Hollywood and the Gender Pay Gap

Hollywood is one those industries where news stories, the latest controversies and burning issues change faster than night turns to day. Sometimes it’s about a marriage gone wrong or a celebrity breakdown. One of the most burning issues that seems to have been on the minds of many Hollywood celebrities is the gender pay gap. While this is not a new subject, many seem to have spoken up about it in recent times. Most notably, it was Patricia Arquette’s speech at the 2015 Academy Awards which brought wide-spread attention to this problem. Patricia said, 'It’s our time to have wage equality for once and for all'.

And gender pay gap is definitely a very real issue. According to industry insiders, there is a gap of almost $27 million between the highest paid actress and actor in Hollywood. The disparity is even more striking in women of black color or Hispanic origins with an average difference of 40% between the salaries of men and women!

If there is one Hollywood celebrity who doesn’t shy away from expressing her feelings, it’s Scarlett Johansson. The stunning 31-year old superstar recently acknowledged the fact that pay parity is a glaring hole in show business but she also said she wasn’t the right person to comment on this topic. And she’s right about this because she has landed some of the tastiest roles in Hollywood in recent times which has gradually pushed her career graph to the top. In an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, Scarlett felt, 'There's something icky about me having that conversation unless it applies to a greater whole'. It does not come as a surprise that for her role in the latest movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, Scarlett was paid almost the same as her colleagues Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans.

Sandra Bullock, a Hollywood veteran, feels it goes deeper than just money. Money is just a by-product of a deeper culture that plagues Hollywood. This is a highly sexist culture that looks at men and women in completely different ways. She likes to crack a joke about how when women to walk down the red carpet during an Awards night, they are asked about trivial things such as their outfits or their hairstyles. On the other hand, the man standing next to the women would be asked about their performances or even societal issues! That’s where the real problem lies – equating women with non-serious things such as hair and makeup.

Sandra Bullock walks red carpet

Apart from this, there’s a highly misrepresented notion in some Hollywood circles that woman don’t sell and that’s completely false. Disney for one has been producing several female-centric films in the last few years such as Maleficent, Frozen and the Scarlett Johannson starrer, the Avenger series. And all these movies have gone on to be box office successes.

This is a concern, not just for Hollywood but for the entire country because gender pay gap affects nearly all industries. However, with the influence that Hollywood celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johannson and others carry on the media and the public, speaking up about this issue will definitely activate the right people into taking corrective steps.