Rachel Maddow Talks About Wage Inequality, Drops Some Knowledge on Republicans

Lizz’s Team Pick:

Rachel Maddow appeared on “Meet the Press” Sunday to discuss the upcoming election. While Maddow was discussing the wage gap between men and women, Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos interrupted her to claim the contrary. Castellanos claimed that women were paid less than men for reasons like career choice and hours worked. Maddow took to her show Monday to prove that, according to the Department of Labor, across professions men are paid more than women for the same work. “In 19 of the 20 jobs that are the most common occupations for men in this country,” Maddow said, “women lag behind what men get paid for doing that same work.” Even Castellanos’s home network CNN sided with Maddow after fact checking. Castellanos looks really dumb on this one.

You can watch the video of Maddow explaining gender based wage discrimination, but you better open a window. This shit is hot.

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Lizz

Lizz is a consumer, lover and writer of all things pop culture and the Fashion/Style Editor at Autostraddle.com. She is also full time medical student at Brown University in Providence, RI. You can find her on the twitter, the tumblr or even on the instagram.

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34 Comments

  1. Seeing Maddow upset on Meet the Press was so fucking sad!
    I wanted to punch that asshole interrupter Castellanos right in his rude face.
    It’s gratifying that in the end she kicked his ass with knowledge.

  2. I love Rachel Maddow so hard.

    That guy I can’t even. That whole ‘you’re so passionate, you’re wrong, but passionate’ was so awful

    • She was completely right when she called him condescending.

      Never challenge Rachel Maddow when it comes to facts, because she will kick your ass every time.

      • I love SO MUCH that she not only schooled him on The Facts, but that she explicitly called him out for being condescending. I need to learn to do this.

        • I need to learn how to do that, too. I think I’d punch him in his stupid Vernon Dursley-esque mustache.

  3. Rachel Maddow is a babe beyond all other babes.

    But I do just need to jump in and say that when she’s talking about 77 cents per every man’s dollar, that figure is only applicable to white women. WoC have a much higher wage gaps ranging from 68 cents for African American women and 58 cents for Latina women for every dollar made by a white man.

    Just adding some perspective!

    • Correction, when people say “an average of 77 cents on the dollar” they mean an average of all women, of all races, occupations and other demographics combined, not just white women.

      If you broke it down by race, white women might even be higher than 77 cents. When I hear “average” it’s a given that it’s, you know, just an average across many demographics that can be further broken down. And that is noted in the piece.

  4. I wanna be Rachel Maddow when I grow up… Making an equal amount of money as my male counterparts.

  5. I’m really glad they show that even with differences in hours worked, years of experience, etc. etc. the wage gap doesn’t disappear. Conservatives ALWAYS use this damn argument.

    Even in my last job, in a damn grocery store, entry level customer service…I had a decent amount of experience in this area prior to working there. Many times, I would be the only one actually working while my coworkers stood around, chatting, messing with cell phones, or pretending to do something. Yet consistently, week after week, they provided more hours (and thus contributing to earning raises quicker) to my male coworkers than they were willing to give me, the one actually working. Even my other fellow female coworkers rarely got as many hours as the men. My point being, not all of us work fewer hours by choice, and this in itself ought to be seen as another form of wage discrimination.

    This is real, republicans. Paying $550 rent while working a minimum wage job isn’t easy when they don’t give you enough hours, not to mention paying the bills and buying food.

  6. I really wanted to punch that guy in the face while he was sitting there smiling and rolling his eyes and interrupting right in front of her. ugh ultimate douche.

  7. I’m always amazed by how level-headed she can stay in a conversation like that. Just watching her be spoken to so condescendingly was making me rage.

  8. This is really one of the things I admire so much about Rachel Maddow…she nearly always reacts in a very clearheaded, matter-of-fact way to stunning situations like this one. Glorious.

  9. Our national dialogue would be so much better if everyone was made to study and learn debate/reason techniques (i.e. recognize and avoid logical fallacies at all costs).

    Not that it would save everyone from their own bias and stupidity, but it would help elevate the discussion. And we might have less men/people who thought any woman making a forceful argument based on facts was simply overcome by her “passion.”

    Good on Maddow for calling that out.

  10. Maddow is amazing. I marvel at how well she handled the situation with Castellanos. And I’m surprised he didn’t add in a “darling” to the end of his “I love how passionate you are, I wish you were as right about what you’re saying as you are passionate about it” bullshit.

  11. Ugh. Republicans really don’t believe discrimination affects women on the job? I’d like to show them my mom’s pay stubs from her old job, where she was paid less than a man with less education and experience than her…or my former workplace, where the female lab members were assigned to less prestigious projects and menial tasks (and got less credit for it)…or my current place where a male building worker blatanly interrupted me today when I was trying to explain a structural problem, speaking instead to my male co-worker (who knows less about the situation than I do).

    This shit is real. It affects my work, my career, my pay, and that of millions of women. But I guess they wouldn’t believe me, because I possess ovaries and am too “passionate” about it to be considered a rational source of knowledge. Just like Sandra Fluke was too “slutty” to testify about the medical necessity of affordable contraception in Congress.

      • No fucking kidding. We need some kinda revolution, no male-dominated government will ever really treat women as real, equal human beings. Why bother, right?

  12. I have the feeling that this is less about “what Republicans believe” as it is about “what Republicans want the conversation to be about”.

    Until that ‘Meet the Press’ show, it was pretty much accepted that women get paid less than men*. Then Castellanos made that comment and, like Rachel said, “we all accidentally learnt that Republicans don’t believe that women make less money than men do.” The news clips shown after that focus on which side is right-despite the fact that anyone with access to those statistics knew which side was right. Instead of discussing how to solve the problem, everyone started quibbling over whether the facts were factual. And it’s pretty hard to solve a problem when everyone’s busy discussing whether the problem is a problem, even though the problem is clearly a problem.

    *I don’t live in the US, I’m just going by what was shown in that video.

    • “I have the feeling that this is less about “what Republicans believe” as it is about “what Republicans want the conversation to be about”.”

      Completely agree. They tend to find facts rather inconvenient, so they’ve developed a long and proud tradition of deflecting attention away from them. Truthiness at work!

  13. She cannot possibly be more awesome. I love that she stays calm and courteous no matter what ridiculous, condescending, bigoted and/or flat-out duplicitous bullshit people fling at her. (Even though a tiny part of the deepest recesses of my amygdala would love to see her ninja-kick a bastard once in a while.)

  14. How does she always keep such a cool head? That guy was such a condescending doucheface. I don’t know how I’d deal with him, but no way I would be that level-headed. She’s just awesome at her job. I love her.

  15. It’s worse than the Repugs not believing it- they actually think it’s just perfect. Why, no uppity-woman is EVER worth as much as a man! Are you all on your periods thinking crazy like that? Really! Now, get back in that kitchen and make me a sammich!

    THAT is how Repugs think- and the scariest part? The brain-washed, devoid-of-self-esteem women in that party who go along with the misogyny and smile for the cameras…ugh!

    Rachel- good on ya for exposing those women-hating, women-fearing b*stards

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