Scottish Politician Blames Male Pay Gap – Wait, What?

During a recent First Minister’s Question in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland and the leader of the Scottish National Party, was asked a peculiar question by one member of Scotland’s conservative party, The Tories.

Politician Gordon Lindhurst stated in front of Parliament that there is “evidence that in some areas men suffer from a gender pay gap in relation to women.” Legend has it that in that very moment, every woman in Scotland simultaneously rolled her eyes.

Lindhurst then went on to ask First Minister Sturgeon, “While this may be less of a problem than that affecting women, what steps is the Scottish Government taking to ensure a balanced approach which addresses the issue where it does affect men?”

Sure, Gordon, we hear you, and we get it. It’s hard out there for men, especially rich ones like yourself. But let’s break this down a bit.

So Lindhurst has some valid points. I mean, yeah, us girls have our little lady problems like the increased risk of  sexual assault, being paid 79 cents to every man’s dollar, and having our health organizations defunded. Blah blah blah. But now that we know that there’s “evidence” that in “some areas” men are being cheated out of a few bucks, the time for complacency has passed!

So what exactly is the Scottish government going to do? Our guess is nothing, which is probably for the best considering that the problem doesn’t really exist. But we have to give him credit seeing as Lindhurst did take the time to acknowledge that his concern for men may be “less of a problem than that affecting women.” If he knows this, however, why bring it up in the first place? It couldn’t be that he just doesn’t care about women’s issues – that would be ridiculous, right? Perhaps he feels that men are being left out of the conversation altogether. Or maybe he just had a tiny seizure. We’re still looking into it.

The world is basically a giant parade for anyone who happens to be born with a penis; therefore, it does seem a little strange for a person to genuinely believe that, in regards to workplace inequality, the focus should be on empowering men. Mr. Lindhurst’s question to the First Minister is the equivalent of him complaining that he’s not getting enough attention at his own birthday party. Literally the entire day is about you, Gordon. You’re reaching.

As the first woman to hold either of her positions in the Scottish government, Sturgeon had some choice words for Mr. Lindhurst: “Anybody who can look at the problem of the gender pay gap right now or the gender inequalities that exist in other parts of our society and conclude that the problem is [that] we’ve got to do more to help men rather than women, I think, kind of misses the whole point here.”

Sturgeon continued, “That’s shocking, and I think rather than come up with convoluted questions like that, the Tories really need to go away and take a long, hard look at themselves when it comes to gender balance.”

Well said.

Featured Image by Ninian Reid on  Flickr
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Email address: