2015: The Year Hollywood Actresses Waged Against the Wage Gap
In the new issue of GQ, Cate Blanchett, buzzing for her third Oscar for Carol, explains frankly that she’s tired of attending the same symposiums on gender inequality in Hollywood because the same conversations happen every year without any actual change happening. It just feels like the industry has the same conversation every year, and I think that’s a fabulous conversation,“ she tells GQ. “We’ll be back here like Groundhog Day next year having the same f—— symposium. It just has to shift.”
In November at Glamour’s Women of the Year celebrations in New York City, Reese Witherspoon, sometimes dubbed as “America’s Sweetheart,” spoke out against ageism and sexism in Hollywood and beyond. "Like Elle Woods, I do not like to be underestimated,” she said. And recently, at a Funkshion Fashion Week event in Miami, Basic Instinct star and Academy Award-winner Sharon Stone spoke out against the gender wage gap across all industries, becoming the latest addition to the roster of Hollywood actresses who have spoken out against imbalances of pay and opportunity this year. “After Basic Instinct, no one wanted to pay me,” said Stone, as reported by the Guardian. “I remember sitting in my kitchen with my manager and just crying and saying: ‘I’m not going to work until I get paid.’ I still got paid so much less than any men.” This week in Variety, Sandra Bullock also wrote about sexism and income disparity in Hollywood. “[T]here are a lot of outspoken, narcissistic actors like myself who are very happy to talk about the issue and keep it alive,” she wrote.
The movement to speak out against the Hollywood wage gap started at the end of 2014, when leaked Sony emails revealed that A-list actress and Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence was getting paid less than her American Hustle co-stars. (Yes, even the ones without Academy Awards), and gained momentum in mainstream media when Reese Witherspoon and other Hollywood actresses joined The Representation Project’s #AskHerMore project at the Oscars, asking everyone to be aware of double standards in the so-called glamorous entertainment industry. Charlize Theron was even able to negotiate equal pay to her male co-star for the Snow White And The Huntsman sequel. It has been a monumental year for actresses speaking out against the wage gap. Here is a compilation of outspoken cries for change from some of Hollywood’s brightest and boldest in 2015 — who deserve more, and believe you do, too.
Related:
Rowan Blanchard of ‘Girl Meets World’ Says Social Media Is Fueling the Feminist Revolution
#AskHerMore: Why The Questions Shouldn’t Stop at the Mani Cam
