Senator Sander’s call for equal pay may be seen as heroic to feminists, but promotes a false rhetoric and ignores the real problem women face in regards to the “wage gap”.

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to debunk the pay gap is the Equal Pay Act of 1963 signed into law by John F. Kennedy on June 10, 1963. The law made paying women less money than men for the same work illegal, yet some left wing feminists are still pushing the false idea that women are paid 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. What these feminists miss, however, are the various factors that account for a wage gap between men. When the US Bureau of Labor Statistics measures salaries between men and women, they do not also consider statistics that can lead to a difference in salary. These factors can include career choices as well as the fact that on average, men work 8.2 hours while women work 7.8 hours.

While women do not make 82 cents for every dollar a man makes, the fact that women often times earn a smaller salary than men still remains. While this wage gap will not close over night, we as a society can take action that will narrow this statistic, instead of increasing it.

As mentioned above, choices are one of the biggest contributing factors to the wage gap. Women are more often known to select lower income jobs, while men are more likely present in the highest paying jobs. In honor of Equal Pay Day, USA Today ran a story that shows women are missing from our highest paid jobs. Should we want to close the wage gap and place women in these better paying fields, it is imperative we make women aware of the choices they are making in college regarding their careers. Making both women and men in college aware of the earnings behind the career they are pursuing is a responsible way to lift women up in the work force.

When we encourage women to pursue careers in the top paying fields, we can also expect to see results and the closing of the wage gap. Efforts to promote women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) are also especially useful in closing this gap- and Ivanka Trump is doing just that. The First Daughter addressed, at a panel at the White House this morning, the statistic that women make up only 24 percent of those in the STEM field.

“When you think about where the jobs of the future are coming from, that’s a very frightening statistic and we’re actually moving in the wrong direction,” she commented.

The way to close the wage gap is not to promote false narratives or tell women to wear red for symbolism. The way to close the wage gap is to address the underlying issues to it, including career choices and the extent to which we encourage girls to pursue careers in the STEM field. Ivanka’s activism and passion for empowering women to make these choices and close the wage gap should be applauded by conservatives and liberals alike.