Dear Governor Kasich: Let’s talk about women.

Dear Governor Kasich,

We need to talk about women. Specifically, the gender wage gap.

Earlier this week, you were challenged on that fact that women working full time in our home state of Ohio make roughly 78 cents to every dollar earned by a full time working Ohio male. That’s right–just 78 cents. And for black women and Latinas in Ohio, that figure is even worse: these women earn just 66 cents and 64 cents to the dollar, respectively.

Yet, rather than acknowledge the persistence of the wage gap, you chalked it up to a woman’s “experience” and “skills.” You’re not entirely incorrect: there are many factors that contribute to the gender wage gap, including workers’ number of years of experience, their level of educational attainment, and the types of jobs worked.

(Dare I mention that a 2014 investigation revealed that women working in your office earned, on average, nearly $10-an-hour less than your male staff? Were their skills and experience simply worth that much less?)

Putting all that aside, you’re missing a much bigger — and extremely critical — point.

In identifying the source of the gender wage gap problem, you didn’t discuss how, in the United States, roughly 70 percent of mothers are in the labor force. Or that, in nearly two-thirds of American households, women are the primary, sole, or co-breadwinners. Nationally, that means women are expected to support their families on a full-time income that, on average, is only 78 percent of what males earn.

You also failed to mention that, despite the many social and economic advances women have achieved in recent decades, women are still responsible for a lion’s share of unpaid caregiving responsibilities. This includes caring for a newborn baby, tending to a sick child, or providing care to an aging or ailing parent. And many women juggle these responsibilities simultaneously, all while holding down full-time or part-time work.

And even though nearly every worker will experience some sort of caregiving dilemma in their lifetime, you also didn’t address the fact that the United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t provide workers paid maternity leave, and is one of only a few that doesn’t guarantee workers the right to paid leave.

Despite the many social and economic advances women have achieved in recent decades, women are still responsible for a lion’s share of unpaid caregiving responsibilities.

At the same time, skyrocketing child care costs are placing an increasing economic burden on working parents. In fact, in a majority of states, full-time, center-based child care costs more than the average yearly cost of a public four-year university. Think about that: child care can cost more than college. And for an Ohio family with an infant and young child, child care costs on average more than $14,000 per year. For a household earning the median income in Ohio — just over $48,000 — the cost of enrolling children in child care can take a devastating economic toll on families.

So, Governor, what does this all mean? Many times, it means that women are pushed into lower-paying jobs that allow them to attend to family obligations. And when the average cost of child care is nearly identical to the annual income of a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage, it means that a parent — oftentimes the mother — may choose to leave the workforce and care for their children full-time because, economically, it just makes more sense.

At its core, the gender wage gap isn’t a problem of a woman’s skills or experience. It’s about an utter lack of public policies that would allow all workers — men and women alike — to thrive in the workplace while still fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities.

So, Governor Kasich, next time you cite a woman’s “experience” and her “skills” as the cause of the gender wage gap, take a moment to think about how that woman got there. Think about how our public policies fail to support working families and instead force women to make impossible decisions that, in turn, oftentimes diminish a woman’s earnings over her lifetime. And think about how this impacts the hardworking families in your state.

At its core, the gender wage gap isn’t a problem of a woman’s skills or experience. It’s about an utter lack of public policies that would allow all workers — men and women alike — to thrive in the workplace while still fulfilling their caregiving responsibilities.

From one devoted Buckeye to another,

Chelsea Kiene