The gap between women's and men's wages is a fact; one of the key explanations for this gap is that the job categories in which women are concentrated pay less than those that are dominated by men. This is a crucial issue in the fight for gender equity, since in a capitalist society wages are often taken to equal the "worth" of a person. If women earn less, they are deemed to be worth less (and sometimes even worthless).

Women's Wages, Women's Worth examines the debate over comparable worth - the public policy approach aimed at redressing this income differential - in detail. Ethicist Fredelle Zaiman Spiegel explains why comparable worth is opposed by certain groups, why it is advocated by others, and what roadblocks stand in the way of its adoption as public policy.

By viewing comparable worth as a moral rather than a technical issue, and by examining the role played by religious voices in this debate, Spiegel offers new insights into resolving this dilemma. Her careful analysis of the relationships between the religious and secular arguments on both sides of the debate enables her to posit a new theory of the contemporary relationship between religion and politics that emphasizes the theological, as well as sociological, differences between the opposing camps.

This inquiry leads to new answers to the question of why conservative religious groups appear to have a growing impact on public policy and offers suggestions for increasing the political impact of liberal religious expression.