The Feminists of OU hosted an Equal Pay Bake Sale on Oct. 27 in South Foundation Hall’s Fishbowl Lounge.

The bake sale offered numerous dessert items, but the big draw was a sign in the front of the table, which listed varying prices for different genders and races.

Men were charged $1.00 per baked good, but women were charged different prices based on their race.

“Many people know about the 75-cents-on-the-dollar concept,” said Natalie Noland, president of Feminists of OU. “But lots of people don’t know what different groups of people make.”

For example, a white woman makes about 75 cents for a white man’s dollar, but a Native American woman only makes about 60 cents.

The bake sale charged Asian women 90 cents, white women 75 cents, black and Native Hawaiian women 60 cents, and American Indian and Latina women 55 cents.

In preparation for the sale, Noland helped educate volunteers  about the pay gap to ensure that if any confrontation occurred, volunteers would have the information to counteract it.

“[We] worried people would try and say they identified as something they didn’t, to get out of paying as much,” Noland said. “[We worried] particularly men would say that the wage gap doesn’t exist . . . or that women were just not good at their jobs.”

Another fear Noland had was that people would try to say that the group’s information and statistics were not relevant.

However, the organization didn’t need to use the resources like they thought they’d have to. Noland said people were generally supportive.

“Our adviser was excited about the sale,” Noland said. “But when we submitted the proposal to be on the calendar, I thought they’d say it was a problem or was discriminatory.”

However, there was one negative situation later in the day. A man came up to the table and yelled at Noland that she “deserves to be paid less.”

More students volunteered to help with the bake sale than Noland had anticipated.

“I love volunteering for the Feminists of OU,” said Erin Shrum, a junior who volunteered at the table. “[The bake sale] brings something to the campus that it’s really lacking . . . it brings new perspectives to the table.”

Noland said Oakland University has been generally supportive of the Feminists of OU’s work.

Proceeds from the bake sale will be donated to the processing of backlogged rape kits in Detroit. Noland explained that, over the past 20 or so years, many rape kits have gone untested in Detroit. Now that it’s been so long, a lot of funding is required to go through the kits.

“There’s serial rapists out there who could be caught much sooner . . . their DNA is on file, it just has to be processed,” Noland said.

Noland estimated that about a third of students walking by throughout the day purchased something from the bake sale.

More information about the Feminists of OU can be found on their GrizzOrgs page and on their Facebook page, which can be found by searching “OU Feminists.”