A GOP chair in Utah has resigned amid criticism for a letter he wrote, claiming that women's demands for equal pay are unfair to men. James C Green, the Vice Chair of the Wasatch County Republican Party, feels that men deserve to make more because "they are considered the primary breadwinners for families", in a letter published February 16 in local newspaper The Wasatch Wave.
"If businesses are forced to pay women the same as male earnings, that means they will have to reduce the pay for the men they employ...simple economics," Green wrote. "If that happens, then men will have an even more difficult time earning enough to support their families, which will mean more Mothers will be forced to leave the home (where they may prefer to be) to join the workforce to make up the difference." Forcing more women into the workforce creates more competition for men, he concluded, which is bad and unfair to those poor men who are used to being prioritized in every walk of life.
The letter, unsurprisingly, sparked such huge controversy that Green was forced to apologize—albeit in one of those "I'm sorry if you were offended" statements that doesn't really suggest he's sorry for the right reasons. The day after the letter was published, Green resigned, complaining that he had been subjected to "hateful, vile comments, and messages."
"I didn't want to hurt the party any further," he said. "They didn't force me to do it. There was no coercion. I chose to step down...I will pray for America."
Between this nonsense and the Oklahoma lawmaker who referred to pregnant women as "hosts," this month has really been a learning curve in terms of the mental acrobatics men will do to justify their own misogyny.
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