Watch Sowell Brutally Debunk a Feminist to Her Face
Few figures in conservatism are more revered than Thomas Sowell. A free-market economist, social theorist and philosopher, Sowell’s work has spanned decades and influenced generations.
Sowell wrote a nationally syndicated column, authored dozens of books and dazzled television audiences time and time again with his common-sense, anti-intellectual approach to political and cultural issues.
The following story is part of The Western Journal’s exclusive series, “The Sowell Digest.” Each issue will break down and summarize one of Sowell’s many influential works.
For years, radical feminists have attempted to advance their ideology by repeating the unfounded claim that women earn less for the same job than their male counterparts.
This lie has been parroted for decades by everyone from the late feminist Harriet Pilpel to President Joe Biden — and just about every pandering, far-left political figure in between.
The Left Keeps the Wage-Gap Narrative Alive to Court Voters
The Democratic Party relies on what it categorizes as systems of oppression in order to court voters and wage civil rights battles against enemies that often do not exist. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama shamelessly and baselessly repeated the falsehood that women earned 77 cents for every dollar of their male counterparts during his State of the Union address.
Last year, CNBC reported the same flawed conclusions. Citing broad U.S. Census data, the outlet reported women in today’s workforce earn 83 cents on the dollar compared to men.
Rhetoric regarding the claimed oppression of women is again heating up as the country gets ready for yet another presidential election. In March, the Biden administration celebrated “Equal Pay Day.”
Democrats and the biased corporate media have drawn a narrative that the gender wage gap has narrowed, but that there is much work to be done to remedy what both portray as rampant inequality.
The point is to keep a narrative alive that women are an oppressed class. Seventy-seven cents on the dollar for women is now 84 cents, which advances both the false equal pay argument as well as the notion progress has been made.
Thomas Sowell Settled This Debate Decades Ago
Those who have not followed the great mind of Thomas Sowell throughout the years might not know that the fallacy of the left’s gender pay gap claims was thoroughly debunked by the economist more than 40 years ago on live television.
Luckily, the footage survives and is available on YouTube for the viewing pleasure of anyone who wants an honest accounting of wage data as it relates to the sexes.
Pilpel was a feminist’s feminist. In the 1970s and ’80s, she was general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, but she also did legal work for Planned Parenthood, including writing the organization’s amicus brief for the original 1972 Roe v. Wade court case. She also served on the boards of the Guttmacher Institute and National Abortion Rights Action League.
During a debate in 1981 between Sowell and Pilpel on a show called “Firing Line,” Sowell laid out a simple fact: When he looked at the overall earnings of all women compared to all men, he saw that women, on average, indeed earn less than men.
But the average, as he explained, is a deceptive number.
As Sowell noted more than 40 years ago, if we focus on specific cases where a woman and a man both have the same education, the same work experience and are in similar job positions within similar companies, women actually tend to earn more than their male counterparts.
Sowell entered a hostile conversation with Pilpel that was moderated by host William F. Buckley, destroying her talking points over the course of just a few minutes.
During a discussion in which the feminist activist claimed black Americans were being harmed by their own pay disparity, Sowell noted that through his own research, he had found that a black family with two working, college-educated parents earned on average $2,000 more annually than a white family with the same dynamics.
Sowell argued that nationwide averages which showed a wage gap among the races could be remedied if black families attended college at the same rates as white families.
Pilpel acknowledged the soundness of Sowell’s argument, but fought him on the supposed disparity as it related to women.
“You would also have to agree that, generally speaking, women are paid less, for example for the same jobs as well,” Pilpel said in response.
Sowell ended her argument there.
“I would not agree with that. If you’re talking about women with the same number of years of experience, with the same continuous service – et cetera, et cetera,” Sowell said. “When I look at that, I don’t find that disparity. I find, for example in many cases, that women are making more – depending on how you break the data down, the [difference] with women is between married women and everybody else. That’s the real difference.”
Pilpel retorted with 1978 Census data that showed men were earning $11,100 annually compared to “single” women, who she said earned, on average, $9,300 per year.
Sowell responded by noting that relying on averages to calculate claims of discrimination ignored crucial information.
“I love the word ‘single’ that is used [for women],” Sowell responded. “When I did my study, I didn’t use ‘single.’ I used ‘never married.’ You see, a woman who was single at age 40, having spent 10 or 20 years raising children, is really not quite the same as a man of age 40 who has been working continuously for 20 years.”
He added:
“I found the women who are never married … they were earning more than the men. And similarly, when the government did data some years ago on women who had been working continuously since high school into their thirties, there you found they were making slightly more than men of the same description. So, the difference is between married women and everybody else.”
Sowell added that many men in the workforce at the time also had the advantage of a wife who handled business at home — allowing them to work more hours and bring more money into their homes.
Pilpel was displeased by Sowell’s conclusion and made a last-ditch effort to salvage her argument.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the fact that there are approximately 15 percent of all homes in which there was only one wage earner, so that when you talk about women being able to take care of things for their married mate wage earner, the fact is that in the overwhelming majority of American homes, the women also work,” she said.
Pilpel concluded, “Therefore, I don’t think your explanation that women have other responsibilities and that that’s why –.”
Pilpel was cut off by Sowell, who concluded his dissection of her feminist talking points on wages with another fact.
“‘Work’ can mean part-time work or full-time work,” he said. “Women do not work full-time to the same extent that men do. Part-time workers make less than full-time workers,” he concluded.
What is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the segment is that it has aged remarkably well.
The Facts About Modern Wages and the Continuing Fight for “Equal Pay”
Feminists and Democrats are still making the same arguments about inequality in their earnings. They’re still cooking the books in order to advance the false narrative that women are members of an oppressed class.
According to a 2021 report from the Brookings Institution, women were much more likely than men to graduate both college and high school.
That certainly makes them less likely to be passed over for high-paying jobs than men, who are less likely to complete both high school and college.
The think tank reported, “Over 1.1 million women received a bachelor’s degree in the 2018-19 academic year compared to fewer than 860,000 men; put differently, about 74 men received a bachelor’s degree for every 100 women. Even fewer men graduate with an associate or master’s degree, relative to women.”
A year later, the Pew Research Center cited Census data that showed women were earning more than men in some of the county’s hottest job markets.
“In fact, in 22 of 250 U.S. metropolitan areas, women under the age of 30 earn the same amount as or more than their male counterparts,” Pew found.
More than four decades since Sowell debunked Pilpel’s claims that women were oppressed, modern feminists are still advancing her claims.
In the meantime, women have made strides in education and are now as likely as men to work full-time jobs — and earn more money than them.
Wages for women are dragged down on average nationwide by single or married women who work part-time or not at all. Meanwhile, men of every category are more likely to seek full-time jobs that are often more hazardous and are accompanied by long hours.
When comparing the averages for the sexes, it is easy, if not convenient, to argue that even in the modern workforce, women are earning less than men.
But what Sowell explained in 1981 rings as true then as it does today. Relying on median hourly earnings to advance a narrative of systemic oppression ignores the facts.
Generally speaking, women do earn less in the marketplace.
But as a subgroup, they work fewer hours, in less-demanding jobs, and they are more likely than men to dedicate the lion’s share of their lives to nurturing children.
The only factors holding any woman back from earning as much as, if not more, on average, than a man in today’s world are personal circumstances and a willingness to take on demanding careers.
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