ABSTRACT
On January 29, 2009, President Barrack Obama signed into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Obama, like other elected officials, sees this Act in a race-neutral and essentialist manner. He assumes that his (White) grandmother like his (Black) daughters would receive equal benefit and protection under this Act. Through an analysis of fair pay and pay equity discourses, the chapter explores how diverse policy makers, in terms of gender, race, and political ideology, address differences, between and within groups of women. Fair pay and pay equity serve as relevant categories for analyzing how rhetorical devices of heterogeneity between and within groups of women are addressed in the policymaking process. The chapter presents a brief review of the impact of pay inequity across various groups of women. It offers the approach to the study, which employs a critical discourse analysis of congressional floor debates on the general subjects of fair pay and pay equity.
