Watch Sen. Barbara Mikulski B**chslap The Senate On Women Being Emotional


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“Now I’ll tell you what I’m tired of hearing. That somehow or another we’re too emotional when we talk. You know when we raise an issue, we’re too emotional. Well, I am emotional. I am so emotional about this. I’m telling you, if we don’t pass this bill, I’m so emotional, I’m going to press on. It brings tears to my eyes to know how women every single day are working so hard and are getting paid less. It makes me emotional to hear that. Then when I hear all of these phony reasons — some are mean and some are meaningless — I do get emotional. I get angry, I get outraged, I get volcanic. And the way I’m going to challenge my emotions is by doing everything that we can do to be able to pass this bill.”

  • Sen. Barbara Mikulski on the Paycheck Fairness Act

It’s really insane (really) that women are still underpaid in this country. In 2012, female full-time workers made only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 23 percent. It’s not because we’re not working hard at changing this, though, and our Democratic female senators are leading the charge.

In this video that was uploaded to Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s (D-Maryland) YouTube account in April, the senator slams Senate Republicans who blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act that she and 56 other Democratic senators sponsored. From the video description:

On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) spoke on the Senate floor prior to a vote to begin debate on the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation she introduced which would help close the wage gap between women and men working equivalent jobs, costing women and their families $434,000 over their careers.

The Paycheck Fairness Act is currently tied up in committee.

Let me add this, however. I’m going to hold our president accountable. The White House had the audacity to publish this handy-dandy chart on income inequality (ad nauseam), yet women working in the Obama White House suffer from a 13 percent wage gap and are paid only 88 cents for every dollar earned by men who work in the White House. Pres. Obama, who has advocated more strongly for women than any other president in history, has “work to do” (their words) in his own administration.




But let’s get back to the fantabulous Sen. Barbar Mikulski. It’s notable that she points out another fact — our wage gap will hurt us in retirement. From 12:00 in the video:

“This has enormous consequences. When you are paid less, it affects not only your paycheck you take home, but it will affect your retirement becuase Social Security is paid to earnings. So when you pay women less, you’re going to get less in retirement. This is not fair.”

Some highlights of the video (thank you, Upworthy):

1:05 “You know one way to help the economy is for people to make more money! You know what’s one of the best ways to make more money? Pay women for equal pay for equal work!”
6:13 “You like to hear, ‘Oh, you’ve come a long way.’ But I don’t think we’ve come a long way.”
6:23 “Who in this room thinks earning one cent more every five years counts as coming a long way?”
6:48 “There are men all over this country, right this minute, who are in jobs they hate so that their daughters could have the job they love.”

And 13.55:

“If you think we’re emotional, wait till you see what happens if this bill fails. We’re pretty emotional about this.”

{…}

“When you work hard, play by the rules, do the same job, you want the same pay.”

Yes, we are, and yes we do. I’m volcanic. Are you?

Watch the video below. You can follow Sen. Mikulski on Twitter or Facebook (send her a thank you tweet!).

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I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.