How Gender Double Standards Cause the Wage Gap

November 21, 2014 / Barry Deutsch

Originally published on Lefty Cartoons and cross-posted here with their permission.

It’s hard to argue with facts, and the fact is that the average woman in the US is still paid considerably less than the average man — a discrepancy that only grows wider when race is taken into consideration.

This we know. But the reasons for the wage gap are, apparently, still up for debate.

Plenty of people will try to argue that the reason is not actually sexism — that women choose to have children rather than work or that they don’t ask for raises. This comic puts these distractions to rest so that we can focus on the actual problem: sexism.

Click for the Transcript

Panel 1: A woman is at a computer. There is a speech bubble coming from the computer that says: “The wage gap isn’t due to sexism! It’s because men negotiate pay while women take whatever’s offered.”

Panel 2: The woman turns and looks behind her and sees two men talking. Man 1 says, “Mr. Jones, I’ve been doing good work. Can I have a raise?” Man 2 says, “Let me think about it.” A thought bubble coming from him says “What a go-getter!”

Panel 3: The woman has her fist clenched and a determined look on her face. Her thought bubble reads: “The internet is right! If I want to be paid like a man, I have to act like a man!”

Panel 4: The woman is smiling and speaking to Man 2. She says, “Mr. Jones, I’ve been doing good work. Can I have a raise?” Man 2 says, “Let me think about it.” His thought bubble says “What a pushy bitch!”

The text at bottom of the comic reads: “Bitch if you do, broke if you don’t.”

For more information on this topic, check out the following:

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Barry Deutsch is the Portland-based author and cartoonist of Ampersand, a political comic with a generally progressive sensibility. A new Ampersand comic appears in every issue of Dollars and Sense Magazine. Barry attended Oberlin College in Ohio in the late 1980s, the School of Visual Arts in New York City in the 1990s (where he took classes from comics legend Will Eisner), and graduated from Portland State University several years ago. While at PSU, his political cartoons won the Charles M. Schulz Award. His current comics project is my comic book Hereville, a fantasy adventure comic about an 11-year-old Jewish girl. Check out his blog and follow him on Twitter @barrydeutsch.