Patricia Arquette fights for gender pay equity at the Oscars
In the midst of the remarkably uneventful Academy Awards show 听on Sunday, actress Patricia Arquette seized the opportunity during her acceptance speech to deliver an impassioned plea for wage equality and women鈥檚 rights.
She began by thanking the cast and crew of 鈥淏oyhood鈥澨� for their hard work and support, before launching into message.
鈥淭o every woman who gave birth to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights,鈥� Arquette said in her acceptance speech. 鈥淚t鈥檚 our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.鈥�
The speech spurred the largest round of applause of the night, led by an enthusiastic Meryl Streep (鈥淚nto The Woods鈥�), whom Arquette beat out for Best Supporting Actress, and Jennifer Lopez.
The speech was particularly poignant considering that the US gender wage gap has remained unchanged since 鈥淏oyhood鈥� began filming in 2002, .
Women are paid on average only 78 percent of what men in the same jobs are paid. While this is worse in some states than in others, it is a reality in all 50 states and women of color face an even greater wage gap, .
The speech won Arquette additional nominations, including a few for President of the United States.
Arquette won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mason鈥檚 mom in 鈥淏oyhood,鈥� the 12-year-long epic depicting adolescence at its ugliest and motherhood at its most difficult. Throughout the film, her character struggles with raising her children amid poverty and divorce, balancing her career and family, and handling an existential crisis brought on by her children reaching adulthood themselves.
For Arquette, the timeline of the movie meant unapologetically aging on screen, in front of an industry that routinely dismisses actresses over 40.
鈥淚鈥檝e had people come up to me and say 鈥榦h my God, you are so beautifully in this movie. I just thought you looked so beautiful at the end,鈥欌�� . 鈥淎nd then some people will be, like, 鈥淗ow does it feel to watch yourself not be the hot girl anymore?鈥� or something. It says a lot more about them and their perception, but that鈥檚 the great thing about getting older and that鈥檚 the great thing about being around the block 100 million times by the time this comes out.鈥澨�
