Introduction
On October 13th, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence penned a piece for the Lenny Letter expressing her frustration on how she was paid significantly less than her male costars. This piece received some harsh backlash from some critics, expressing that she is a millionaire movie star that has no right to complain. However, the amount of money she makes isn’t the point. Lawrence expressed herself that she didn’t need any more money. The point was that when a man negotiates a deal he is seen as “fierce” and tactical, while a woman is seen as a “spoiled brat” if she tries to do something similar and how unjust that is. Sadly, equal pay for women is an issue that still hasn’t been rectified to this day, and it is up to us to finish the job.
Why is it important?
Making is so women get equal pay for doing an equal amount of work is important because it is a basic civil right. It is as simple as that. Unfortunately, due to sexist archaic stereotypes that women cannot be the primary breadwinner (even though 41% of women are), that they are the weaker sex, and that “women’s work” does not deserve a respectable wage, we still live in a society where women make 78 cents to every dollar a man makes. It is even more egregious when it comes to people of color, where African Americans make 64 cents and Latinas make 56 cents to every dollar a man makes. This is not only unfair, but dangerous due to the fact that Latinas and African Americans make up the lowest wage makers. These claims that prevent equal pay are unequivocally false, and yet any attempt to reform unfair pay is met with opposition. For example the Paycheck Fairness Act, which gave women the power to stop paying disparities among other things, was only two votes away from being passed.
What can be done?
There are several things that can be done. We can strengthen our equal pay laws where we eliminate loopholes that allow unequal pay and scrutinize those who do. We can improve access to nontraditional jobs that are higher paying for women currently struggling to get into jobs that are typically thought of to be the job of a man such as engineers, pilots, lawyers, etc. We can lift the wage of women in lower class jobs , and pass the Fair Minimum Wage Act which would raise the minimum wage from 7.25 dollars an hour to 10.10 dollars an hour. And finally we can adopt modern policies to protect women especially those who are pregnant or caregivers.
Conclusion
JFK said upon signing the Equal Pay Act that this was the “first step” and that much effort would be required. Before the act was signed, the gap was that women would make 59 cents to a dollar, and now it is 77 cents to a dollar. This isn’t going to cut it. This is 23 cents too short, too slowly. However, if we keep working at it and keep combating the old way of thinking we can reach the equality that is so desperately needed.