A lawmaker in Wyoming set off a furor this week when he said in an interview that female employees have a "dependability issue" when showing up to work.
In an interview published Monday with Better Wyoming, Gay said women "tend to take every sick day that’s available to them, and that’s a gender thing."
"That’s a fact of life, you know, and it’s the nature of Wyoming’s business and also the nature of gender politics," he said, when asked by the advocacy group if he believed the gender wage gap was real. "Men and women have different ways of going about taking time off — moms for maternity leave and that sort of thing. Women are always going to take their full maternity leave, and there’s the dependability issue about whether they’re going to show up for things."
Gay further pressed the point in an interview with the Casper Star-Tribune, saying women are also inappropriately using sick days for reasons other than illness.
"They take Junior to the hospital or go see Johnny’s soccer game," he told the paper, citing anecdotal evidence from employers who he’s talked to.
Gay, a Republican who has represented District 36 in Natrona County on and off since 2001, has had his own attendance issues in the legislature, which the Star-Tribune inquired about on Tuesday.
Gay admitted that he didn’t have "the best attendance record" but said the two were not comparable.
"You’re elected versus when you’re hired," he said. "I was in the hospital for part of the (time) when I was in the Legislature. I was in a long-term rehabilitation wing of a nursing home during the session."
Gay told the paper that he had a spinal cord injury that prevented him from walking, and that he had trouble arranging transportation from where the legislature meets and where he was receiving care. He also said that lawmakers vote on bills multiple times so their voices are heard at some point in the process.
Gay is up for re-election this year against retired teacher Debbie Bovee, who he blamed partially for the attention to his comments. He told the Star-Tribune most of those upset over the remarks are teachers who support Bovee instead.
Bovee told the Star-Tribune she was offended by Gay’s comments and suggested his perspective was out of touch.
“It just appalls me to think there’s somebody out there who thinks women aren’t dependable workers because they’re women,” she said. “I’m not sure he ever looked at the fact that we have so many families where both of the husband and wife have to work. The cost of childcare is horrendous. They’re balancing trying to go to work, paying for child care.”
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