According to Terri Lynn Land, the likely Republican candidate for US Senate from Michigan in 2014, working women prefer job flexibility to equal pay with men.
I would argue that women and men are entitled to equal job flexibility and equal pay. I’m not sure why anyone should have to choose one over the other. But Land seems to think exchanging pay for flexibility is a reasonable tradeoff for women.
Update: Laura Clawson at Daily Kos Labor writes:
It must be nice living in whatever dimension Land is describing, but here in the real world, it almost sounds like she’s explaining that one way women are disadvantaged in the economy—the expectation that they will take on the vast majority of family responsibilities in addition to working—is a solid justification for continuing another way women are disadvantaged in the economy—unequal pay. Her way of thinking works if all women and children are supported by a man with a middle-class (or above) income and women aren’t looking to have their work outside the home respected or valued like men’s work. Last I looked, though, neither of those things was true. Land may be describing the reality among a certain subset of very privileged women, but if she wants to represent all the women in Michigan, she maybe should talk to a few women who have to work if their families are going to be clothed and fed, or to a few women who just plain want to be treated—and paid—like the men at their jobs are treated and paid.