Ladies' Night

By Amy E. Feldman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A Brooklyn bar, purportedly interested in highlighting the gender pay gap, sold drinks to women for 77 percent of the price it sold them to men.

A cynical person would say: dress it up as forward thinking if you like, but it's called ladies night and it's used to bring in chicks. Look into it.  A cynical lawyer would say: nice of you to highlight gender discrimination by discriminating on the basis of gender.  You are highlighting the fact that the genders are treated differently by treating genders differently.

And since there are so many cynical and litigious people out there, the idea of charging women less has been the basis of many lawsuits in the past. Courts have ruled differently on the many lawsuits brought by angry male patrons, but you can't treat patrons differently on the basis of race, ethnicity, or gender.  It is, of course, not only the law but also best practice for public institutions to treat customers equally.

The Brooklyn bar stands by its event, calling the wage gap shameful and therefore will bravely do its part to get everyone drunk.