• 3 days ago
Michelle Williams got personal about her fight for equal pay while speaking about closing the gender wage gap on Capitol Hill.
Transcript
00:00On the job I just completed two weeks ago, let me tell you something, I was paid equally with my male co-star.
00:31And guess what, no one cared.
00:33This came as no surprise to me.
00:35It simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality was not an inalienable right
00:41and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility in their homes.
00:48And if it was like this for me, a white woman in a glamorized industry, how were my sisters suffering across their professions?
01:00When I went back to work after these events, I could tell that my workplace was shifting.
01:09Rather than being grasped too tightly and hugged for too long as a morning greeting,
01:14my hand was shaken and I was looked squarely in the eye and I was welcomed to my Monday morning.
01:20I realized this is actually what it feels like to be on the inside, to be one of the boys.
01:27In this space, respect and safety are out in the open.
01:31They are not just found in the shadows and the corners.
01:35There won't be satisfaction for me until I can exhaust my efforts,
01:40ensuring that all women experience the elevation of their self-worth and its connection to the elevation in their market worth
01:49that I have become so fortunate to finally know after 25 years in my chosen profession.
01:55Imagine a workplace where women don't have to spend extra or any energy fighting for fair pay or defending their rights,
02:04but can instead focus that energy on the fullest expression of the task at hand
02:10and enjoy both the pride that brings and the product of that pride, which is fair and equal compensation for every woman.
02:19Women, families in our country will win if members of the U.S. Senate take the decisive action that is required to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
02:28This is the next critical moment. Please don't let it pass us by.