Catt Sadler Says She Left E! To Avoid 'Collaborating With An Evil System'
Catt Sadler says she left E! in December for bigger reasons than getting only half the salary of her male co-star.
In an essay for Coveteur, the former E! News co-host said she knows that staying on the job after learning that Jason Kennedy made close to double her salary ″would mean collaborating with an evil system.”
Sadler, who the network employed for more than a decade, said she never intended to “be a voice for gender equality in the workplace.”
“I didn’t have grandiose plans to organize powerful people and roar about equal pay,” she wrote. “For me, at that time, it started out as simply the ‘right thing to do.’”
When Sadler discovered the salary discreprancy with Kennedy, she asked for a raise and was denied.
She explained her decision on her website TheCattwalk.com:
“How can I operate with integrity and stay on at E if they’re not willing to pay me the same as him?” she wrote. “Or at least come close? How can I accept an offer that shows they do not value my contributions and paralleled dedication all these years? How can I not echo the actions of my heroes and stand for what is right no matter what the cost? How can I remain silent when my rights under the law have been violated?”
Last month, Frances Berwick, president of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment’s lifestyle networks, claimed that the salary difference between Sadler and Kennedy wasn’t because Kennedy is male.
“Catt Sadler and Jason Kennedy had different roles and therefore different salaries,” Berwick said. “Catt was focused on daytime, Jason is on prime evening news plus red carpet. Our employees’ salaries are based on their roles and their expertise, regardless of gender.”
Many female celebrities disagreed, including Debra Messing, who called out E! News for mistreating Sadler during an interview with E! News at the Golden Globe Awards.
“I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-host the same as their male co-host,” Messing said. “I miss Catt Sadler. So we stand with her. And that’s something that can change tomorrow. We want people to start having this conversation that women are just as valuable as men.”
Other celebrities who came out supporting Sadler included Brie Larson, Jennifer Lawrence, Eva Longoria and Amy Schumer.
In her essay, Sadler said their actions amazed her.
“I was completely stunned, humbled, and frankly moved to tears more than once that day,” Sadler wrote. “The injustice that I was experiencing and naively thought was merely my own became a collective awakening in many ways.”
Sadler is quick to point out that her experience isn’t something that “happened in a vacuum”
“Countless women around the world experience workplace discrimination, and it must end,” she wrote. “Women are now, more than ever, fighting this fight out loud. They’re refusing to be silenced and are banding together to make change.”
“It’s awe-inspiring to witness Hollywood heavyweights organize and fight for what’s right in such a public way. Females in all industries are challenging the system and joining the movement.”
Sadler added:
“This isn’t about one person or a few—it’s about us. It’s about holding each other up as sisters, challenging the status quo, and refusing to accept less than what we deserve.”
Also on HuffPost
Viola Davis
![In a 2016 interview with <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/02/25/viola-davis-interview/#R4h060ZHJiql" target="_blank">Mashable</a>, Viola Davis discussed the pay gap and how a big fight for women of color is first to be paid equally to her white female counterparts. "With me as an actress of color, I have to say to probably contradict myself, that [the pay gap is] not something I think about on a daily basis," she said. "Because the struggle for us as women of color is just to be seen the same as our white female counterparts."<br /> <br />"What are you telling your daughter when she grows up?" Davis added. "'You've got to just understand that you’re a girl. You have a vagina, so that’s not as valuable.'"<br /><br /><i>Head over to <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/02/25/viola-davis-interview/#R4h060ZHJiql" target="_blank">Mashable</a> to read Davis' full interview. </i>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/2IEWhKcRXhk46bgXKMOztg--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/570cef3e2e00002d009510a1.jpg)
"What are you telling your daughter when she grows up?" Davis added. "'You've got to just understand that you’re a girl. You have a vagina, so that’s not as valuable.'"
Head over to Mashable to read Davis' full interview.
Sandra Bullock
“Once we start shifting how we perceive women and stop thinking about them as ‘less than,’ the pay disparity will take care of itself," Bullock said.
Head here to read the rest of the interview.
Beyoncé
The feminist pop star wrote about this same issue in 2014 in a powerful essay for The Shriver Report. "Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change," Bey wrote. "Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect."
Head over to ELLE to read the rest of Beyoncé’s interview.
Carli Lloyd
"We can’t right all the world’s wrongs, but we’re totally determined to right the unfairness in our field, not just for ourselves but for the young players coming up behind us and for our soccer sisters around the world," Lloyd wrote. "Simply put, we’re sick of being treated like second-class citizens. It wears on you after a while. And we are done with it."
Head over to The New York Times to read Lloyd's full essay.
Melissa Harris-Perry
“Seventy-seven is how many cents women working full time currently make for every dollar men are paid. $11,084 is the yearly wage gap created by that pay deficit between full-time working men and women,” Harris-Perry said. “Sixty-four cents is how much African-American women are paid for every dollar men earn, showing that women of color are more impacted by these unequal pay disparities.”
Watch the full segment here.
Emma Watson
Head over to Esquire to read Watson's full interview.
Jennifer Lawrence
"When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn't get mad at Sony," Lawrence wrote. "I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early."
“I’m over trying to find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable! Fuck that,” she wrote.
Read the rest of Lawrence's essay here.
Nicki Minaj
"Women are uncomfortable talking about money. I know it's taboo to discuss it at work," Minaj said. "You have to ask questions. 'What is this person getting?' Do your research. I've always been pretty competitive in terms of my pay."
Head over to Cosmo to read Minaj's full interview.
Jessica Chastain
![Jessica Chastain spoke out in support of Jennifer Lawrence's essay on the wage gap in a 2015 interview with <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/jennifer-lawrence-pay-gap-jessica-chastain-1201618672/" target="_blank">Variety</a>. "There’s no excuse," Chastain said. "There’s no reason why [Jennifer Lawrence] should be doing a film with other actors and get paid less than her male costars. It's completely unfair." <br /><br />In an October 2015 interview with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jessica-chastain-the-martian-wage-gap_us_56214dc3e4b02f6a900c44cf">The Huffington Post</a>, Chastain added that she's experienced the gender wage gap herself. "Someone wrote an article once that said I made a certain amount of money for ‘The Martian.’... I made less than a quarter of that in reality, so there is a huge wage gap in the industry," she said.<br /><br /><i>Head over to <a href="http://variety.com/2015/film/news/jennifer-lawrence-pay-gap-jessica-chastain-1201618672/" target="_blank">Variety</a> to read the rest of Chastain's interview.</i>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/JFpml_pCUL3SEzo4RF2i_g--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/570be367150000ee010b48a5.jpg)
In an October 2015 interview with The Huffington Post, Chastain added that she's experienced the gender wage gap herself. "Someone wrote an article once that said I made a certain amount of money for ‘The Martian.’... I made less than a quarter of that in reality, so there is a huge wage gap in the industry," she said.
Head over to Variety to read the rest of Chastain's interview.
Salma Hayek
![At Variety's Power of Women luncheon in October 2015, Salma Hayek gave a riveting speech on gender equality and the importance of closing the wage gap. "[Women] are 66 percent of the work power of the world. However, we only get 10 percent of the income of the world," she said. "This is really, really sad and tragic." <br /><br />"We are such an economical power, women in the country," she added. "We represent such a strong part of the audience that they cannot ignore us anymore."<br /><br /><i>Head over to <a href="http://www.accesshollywood.com/articles/salma-hayeks-powerful-gender-equality-speech-they-cant-ignore-us-anymore-166771/" target="_blank">Access Hollywood</a> to read the rest of Hayek's remarks. </i>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/cybaEPVUtlDqi4nITQzSzQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/570c04231e0000b300706bd9.jpg)
"We are such an economical power, women in the country," she added. "We represent such a strong part of the audience that they cannot ignore us anymore."
Head over to Access Hollywood to read the rest of Hayek's remarks.
Judy Greer
"In Hollywood I can continue to fight for more movies and TV shows -- with bigger budgets -- that value women," Greer wrote. "Women who are more than arm candy. Women who are layered and flawed, just like us. Women who kick ass. And yes, women who get paid for it.”
Head to Glamour to read Greer's full essay.
Rosario Dawson
"Male, female, young or old, when people aren’t properly being paid for the job, what that does for their children and their access and opportunities… it just builds up," Dawson added. "Generationally we’re impacting people and I hope that that changes."
Head over to MTV to read the rest of Dawson's interview.
Carey Mulligan
![In a November 2015 interview with <a href="http://deadline.com/2015/11/carey-mulligan-suffragette-interview-feminism-jennifer-lawrence-1201637614/" target="_blank">Deadline</a>, Carey Mulligan applauded <a href="http://www.lennyletter.com/work/a147/jennifer-lawrence-why-do-i-make-less-than-my-male-costars/" target="_blank">Jennifer Lawrence for speaking up</a> about the wage gap. <br /><br />"I think it’s a good thing for someone like Jennifer to speak out; it means an awful lot to women," Mulligan said. "...[The discrepancy] is inherently unfair and she has an enormous platform to speak out against it. Men in Hollywood look up to her because she is powerful. She’s using that platform to correct something that isn’t right."<br /><br /><i>Head over to <a href="http://deadline.com/2015/11/carey-mulligan-suffragette-interview-feminism-jennifer-lawrence-1201637614/" target="_blank">Deadline</a> to read the entire interview. </i>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/kK8VVQmwuhbA6GVJON3mtQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MA--/https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/570bdc412e00002d00950f3d.jpg)
"I think it’s a good thing for someone like Jennifer to speak out; it means an awful lot to women," Mulligan said. "...[The discrepancy] is inherently unfair and she has an enormous platform to speak out against it. Men in Hollywood look up to her because she is powerful. She’s using that platform to correct something that isn’t right."
Head over to Deadline to read the entire interview.
Patricia Arquette
Arquette expanded on her speech in a November 2015 interview with The Huffington Post. “Basically what I was saying is I don’t know why women are never a part of the conversation,” she said. “The women’s movement hasn’t moved at all. ... We don’t talk about women at all. They’re the invisible part of our whole nation, so I was appealing to our great activist leaders to help women, to remember us, to lend their hand, and maybe that’s not my place to say.”
Head here to hear more from Arquette's follow-up interview.
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