The Cost To Women Of "2 Broke Girls"

The new CBS television show "2 Broke Girls" about two waitresses struggling to succeed in New York City is an unfortunate choice of titles, for it reinforces the old stereotype that women are less than men. As my friend Jon Barnes pointed out, if this was a show about two young African-American men trying to make it in the big city, would they call it "2 Broke Boys?" The CBS show that follows "2 Broke Girls" is "Two And A Half Men," where even the boy counts as half a man.

This is an important issue. According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures, women earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid to do the same job. But this may seem fitting for she is comparatively a child in the minds of men. In the movies and television, a woman marries or dates a man, a man marries or dates a "girl," not a woman, and who by definition is a child and treated as less than him as an adult.

In the workplace, a man or woman works for a man, not a boy but he or she may on occasion work for a "girl." So not only are women paid less, but promotions over men are scarce. In giant corporations the senior management are almost always men, the "girls" serve as their "executive assistants." To end this discriminatory process, we must rid ourselves of the stereotype of women being girls and extend to them the respect men receive, and along with it, the promotions and the paychecks.

Dick
To learn more about "2 Broke Girls," please see http://www.cbs.com/shows/2_broke_girls/