“Girls Just Want Equal Funds”

Also comfy shoes & a sweater for when the office is cold. (True!)

Cyndi Lauper has rewritten her classic song about teenage rebellion, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” for the 21st century, older-and-wiser, more mature but still outraged version of herself. The updated version is called “Girls Just Want Equal Funds.” Because when the working day is done, girls just wanna have fun — and while the working day is ongoing, they want the same salary and benefits as their male counterparts.

You tell ’em, Cyndi! We wanted equal pay in 1963 and we’re still waiting. But now while we wait, we get to enjoy a delightful musical performance, courtesy of the Late Late Show with James Corden.

I’ve never heard of James Corden; I thought by law every late night host had to be a white guy who goes by “Jimmy.” I guess someone made a slight exception.

For bonus fun and contrast, here’s Lauper’s original video. If you can see past the awesome 80s hair and accessories, zoom in on all the class markers. Now I better understand the line, “Oh mother dear, we’re not the fortunate ones …”

Here is a refresher on the issue of equal pay, courtesy of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research:

Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men. Yet, on average, women continue to earn considerably less than men. In 2015, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent. Women, on average, earn less than men in virtually every single occupation for which there is sufficient earnings data for both men and women to calculate an earnings ratio.

And here is a lot of info summed up as useful talking points.

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