Here are two examples of how today’s young girls are being given short change (pun intended in the second case) by business leaders who are being held accountable thanks to the power of the internet to spread their shame for the world to see.

http://www.seventeen.com/life/real-girl-stories/news/a41324/shania-clifford-ohio-national-masonry/

First Teen Girl To Go To This National Competition Was Bumped So a Boy Could Go

She was the first girl to win in her home state of Ohio.

By Hannah Smothers

Jun 21, 2016

Shania Clifford made history earlier this year when she became the first teen girl to ever win Ohio’s state masonry competition and advance to the national level. But according to the Columbus Dispatch, 17-year-old Clifford recently found out (in a super brutal way) that she may not actually be going to nationals, because it seems a boy competitor who placed third at the state level was selected to go in her place.

Clifford won a gold medal at the Ohio masonry competition in April, and in mid-May she saw that a male competitor (who she’d beat at the state level) announced on Facebook that he would be competing at the national level that next week. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Clifford had won the state competition by 72 points for her masonry skills.

The organization who puts on the masonry competition, SkillsUSA Ohio, gave a vague explanation for the last-minute change: “The scores were inappropriately put in.” But there are suspicions that Clifford was barred from competing at the national level simply because she’s a girl who excels in a field that’s typically dominated by men.

In a little spot of good news, Clifford will apparently be allowed to keep her state level gold medal (despite the fact that the organization claims she only won because of a scoring error), but she was not allowed to compete at nationals. “If they allow me to keep my award, they should allow me to keep my place,” she told the Columbus Dispatch.

Meanwhile:

http://www.seventeen.com/life/real-girl-stories/news/a41328/this-17-year-old-was-fired-for-asking-for-equal-pay-at-her-after-school-job/

This 17-Year-Old Was Fired After Asking for Equal Pay at Her Summer Job

Which is completely illegal, by the way.

By Hannah Orenstein

Jun 21, 2016

When a Kansas teenager discovered that her guy friend was making more money than she was for the same job, she asked her boss about it — and then got fired.

Jensen Walcott, 17, was hired at Pizza Studio in Kansas City for $8 an hour. She was thrilled to get the job, especially when she learned that her good friend Jake Reed, also 17, had been hired. Even though Jensen and Jake are the same age, have the same amount of experience, and were hired for the same position, Jake was hired at $8.25 an hour.

Assuming it was a mistake, Jensen called her new boss. She was put on hold.

“I was like maybe when I’m on hold right now, she will just offer me $8.25 and everything is gonna be good but… she didn’t do that,” Jensen told WDAF.

The manager returned and told Jensen she was fired for discussing wages, which is against policy. Next, she called Jake and fired him.

“She said you’re fired,” Jake told WDAF. “Basically just like a 10 second phone call.”

Neither teen had ever been told that discussing wages was against policy.

Attorney David White told WDAF that the National Labor Relations Board says it’s appropriate to discuss wages, which gives White reason to believe that Jensen could reasonably retaliate in court.

“At face value it appears, that the young lady was terminated because she complained about unequal wages. That’s illegal,” White told WDAF. “Probably what happened — they’re teenagers. They didn’t think they’d complain.”

Jensen isn’t sure yet if she’ll take any official legal action, but she still wants to fully understand why she wasn’t given equal pay.

“They should definitely be ashamed of themselves,” she said.

You might be wondering, why is a quarter such a big deal?

Well, it’s not just Jensen. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), there was a 21-percent wage gap between full-time male and female workers in 2014. And those numbers are even worse for women of color. Equal pay is a huge issue that affects millions of Americans. You work hard for your money — just as hard (or even harder!) than your male counterparts do. You deserve to be rewarded just the same.

The election of Barack Obama, an African-American, to the Presidency of the United States did not end the problem of racism in this country and it is a safe bet that the election of Hillary Clinton to the Presidency this year won’t end the equally troublesome issue of sexism either. One person cannot do much, we also have to completely reform the government by replacing most of the conservative career politicians that have made it their life missions to stop President Obama from making any real changes in society. Because they will do the same to Hillary just as they did her husband Bill when he was President. Once the US government is finally purged of that nonsense once and for all we will indeed have “liberty and justice for all”, not just for white men. I hope those two girls above remember that when they get to vote in future elections. They were discriminated against because society allows that to happen and we must have no more tolerance for that anywhere!

Meanwhile, the good people of Kansas City can do their part by boycotting Pizza Studio until it goes out of business, while the people of Ohio rise up to have SkillsUSA Ohio shut down and reformed.