In a fabulously feminist moment on Grey’s Anatomy last week, Miranda Bailey, newly appointed chief of surgery at the fictional Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, and Richard Webber, her predecessor, have it out over pay equity.
Accusing Bailey of failing to pay Meredith Grey as much as a male surgeon receives, Webber tells the chief, “I would think that you, of all people, this hospital’s first female chief of surgery, would fight for a woman to get paid at least as much as any man.”
Bailey responds sharply, “Don’t ever suggest to me that I do not stand in sisterhood with the other women in this hospital. You’ve never been 4 feet 11 inches tall and been overlooked and called ‘girl’ by your male colleagues. You don’t know. I am woman, hear me roar.” To close out her speech Bailey affirms, “This is what a feminist looks like, sir.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiGYP3s-7cs
We couldn’t love this moment more! Not only did showrunner Shonda Rhimes tackle the issue of pay inequity head on, she used our favorite feminist phrase—one that both she and Chandra Wilson, the actor who plays Dr. Bailey, proclaimed proudly at the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Awards earlier this year.
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