You've come a long way baby! I grew up with this phrase. It was on TV, on ads in the magazines I read and on billboards. Catchy phrase. One that at first blush might make you think of the women's suffrage movement or the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. It wasn't that altruistic though. It was from a cigarette ad that was pushing the equal rights movement into the chemical addiction realm. You were really a woman of equality if you smoked freely and independently. But I digress.
I thought of that old phrase today when I read about the incredible equal pay for equal play victory today at Wimbledon. The female tennis stars who play at Wimbledon will now be paid the same as the male stars who play in the annual contest! What a milestone for them to have crossed. From the AP story I read today:
"Venus Williams, three times a Wimbledon singles winner, led the bandwagon of female tennis stars hammering on the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club's door demanding equal pay."
She even offered to play more games just to get the same pay as the male players:
"The 2000, 2001 and 2005 champion had even said she would be prepared to play the best of five sets like the men rather than the best of three if that was what it would take to close the pay gap."*
Yes, we have come a long way baby. Congrats to Venus Williams, and the unknown others, who made this happen. Even though strides are continually made to lessen the distance between female and male wage earners we still have our work cut out for us.
According to the AFL-CIO, women will not catch up to the wages men are paid until the year 2050. From the same CNN article:
"...the average 25-year-old woman who works full-time, year-round until she retires at age 65 (if that's when she's able to retire) will earn $523,000 less than the average working man.."
And we still make less than men for the same types of jobs:
"On average, women make 78 percent of men's wages, according to a 2003 study by the U.S. Department of Labor. This is, however, a marked improvement over 25 years ago -- in 1979, women made 62 percent of what men earned."
We have allegedly earned 16% more in the last 25 years. I guess in 25 more that will put us at about 94% of what men earn.
Yes, we still have our work cut out for us. I am not satisfied with these numbers. Are you?
*Click here for the full story Female stars hail Wimbledon equal pay deal
Comments