Issa Rae, of the popular YouTube (and soon to be HBO series) “The Mis-adventures of Awkward Black Girl”, recently collaborated with the Make It Work foundation to produce a poignant short about the gender pay gap in America. What makes the video particularly enjoyable is the added emphasis on how unequal pay affects women of color. Directed […]
Tag: Pay Gap
How Would You Like to Work the Same Hours for Half the Pay? That’s the Gender Pay Gap for Latinas
This article was first published by the American Association of University Women. Today, Oct. 15, marks the length of time Latinas must work into the year to earn what white, non-Hispanic men earn in one calendar year. How would you like to have your paycheck cut in half? Or feel double the strain when paying […]
Jennifer Lawrence Calls Out Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap
Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner recently launched a blog, Lenny, that features exclusive interviews with feminist stars and letters from those women, among other interesting content. This week, Dunham asked actor Jennifer Lawrence to write an open letter reacting to the 2014 Sony e-mail hack in which it was revealed that she received a significantly lower salary than […]
We Heart: Shonda Rhimes Taking On Pay Inequity
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 […]
The Pay Gap Is Even Worse for Black Women, and That’s Everyone’s Problem
Reprinted with permission from the American Association of University Women. Would you like to work seven extra months for free just to earn the same paycheck as your male co-workers? We didn’t think so. Unfortunately, if you’re a black woman in the United States, that’s a likely reality. Black women were paid 64 percent of what non-Hispanic […]
Women Bring Home the Bacon
The traditional portrait of mothers needs a 21st century update: Yes, many mothers still bake cookies. But they also bring home the bacon. More than any time in the past, mothers are making an essential contribution to the economic security of their families. In fact, fewer than one in five families fit the 1950s stereotype in […]
Jennifer Lawrence: Legal Tipping Point for Women in Hollywood?
The recent “Guardians of Peace” Sony hacks are rocking Hollywood this holiday season with revelations of studio-wide sexism. News that Jennifer Lawrence, arguably the biggest movie star of the moment, received lower pay than her less-famous male co-stars on 2013’s American Hustle could spell catastrophe for Sony—and new hope for women if the revelations lead to action. […]
We Spleen: Microsoft CEO’s Sexist Gaffe
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently caused a stir when, at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, he (with no intended irony) said that women should not ask for raises. Why? Because not asking for a raise would grant us good karma and give us “superpowers” that would reward us later in our careers. Note […]
We Heart: Sarah Silverman Fights the Wage Gap
UPDATE: The Ms. Blog has received quite a bit of feedback about Sarah Silverman’s video—and we want to let you know we’re listening. Silverman’s notion that “becoming a dude” would help her overcome the gender-wage gap suggests that trans people somehow benefit from their nonbinary gender identity, which is clearly not the case: Trans folks are […]
Wage Gap Narrows, But We’re Not Cheering Yet
Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the gender-wage gap has barely budged in the past year. Now, a woman earns 78 cents for every dollar a man earns (versus last year’s 77 cents)—a shift the Census Bureau calls “not statistically significant.” When women are further categorized by race, the wage gap widens […]