Are Democrats distorting this argument?

I usually think it's only Repulicans who distort arguments, because . . . well, because that's what they do.    But here's one that has brought me up a little short, and I'm not sure of where this all comes down.

The issue has to do with "equal pay for women."   The Democrats' talking point is that, on average, women earn 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.   That's true, but . . .

The GOP website GOP.com has this to say.    This is a distortion because it compares the average earnings of women with the average earnings of men.  But it doesn't compare earnings of men and women in the same job with the same company, given the same experience.

For example, they say, a woman social worker earns less than a man engineer;  but a woman engineer earns the same as a man engineer, and a woman social worker earns the same as a man social worker.   The difference is in the job, not in the salary.

OK.  Fair enough and a good clarification (assuming that it's true).   But then we ask, why do women tend to be in jobs that pay less than men, on average?  Is that not still a problem?

Not necessarily, if those are the jobs women freely choose -- maybe, sometimes because of more flexible hours, or less stress, or whatever appeals to them.   Is it in biology?   Do men choose jobs that require them to be more aggressive, more competitive?   Women more nurturing?

It's a far more complex question than the sound bite implies.  For example, why does our society value the work of engineers more than that of social workers . . . or teachers?   Is it because women have traditionally filled those jobs?

One thing that GOP.com does distort, however, is the motive behind the Democrats pushing this issue.   They say it's election year politics and that Democrats "don't have any other issues to run on . . . . [because] Obamacare is deeply unpopular."

HA !!   Just you wait and see what issues we will run on:   minimum wage, immigration reform, equal pay for women, the widening income gap, lack of middle class recovery, and YES, the Affordable Care Act.

Ralph