Letter to the editor: Should we buy something because a woman sells it?

This is concerning the letter on March 23 from the Sumter Black Chamber of Commerce co-founder and COO.

I guess I'm not aware of "EQUALITY FOR WOMEN PAY!" I could have been the person who asked why we need a "minority-based Chamber"? I still don't know why we need one.

I have always been paid the same as a male in the same position that I was in. I am 76 years of age, so it has been going on for all my working years.

I agree that the pandemic has wreaked havoc in the community, but I am not sure it was worse in the minority community.

I am not sure what you are asking for. Do you want a female secretary to make the same as her boss because they are both in the banking business? Or a nurse making the same as a doctor because they are both in the medical profession?

Don't women know what they will be earning when they get a job? If not, why not?

I have no idea what "Let's let Sumter be the example by paying women contractors more in procurements and contracts" means. Do we pay businesses that are women-owned? When did that start? There must be a reason if that statement is true.

I personally don't know any "women-owned businesses." Do you have a list and what they sell? I don't think that I will buy anything from them unless I need their products. I buy from stores that have what I need. Is that wrong, or should I buy something just because a woman sells it?

Then you said that "many women-owned businesses are run by single mothers." Birth control has been around since the early '60s and legal abortions since 1973. The women having babies today must have wanted them or else missed their biology classes.

I read your next sentence at least 10 times and have not been able to figure out what it means. I quote, "Can you consciously consider to continue sending her inadequate pay to take home?" Do we pay women "take home pay" who own their own business? I thought that the owner of a business gets paid from people who shop and buy the products in their business.

I agree that women should be paid the same as any other person provided they are doing the same job under the same conditions.

JACQUELINE K. HUGHES

Sumter