Absolutely pitiless, Republicans intensified their War on Women last week, defeating a bill that would give women a better chance of winning lawsuits against employers who pay them less than men for doing the same job. All 47 Republican senators, including John Boozman of Arkansas, voted against the concept of equal pay for equal work. Independence of thought is no more tolerated in today’s Republican Party than is any show of mercy. The Syrian dictator will let up on rebels before the Republicans let up on women.

A sizeable number of the bosses who won’t pay women fairly will retaliate against them if they ask about other employees’ wages or reveal their own. The female-male pay equity bill would have ended such retaliation. It also would have increased the amount of damages awarded plaintiffs in pay-discrimination suits, and enhanced the legal burden on employers to show that pay disparities aren’t sex-based.

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Clearly biased against women, and determined not to admit it, Republican senators said they were really after the lawyers who might benefit from suing employers. Better that millions of women suffer injustice than that one lawyer makes some money. What must Republicans think of women lawyers? Oh wait, Rush Limbaugh’s already answered that.

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