Female Senate Candidate Terri Lynn Land: Women Not As Interested In Equal Pay
A video has been found that shows likely Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan Terri Lynn Land talking about equal pay for women.
“Well, we all like to be paid more and that’s great, but the reality is that women have a different lifestyle. They have kids. They have to take them to get dentist appointments, doctors appointments, all those kinds of things. And they’re more interested in flexibility in a job than pay.” The speech was given in 2010 at a Senior Women’s club event.
As reported in the Huffington Post during the same video, Land was telling a story from her time as Kent County Clerk (Mich.) supervising a staff that was 85 percent female. In the full speech, she explained the UAW union always negotiates for more money and raises remarking “They’re a little man organization, have you ever noticed that? A little heavy on that.” Land claimed that her employees wanted the flexibility of personal days and quasi-managerial opportunities more than pay.
President Obama, speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Houston called out Land, not mentioning her by name. He said “A GOP Senate candidate who defended the gender gap in pay as a result of women’s choices. Very rarely do you meet people who make the choice to be paid less for doing the same job.”
The democrats like to say women make 77% of men for working the same job. This figure is from an analysis by James Chung of Reach Advisors, a private research firm in New York city. The fact checking group politifact.com rated this as “mostly true.”
Republicans claim that statistic is fuzzy math.
The New York Times recently reported that 40% of households with children under 18 that the mother is the breadwinner, the highest on record and has quadrupled since 1960.
Conservative pundit Sabrina Schaeffer, appearing on MSNBC, said “Not only are the numbers wrong, young women today in metropolitan areas, for example, are actually outperforming males in that same category all over the country.” Politifact also rated that statement as “mostly true.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell said the equal issue is used by Democrats to “Blow a few kisses to their powerful pals on the left,” that the issue is a “Never ending political road show.”
Land is also a former Michigan Secretary of State. She was a member of the Republican National Committee from 2012 until early 2014 when she stepped down because of her candidacy.
Land is running against U.S. congressman Gary Peters of Michigan’s 14th district. A Public Policy Poll conducted April 3-6 shows Peters leading 41% to 36%.
