Closely following the #MeToo movement, the wage gap issue has risen again as a major point of discussion within the Hollywood community. Recently, multiple actresses including Claire Foy, Ellen Pompeo, and Octavia Spencer have spoken up about not receiving equal pay to their male, and in Spencer’s case even white female, counterparts.
In one of panels held during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, actress Octavia Spencer spoke of her struggle against wage inequality throughout her career. For actresses of colour, who encounter fewer job opportunities than white women, the pay gap is even greater. At the panel, Spencer revealed that recently, she and her close friend and fellow actress, Jessica Chastain negotiated for the two to be paid the same for costarring in their upcoming comedy film. The result of this pushback, was that both women were paid five times what they were originally offered.
Here’s the video of Spencer speaking about her experience at the “Women Breaking Barriers” Banel at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival:
Chastain and Spencer are both advocates for the Time’s Up Now movement. Time’s Up is a Legal defense fund formed this year by hundreds of Hollywood women to fight sexual harassment and inequality, and targets companies that permit pay disparity in all industries. One of the things that’s come out of the Time’s Up movement is HBO closing its pay gap. Reportedly, HBO has gone through all their shows to see if there were any inappropriate disparities in pay, and correcting any if found. This is just one step in the right direction for correcting the pay inequality in the entertainment industry.
Though animation may have started out as a boy’s club, for many years, many women and men have worked to fix the inequality in the workplace. However, for all the progress we’ve made, there’s still more work to do. According to the Animation Guild, in just Los Angeles-based studios in 2015, only 10% of producers/directors, 17% of writers, 21% of art/designers, and 23% of animators were women. According to award-winning game designer Kim McAuliffe, the pay gap is hard to quantify, but “the environment tends to favor aggression and negotiation and some women either don’t want to or don’t feel like they can negotiate when it comes to salary or promotions.”.
There’s always hope though. Here is some advice given by My N. Tran and Kim McAuliffe, both talented and successful game designers, to young women thinking about starting their careers in games:
- You are responsible for yourself and your happiness. This is never going to change.
- There will be awesome and awful people – judge individuals based on their actions. Surround yourself with good people, don’t concern yourself with toxic people.
- Get everything down on paper. Serious. Everything. Never depend on verbal agreements. Things that were promised to you, every goal your manager said you needed to hit for a promotion to happen, acknowledgement of great work, etc.
- Negotiate hard and don’t be afraid to put up a fight. Document your accomplishments and successes and have metrics that support them.
- If the company exhausted all of your goodwill and has treated you badly – start looking for a new place that is worth your time, energy, and effort.
- Lastly, when you feel like you are no longer learning something new at your job, it is time to move on because you’re wasting your time.
- Work hard to develop the skills you need to be marketable, but also work to connect with other women as mentors and friends.
- Don’t put up with micro-aggressions. Don’t be afraid to use HR when a situation calls for it, but know that their primary interest is protecting the company.
- Do what you have to to make sure your voice is heard and you get credit for your work and ideas. Make sure you give credit to others when due; not enough people do this and it will be appreciated.
- Don’t feel like you have to be “one of the boys” to be liked.
- Your direct manager will have more impact than anyone else on your work happiness and career growth, so cultivate a strong working relationship with them focusing on communication and transparency. This will allow them to step in and help with potential problems early, as well as to share the great things you’ve been doing with the levels of leadership above them.
I’m going to leave you all with a few more videos that speak about the wage gaps between white women, men, and women of colour, along all platforms.
I really liked the list of advice from the game designers because I feel like it’s beneficial for any job. These are useful things to think about now before entering the work force. Overall, this post was very eye-opening and definitely displays how we still have a long way to go before achieving full equality.
Thank you for adding great insight into how women, and women of color, are treated within the industry. Your point about women being less likely to negotiate for pay is interesting as it is a reoccurring thing that happens to women working in various industries. I also enjoyed learning about Time’s Up and the legal approach that advocates are taking to hold companies accountable to making an equal work space a reality.
I definitely struggle when asking for anything from an employer and can guarantee that the fear of sounding high-maintenance when negotiating salary is so real. That said, I think it’s something of which we women do need to be cognizant… I wish there could be classes at LMU where you learn how to negotiate. It’s something that *tends* to come less naturally to women (not to mention that it’s socialized out of us due to labels like being the “office bitch”) but that doesn’t mean there is no hope! The only way we’ll see improvement in regard to the pay gap is if we gain the ability to ask for it.
Thank you for talking about this. It’s such an important conversation to have. Upon seeing the last video, I didn’t realize how much women aren’t getting the amount that they should be getting paid, and it’s such a huge amount that 38% really adds up. I also really enjoyed the advice My N. Tran and Kim McAuliffe gave because I feel like some of them I totally forget about and that it needs to be reminded, so we can get closer to equality.
I really appreciate that you included the list of advice because although it came from two female game designers I definitely think it could apply in other fields as well. I especially liked the point, “Work hard to develop the skills you need to be marketable, but also work to connect with other women as mentors and friends.” I feel like often in attempt to further individual success, women will sacrifice female friendships or relationships because of this taught mentality that it’s a man’s field and only a handful of women will succeed. This mentality is of course changing, and I’m glad that the list recognized this harmful way of thinking that can be unlearned.
Those are all great tips from the game designers for young women entering the field… The fact that there’s a wage gap at all is not okay and I’m glad that awareness is being made about it. The playing field should be equal and getting in that direction will no doubt be an uphill battle, but so many steps in the right direction have been taken that more eyes are open than ever before. But it’s far from perfect. Speaking up and making yourselves heard when walls are put in your way, even if jobs are at stake. Work should be an equal playing field with no one feeling uncomfortable.
This was a really important thing to write about. It pains me to know we still live in a country who doesn’t pay men as much as women for like basically no reason at all. It makes me happy that some people are addressing it and rectifying it like HBO. That made me really happy. But it is still a huge problem and needs to be talked about consistently if it ever wants to change.
I really liked the advice you gave at the end of the discussion, but I feel that this can be applied to everyone and not just women. It’s ridiculous that there is still a wage gap and that companies just disregard this until an uprising seems to be coming. I also really appreciate how HBO is making the effort to make changes and it show a lot from a big company like HBO. If a woman is able to do a job just as well as her male counterpart, and even do it better, why is she being paid less. It’s a ridiculous part of the industry that should be fixed. It’s an unfortunate anomaly when a man is being paid more for the same work that a woman does, and she could be doing the job better. It doesn’t make any logical sense and this does need to be changed for a better industry as a whole.
I think it was a really prevalent point to focus on the intersectional issue of the wage gap situation; often gone overlooked prior to recent movements having surfaces tor problematic nature of it, I’m glad that you focused on it’s role in the overarching situation, and the significance it has on women in Hollywood. I do wonder if since HBO’s decision to sweep the pay inequalities any other large companies have taken the initiative to follow suit. Furthermore, I appreciated the juxtaposition of discussion of both the legal and social aspects of ameliorating the problem, whether it be through legality or in terms of advice from other women in the industry, I feel as though it provided a well-rounded view of proposed solutions that have come out of the woodwork since the arrival of these kinds of movements.
Thank you for talking about this because its such a prevalent issue that people, in general, feel like it is old news and not worth talking about because “everyone already knows”. But approaching it from that attitude means nothing is going to change and we’re going to fall into complacency, which is not acceptable especially with all the other intersectional issues rising within the wage gap issue. I know as a woman of color, if this continues, I will be someone directly affected by this so I’m very happy you brought this to the discussion in your blog post!
It’s really good that you talked about this because I feel like, in general, people feel like discussing the wage gap is old news and not worth talking about because “everyone already knows”. But approaching it from that attitude means nothing is going to change and we’re going to fall into complacency, which is not acceptable especially with all the other intersectional issues rising within the wage gap issue. I know as a woman of color, if this continues, I will be someone directly affected by this so I’m very happy you brought this to the discussion in your blog post!
I like that you chose to discuss this in your blog. I’m still only a student, and already I have been feeling intimidated by the unfair treatment that women, and women of color, face in the entertainment industry. However, I love the advice that you mentioned in the end; and I think that it’s extremely important that women remember this going forward in their entertainment careers. It may get hard at certain points, but pushing forward and refusing to be treated as lesser than is what’s most important.