Will Hollywood address the pay gap?
How can Hollywood learn to reward men and women equally? Can the lessons from Hollywood be applied elsewhere?
Dr. Martha Lauzen is a researcher at San Diego State University. She says women who use managers to oversee their activities usually hire other women.
Lauzen looked at the top 700 films in 2014. She found that if the director was a woman, the writer would be female, too, more than half the time. But if the director was a man, only 8 percent of writers were women.
In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Lauzen said the decision to pay men and women equally in Hollywood still depends on the studio executives.
“Why aren’t we hearing from the major film studios? They are the ones who could change the gender dynamic. And they are silent. There has to be a will to change,” she said.
California’s Fair Pay Act
California lawmakers credited Arquette’s speech with helping them to pass the Fair Pay Act in October. The new law requires businesses to pay employees doing the same job the same level of pay.
Small differences based on experience or work quality are allowed. The same applies to actors and actresses in Hollywood.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.
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