MATH IS HARD: Ashe Schow: Women cheer for Hillary Clinton’s gender wage gap lie.

Women in the audience for the fourth Democratic debate in South Carolina cheered loudly when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton alluded to the gender wage gap myth.

The first question asked of candidates was what they would make a priority in their first 100 days as president. As Clinton rattled off a list of standard talking points, she included the wage gap, saying she would ensure “equal pay for women’s work,” a play on the claim “equal pay for equal work.”

She can’t say “equal pay for equal work” because that is not what causes the gender wage gap. The wage gap is caused by the different choices men and women make in their careers, including what fields they choose and whether they take time off to raise a family. There is no concrete evidence that discrimination causes any part of the gap, as Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin recently noted.

But saying “equal pay for women’s work” is a new take on the myth. It still ignores the reality that equal pay has been the law since 1963.

I’d like to see some reporters ask Hillary what, exactly, counts as “women’s work.” I think that’s a Victorian term from her childhood.