Acclaimed actress Patricia Arquette has been awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the hit film Boyhood. She injected some extra life into the Oscars ceremony when she used her acceptance speech to demand an end to the gender pay gap in America.
After thanking her children, her family and her co-stars, Arquette finished her speech with these powerful words:
“To every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights.
“It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America,” she yelled emphatically to finish her speech.
Arquette’s call to action elicited a very strong reaction from Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez, who jumped out of their seats, yelled and waved their arms in excited support.
The comment follows a series of revelations about pay inequality in Hollywood, most notably those uncovered by the Sonyhack late last year. The hack revealed that Hunger Games leading lady Jennifer Lawrence was paid considerably less than her co-stars, despite the fact that her character was undoubtedly the main plot-driver.
The news provoked widespread outrage from Hollywood actresses. Charlize Theron responded by refusing to sign a contract for Snow White and the Huntsmen unless she was guaranteed the same salary as her male co-star Chris Hemsworth. It worked – Theron got a $10 million pay rise just for demanding equality.
So when Hollywood production companies are paying women millions of dollars less than men for the same work, we desperately need more women like Arquette to stand up and say something.
Thank you, Patricia! If we were at the Oscars, we would’ve stood up and done a Meryl Streep-esque fist pump too. Bravo!
It wasn’t the first time gender equality was on the table at today’s Oscars. You might have about the campaign to get the media to ditch the sexist lines of questioning and #AskHerMore and the great news is it’s worked. Both Selma star Lupita Nyong’o and Wild star Reese Witherspoon were asked the same question on the red carpet today, that had nothing to do with what they were wearing. For both women, the first question they were asked was: Can you tell us about your next big project?