The ceremony before the Kansas Legislature adjourned until April 25 involved eight Republican and Democratic women legislators who honored females who broke U.S. professional barriers and who shared their despair at women receiving 82 cents for every $1 earned by men.
Rep. Heather Meyer, a Democrat from Overland Park, said in an interview Wednesday that Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Republican seeking a third term in the House, said aloud a reason for the salary disparity was that men had a stronger work ethic. She heard the remark last week while sitting at her House floor desk next to Rep. Linda Featherston, D-Overland Park. Waggoner’s desk is behind those of Featherston and Meyer.
“I hear from behind me, ‘That’s because we work harder,'” Featherston said. “I hear lots of comments behind me and I usually just let it go because it’s not worth it. But that was too far. So, I turned around and I told him that I worked three jobs to put my husband through med school, and I certainly worked as hard as he ever did. I turned back around, and then I heard him say, ‘Well, it’s a statistical fact.’ And that’s when I was really like, OK, fine, you want to double down on this.”
She said she was so startled by Waggoner’s conclusions that she neglected to mention she had two preschoolers at home while she supported her husband’s pursuit of a medical education.
In a brief interview, Waggoner said Meyer and Featherston weren’t portraying his remark accurately. He declined to elaborate at that time, but later sent a statement by email to the Kansas Reflector.
Waggoner said a female legislator addressing the full House about Women’s History Month had noted in her speech the wage gap between men and women widened after a woman gave birth.
In April 2019, the Hutchinson News reported Waggoner used the derogatory term “harpies” to refer to women while considering an invitation to speak at meetings of the Hutchinson chapter of Women for Kansas. The organization’s mission was to “restore integrity, transparency and fiscal responsibility and balance to Kansas by electing moderates to public office.”
Waggoner, a conservative Republican, appears to have mistakenly sent an email to Betty Taylor, the chapter’s co-leader, that was addressed to “Allie,” whom Waggoner asked for advice on whether to accept requests from Women for Kansas.
“Do you think I should ever do this in the future?” Waggoner asked in that email. “Since I can speak to liberals and conservatives? Or, would this just bring out the harpies?”
The term harpy refers to a predatory or shrewish person. In Greek mythology, it defined a foul creature with the face of a woman and body of a bird. English playwright William Shakespeare used the word to refer to a nasty or annoying woman.
Meyer, who at times was the primary household wage earner when her husband was temporarily out of work, said she and Featherston initially looked at each other in shock because it would be inappropriate for a legislator to articulate what could be viewed as a defense of gender pay inequities while watching his peers honor Women’s History Month.
“It’s pretty hurtful,” Meyer said. “We can’t really tackle the root of the issue, because the men in charge are the root of the issue.”
Featherston afterward posted to social media that a legislator, who she didn’t identify, offered a comment that could be considered justification for salary differentials between men and women.
“I would just encourage him to think about the women in his life, and the women that are his constituents, and think about if he really meant to talk about them that way,” Featherston said.
During the House ceremony, Rep. Barbara Ballard, D-Lawrence, said a Pew Research Center survey indicated 42% of women had experienced gender discrimination at work.
There is a related “motherhood penalty,” she said, because women lose ground in the pay-equity fight after giving birth and men tend to earn more after becoming fathers.
“As recent years have painfully indicated,” Ballard said, “inequality and sexism are still very much alive and prevalent in the United States and world.”
The United States marked “Equal Pay Day” on March 15, which exists to demonstrate women had to work 74 extra days in 2022 to catch up to what men earned in 2021.
“This Equal Pay Day, it is clear that pay equity remains elusive for many women regardless of their occupation or sector,” said Nicole Mason, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.