The wage inequality between men and women has always intrigued me. I fully believe that men and women should earn the same amount of money for the same work done, but I have always been curious as to how this research has been conducted. Crittenden mentions that the way wage equality is calculated is by comparing working men with working women, excluding part-time working women. She believes that all workingwomen should be included, but does including part time workingwomen give a true perception of the gender gap? I don’t think it does. Although they may not have the choice, women who work part time should not be paid as much as women that work full time because they are not as reliable to their bosses. Therefore, including them would lower the wage rates of women drastically, which is why Crittiden can argue that women only earn 60% of the wages of men, supporting the ideas of the Bible.

I believe that a difference must exist in the way a man chooses a job verses the way a woman chooses a job. Women and men typically have different interests in life and especially the workforce. Could it be possible that by chance, men typically choose jobs that are higher paid? Or are the jobs men choose, higher paid because men choose them? The example that comes to my mind first is teachers. It is within my understanding that public school teachers are not paid as much as they believe they deserve. There are also more female teachers then there are male teachers. Coincidence? I have no idea. There are many ways to interpret this example. Are more women teachers because more women want to be teachers? Are they not concerned with the low pay? Is there low pay because it is mostly women and they are not willing to fight for higher wages? Are men more concerned about making money compared to women? It is impossible to tell.

Crittenden mentions in her work that in the Bible, in the Book of Leviticus, God states his belief that women are worth 60% the amount that men are worth. I never knew this information and was shocked by it. The bible is debatably the most influential text in American history and has influenced the development of our country. How much has this small part of this one book influenced the wage inequality in America?