I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Teacher Bashing = Woman Bashing

When you hear a corporatist reformer like Chris Christie go on about how there is "greed and excess" in the schools, or that teachers have "me first" attitude, keep in mind two things:

1) 3 out of 4 public school teachers are women.

2) Women make 78 cents for every dollar a man makes, and women own 36% of the wealth men do.

Part of that income is in the form of health benefits, and part of that wealth comes from pensions. Both of which Chris Christie wants to slash - and, let's face it, he's hardly alone.

If you have any doubt as to why Christie and Scott Walker and the rest of these thugs free free to go after teachers, let me set you straight: it's because the majority of teachers are women, and misogyny is still widely accepted in our society - especially when it comes to economic equality.

The plain fact is that teacher pay has not kept pace with the rest of the workforce. And that is apparently acceptable in America, as evidenced by the persistent gender gap in wages.

Neither of these blowhards have gone after the cops or the firefighters with the zeal with which they've taken after teachers. It's obvious why:

Scott Walker (L) and Chris Christie (R)

1 comment:

calugg said...

Ah, but it's not only Walker and Christie, it's Arne Duncan and Andy Cuomo as well.

These political attacks on teachers are gendered-based attacks, BUT both parties do it, and generally get away with it. *SIGH*!