry a men, and finally masculinity is worse than feminitity.

[JacquesOF]

This is why i love the quote "fact doesn't care about your feelings".

[TheStolken]

If you are against this video, I think it's safe to say you need some knowledge beaten into you.

[FeyScribe]

Question: "Why are they so dissatisfied?" - Answer : Getting what you think you want doesn't satisfy anyone, often it just make you hungrier... Also when the fight is actually won, the soldiers are out of a job.

[Caine]

Little girl: Mommy, I want to be a feminist when I grow up.
Mom: Well pick one sweetie, you can't do both.

[TD]

I tried explaining this to my liberal mom and she said I sounded like a "right wing extremist".

[charlesletang]

Feminists be like "MEN PAID HER TO SAY THIS"

[TheFremenChick]

But if I am not oppressed then my failures in life are the result of my own actions. That can't be right ... .

[Rampster]

isn't it funny that there are feminist commenting on this video and just saying, "nope, nope, this is not true, you have no proof, your proof is wrong, your a misogynist"

[andresmenon]

My teacher asked: "Can anyone tell me what feminism is"

5 of the smartest people in class said: " When women want to be better than men. And take offense to absolutely everything. And have fake news to insist that there is a "wage gap"."

[chloeiversen]

basically every girl at my secondary school keeps saying that I should not be an anti-feminist because of the wage gap, and every time I try to explain it is false. they never accept it! I've basically just given up now and try not to let the rage out whenever I get shouted at about it.

[brickley]

The feminist leaders need to keep the fairytale alive, or they are out of a job.

[jamesonpayne]

Look son, a feminist who actually knows what she's talking about!

[abbagil]

Can we finally end this myth? It's almost 2020.