On Monday evening, while Hillary Clinton was busy making history by becoming the first woman to clinch the nomination of a major U.S. Political party, Donald Trump made the claim that he “broke the ceiling” for women in the construction industry.
“I was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry,” Trump said in an interview with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. “My relationship, I think, is going to end up being very good with women.”
While the timing of his comments appears to have been accidental—Washington Post reports that Trump hadn’t yet heard the news that Clinton had reached the required number of delegates to obtain the nomination—they are outrageous for so many other reasons. Here are just a few:
1. Donald Trump is not a woman.
The “glass ceiling” is a term coined by women, for women. As feminist author Ann Morrison writes in her book Breaking the Glass Ceiling, the phrase refers to “not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person’s inability to handle a higher-level job. Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women.” No single person can break the glass ceiling for an industry of women—let alone a man who has shown no respect for them. Which brings us to…
2. Hisbehavior toward women has been consistently appalling.
Donald Trump has called women dogs, pigs, and bimbos at various points throughout his career. He has allegedly made unwelcome sexual advances towards female employees. He pays his female employees less than their male counterparts. And he has repeatedly remarked that some women do not belong in the workplace. This behavior is surely more detrimental to women than the promotion of a few female execs within the Trump Organization (some of whom have since spoken out against him).
3. The construction industry is still really, really sexist.
In 2014, women made up less than 9% of the construction industry. But it’s the treatment, and not simply the dearth, of women that’s a problem: According to the Department of Labor, about 88% of women in construction said they had experienced sexual harassment at work, compared to 25% of women in the workforce overall. Based on these stats alone, the industry’s glass ceiling seems very much intact.
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Instead of making yet another factually inaccurate statement, the billionaire’s time might be better spent congratulating his Democratic opponent on her truly historic accomplishment.
Coins2Day has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment and will update this post if we receive a response.