Christina Hoff Sommers, the self-hating woman?

As soon as I saw the NYT column arguing against paycheck equality legislation that would make it easier for women to sue over gender discrimination, I wondered who wrote it.

My sneaking suspicions were answered. Hey, Christina, talk to Lily Ledbetter. And her hand.

Gender gap in pay still exists

It’s just being covered up by more women entering the workforce.

“Though decades of economic research suggest men and women are equalizing in the labor market, the notion that today’s working women are being paid more and treated better than ever before is simply wrong,” said researcher Yona Rubinstein, an economist at Brown University in Rhode Island. “While there may be more women holding high-power positions today, they are still being paid as their counterparts were three decades ago.”

In short, a demand for brains over brawn led more skilled women into the workforce, with more full-time positions, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. Since then, we’ve flatlined.

Religious numbnuts strike Kansas high school athletics

St. Mary's Academy, west of Lawrence, Kan., recently refused to let a woman ref one of its basketball games. Why? The other ref for the game claims school officials said would be putting a woman in a “position of authority” over men, a definite no-no to those who give literalist credence to the Pauline imposter who wrote 1 Timothy.

Actually, not, according to a school press release. It said the school educates boys and girls separately, for a variety of reasons. Here, it said it didn’t want one of its male athletes running into a woman.

Oh, these religious numbnuts weren’t evangelicals or fundamentalists, either. They were conservative Catholics, as one might guess from the name of “St. Mary's Academy.” (That said, it teaches pre-Vatican II beliefs, so you know it’s the Roman Catholic equivalent of Protestant fundies.)

So, either the school is afraid of bossy women, or it’s afraid of menstruating women breathing contamination.

No matter. It’s still sexist.

We’re No. 31!

Woo-hoooo! The U.S. has slipped to No. 31 in gender equality. The study showed we had made gains, but they had been outpaced by bigger gains in other countries. The Scandanavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland held the top four spots, followed by New Zealand.

The Philippines were No. 6, for crying out loud. Family leave acts, more flextime, and more addressing of the glass ceiling would all be starters for improving our world ranking.

Wonder how much airplay smart Democratic candidates, above all Hillary, will give this?