For three decades,
women have been moving steadily upward in the American work force. But according to many women's rights advocates, considerable bias against women remains.
This book uses extensive data to demonstrate that systematic
discrimination against women in the workplace has essentially been eradicated in the United States. Individual men and women with the same education and experience enjoy
equal standing and equal opportunity in the working world.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth is a resident fellow at AEI. Christine Stolba is a historian living in Washington, D.C. She joined the Independent Women's Forum as Director of Economic Projects.
A major thesis of popular media culture in the United States is that women suffer from substantial discrimination that leaves them less wealthy, on average, than men. The apostles of that women-as-victims perspective use selected statistics and anecdotes to illustrate their theory. They have succeeded in introducing a few important terms and images into public discourse that advance their views. For example, women are depict ed as suffering from a "wage gap," prevented from rising to positions of importance by a "glass ceiling," and funneled into lower-paying jobs in a "pink ghetto." The putative solution is for government intervention to eradicate such discrimination to achieve parity between men and women.