One real highlight from last year’s otherwise dreary Oscars telecast featured Patricia Arquette speaking out about gender inequality and equal pay during her acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood.
Arquette and another actress who has been outspoken on the issue in the past, mega superstar Jennifer Lawrence, revisited their individual remarks at “Dinner For Equality,” an event Arquette co-hosted in L.A. this past week. As per Variety, Arquette noted that she believes she has lost two acting gigs since her speech, but that she is “okay” with having take her stance.
“It’s not just about acting, and it’s not about me as an actor. I don’t believe this is fair for anybody. I want to live in the America I believe in, that really is fair, that really has possibilities, and really does treat people of all races and all sexes equally.”
Lawrence, up for another Oscar Sunday night, remarked on the online essay she penned last year which furthered Arquette’s message, saying, “When I wrote that essay I got a lot of support but I also have a Republican family in Kentucky who told me my career was effectively over.”
Arquette made sure to point out that she’s not simply discussing her own plight or just the way the things work in Hollywood when she talks about gender inequality in the workplace. To her, the issue extends far beyond the entertainment business.
“We have tens of millions of single moms in the country,” she told Variety, “and they’re really struggling, especially when they’re paid less than men. We have 33 million women and kids who wouldn’t be in poverty, who have full-time working moms; if they were just paid their full dollar, they wouldn’t be in poverty. They wouldn’t be wealthy, but they wouldn’t be in poverty.”
(via Variety)
