'The only way is to make a stand.'
The charity, which campaigns fiercely for gender equality and women’s rights, has used Equal Pay Day (10 November) to highlight that progress in closing the gender pay gap has stalled in the last three years.
Since 2015, men have earned an average of 14.1% more than women and if change continues at the same rate as that seen in the last five years, it will take another 100 years before the figure is brought down to 0%.
In light of this depressing news, we turn to inspirational women to remind us exactly why equal pay for equal work really isn’t so difficult to grasp.
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Beyonce
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"...unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers, and sisters earn more. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect."
Sienna Miller
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"It was a play with just two of us onstage and I was offered less than half of what he was going to be paid. If it was two men, it wouldn't probably happen. Sad, but I walked away. The only way is to make a stand."
Venus Williams
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“Imagine you're a little girl. You're growing up. You practice as hard as you can, with girls, with boys. You have a dream. You fight, you work, you sacrifice to get to this stage. You work as hard as anyone you know. And then you get to this stage, and you're told you're not the same as a boy. Almost as good, but not quite the same. Think how devastating and demoralizing that could be."
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Amy Poehler
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“It is never overreacting to ask for what you want and need.”
Ellen Page
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“When a politician is against equal pay for women I think it begs the question should they be a politician?”
Gwyneth Paltrow
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“Your salary is a way to quantify what you’re worth. If men are being paid a lot more doing the same thing, it feels sh*tty.”
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Viola Davis
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"What are you telling your daughter when she grows up? 'You've got to just understand that you're a girl. You have a vagin*. So that's not as valuable'."
Charlize Theron
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"Girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn’t mean that you hate men, it means equal rights. If you’re doing the same job, you should be compensated and treated in the same way.”
Maria Shriver
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“When we pay women less than men we’re telling women their work isn’t as valuable. We’re all equally valuable. And we should be paid equally.”
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Emma Watson
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"The reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work."
