On May 28^th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced that the Paycheck Fairness Act would be put to vote the following week.  Sponsor Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) saw an immediate spike in social media, finding herself in the company of 3,205 brand new fans the very next day.  Co-sponsor Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also saw a small but significant increase in subscribers.  These numbers appear to indicate support for the bill among Facebook and Twitter users.

The Paycheck Fairness Act was intended to close the wage gap between men and women in the workforce.  Statistics show that women earn $0.77 on the dollar compared to their male counterparts, with African American and Latina women facing even greater disparities.

If passed, the bill would have required employers to provide an explanation for any differences in salary among male and female workers to ensure that gender did not influence pay.  It also would have prevented retaliation against employees who discuss their salaries with co-workers and would have authorized women who brought successful lawsuits against their employers to receive the same amount of money available under racial and ethnic discrimination laws.

While support for the Paycheck Fairness Act was strong on social networks where users flocked to Senator Mikulski by the thousands, social media opinions were discarded by Republican Senators who defeated the bill in a filibuster on Tuesday.  Every Republican present cast a negative vote, leaving it eight votes shy of the 60 needed to pass.

Notably, female Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) all voted against the act.

OhMyGov analytics indicate that the bill held little interest for GOP women.  Unlike sponsoring Senators Mikulski and Gillibrand, who experienced a boost in support before and after the vote, the five Republican women who refused to support the act saw little in the way of fluctuation on their social media accounts as a result.  Only Senator Hutchinson experienced a rare drop in Facebook fans this week; her cohorts' accounts remained steady.

Reactions from the overall Twittersphere were largely negative, with a consistent stream of Tweets that were especially critical of the female senators who cast votes against the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The day began with each senator receiving tweets from various equal pay organizations asking them to support the bill.  After the filibuster, some popular mentions included the following, which were retweeted by multiple users.

The overall sentiment was one of shock and betrayal from female constituents and women across the nation.  At the same time, Senator Mikulski's immediate call for a “New American Revolution” led by women for equality received an enthusiastic reception on Twitter, where her account was mentioned and re-tweeted in abundance.

The Paycheck Fairness Act was defeated in such a way as to allow its reintroduction at a later date, and sponsoring Senators Mikulski and Gillibrand indicate that they will continue the fight.  They can expect Facebook and Twitter to cast ballots in their favor next time, but unless pressure mounts on Republican women to vote positively, another loss seems inevitable.