OPINION:
Actress Emma Watson recently delivered a speech to raise awareness of the HeForShe global campaign. Miss Watson’s talk was well-received and free of the man-hating rhetoric with which feminism has become associated. However, Miss Watson, like most intellectuals in society, has decided to masquerade her political agenda as economic fact.
In a bold claim, Miss Watson forecast that it will take 75 years for women to earn similar wages to men for similar labor. This income-disparity myth has become so ingrained in our culture that few even bother to question it. The fact is that when employment data is corrected for years of continuous employment, education, hours worked and so on, women tend to earn slightly more than their male counterparts.
I wonder whether it will take 75 years for individuals to start demanding that rhetoric stand up to fact?
ERIC BURNS
Arlington
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