Valerie Jarrett, Barack Obama’s senior advisor for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs, has joined Twitter to push for equality in pay.
Jarrett’s Twitter handle is username @vj44.
There was obviously a method to her madness. Jarrett immediately leveraged the social media platform to push for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which calls for a closer government eye on companies’ salary data and giving salary negotiation assistance to women.
Jarrett was welcomed to Twitter by those on both sides of the political aisle, though some right-wingers couldn’t resist the opportunity to welcome her into cyberspace with a back-handed slap by attacking Jarrett’s record as well as that of the Obama administration.
Jarrett spent Monday morning responding to a handful of her Twitter followers, while other White House accounts also used social media to push the Paycheck Fairness Act using the hashtag #EqualPay. The bill is the latest in the “War on Women” saga that’s being fought by the Obama and Romney campaigns on social media and elsewhere in the political world.
So even if Jarrett is a little late to the game, she hit the ground running with a specific agenda that should engender her with a particular demographic that traditionally has been paid less to do the same job.
The Senate is expected to vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act bill on Tuesday, June 5.
–terry shropshire
