So we haven't ratified the international women's bill of rights along with a small list of generally bad actors when it comes to women's rights. But this tells me that countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and a whole host of other countries in the middle east and north africa where women's rights are nonexistent and women are generally treated like shit HAVE signed this agreement. What does that tell you about the value of such a bill of rights. Would you rather be a woman in the US without the protection of the "women's bill of rights" or a woman in Saudi Arabia where you're protected by a women's bill of rights but you're not allowed to drive a car or leave the house unless accompanied by a male relative.

The equal pay "issue" is also a bunch of nonsense. We already have laws that prevent companies from paying women less than men. Next time you hire someone, I suggest you tell your HR department you want to pay the woman ~20% less and see how that works out for you.

The gender pay gap will ALWAYS exist for three reasons:

1) More women work part time. If you normalize the gender pay gap for hours worked, the 77-79 cents on the dollar so often quoted becomes ~85 cents on the dollar.
2) Women comprise a higher percentage of lower paid professions (76% of teachers are women) while men comprise a higher percentage of higher paid professions (2/3 of doctors and lawyers are men and 80% of engineers are men). I've seen varying studies that say as much of 60% of the pay gap can be explained solely by career choice "mix" between men and women. That takes your 85 cents to between 90-95 cents.
3) Women self select out of fast track career paths to have/raise children. My wife was a regional sales director for a large pharma company and turned down numerous promotions to much bigger, national sales roles because she wanted to have a work life balance and spend time raising our kids. This is more difficult to quantify but is a definite issue when it comes to pay inequality.

The paid maternity leave issue is not "nonsense", but we DO have maternity leave protections. We just don't force companies to pay women for not working while on maternity leave (although we have a competitive market for labor so most large companies do offer paid maternity benefits). I'm in favor of a generally free market, so I don't think forcing companies to pay for maternity leave is a good thing. I am in favor of paid maternity leave benefits, just not by force of law.

The increasing mortality from childbirth is a bit disturbing, but that's more of a general healthcare issue vs. a women's rights issue. Also, if you read the article, it talks about how obesity is a 'tremendous piece of the problem'. Women being overweight is also not a women's rights issue.
[Post edited by BocaHoo91 at 01/19/2017 5:28PM]