On Monday, the Clinton Foundation’s ‘No Ceilings’ event debuted a report about the successes women have made around the world in the past 20 years. Hillary and Chelsea, but not Bill, hosted the event along with Melinda Gates to promote the report.
Marketing for the event focused more on lame connections and false statistics designed to make American women think they are more oppressed than they actually are. A promotional video shown prior to the event, made by famous (mostly-white) female celebrities in America, highlighted supposed gender inequality in the U.S.
Actresses tried to make a discrimination connection by noting that more women earn bachelor’s degrees than men, but only 5 percent of CEOs are women. How awful! Except when you realize that women only began earning more degrees in the past two decades, and the average age of a CEO is mid-50s (meaning that women in those graduating classes are still 10 years younger than the average CEO). And also when you take into account evidence that women tend to pursue majors that are less correlated toward high executive positions. The connection is meant to make women feel oppressed without any actual indication that they are.
The additional claim that women in the U.S. earn 78 cents to the dollar that men earn for doing the same job is patently false. I don’t know how many times I have to write that, but the myth just won’t die, even though the White House — which keeps perpetuating the myth — knows it’s not true.
Initially, I thought those attempts to make America look bad were mainly used to draw people in (apparently “America is awful” sells). Because the first two hours of the event focused on the problems women face outside of the U.S.
One of those problems is a lack of access to education. That lack of access in many places is entirely due to discrimination — such as in Afghanistan, where the Taliban forbid women to attend school and actively work to keep women from obtaining their education.
Shabana Basij-Rasikh spoke about the plight of girls in Afghanistan, where, she said, only 6 percent of women hold bachelor’s degrees. Contrast that with the implication that America is oppressive, even though more women than men earn bachelor’s degrees. It’s about perspective.
Another major issue highlighted by the Clinton Foundation was the problem of child brides in the countries in the Middle East and India.
But after discussing these very real, very dangerous problems, the event returned to bashing the U.S. for any number of things such as the supposed gender wage gap, not enough women going into technology fields, domestic violence, or not enough women CEOs, or the supposed gender wage gap or even climate change. Did we mention the supposed gender wage gap?
And can we talk about the problem of Hillary addressing these issues given her own appalling record when it comes to women? The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from countries that have abysmal records when it comes to women’s rights. The government of Saudi Arabia, for example, gave the Foundation millions of dollars yet doesn’t even allow women to drive. Oman, which also gave the Foundation money, doesn’t outlaw female genital mutilation or sexual harassment. In other countries, such as Qatar and Algeria, women are not treated equally, having less access to equality in courts or settlements than their male relatives.
Now, I understand that America is not perfect and that Clinton is doing a good thing by releasing this report, even the parts that are negative toward the U.S. But without proper context, the report seems to be trying to make American women feel they are more discriminated against than they actually are. American women have every opportunity in the world. And yes, there are difficulties unique to women, but we have equal rights (despite what Patricia Arquette thinks). Consider that women in some other countries can’t even vote, own property or leave their house without a male guardian.
Knowing how this report twists data about women in America makes me question the data about women in other countries, even though I know what happens to women in other countries. Why does the Clinton Foundation find it necessary to bash America in order to bring attention to the plight of women globally?
