Feminisims Newest Crusader, Jennifer Lawerence

Jennifer Lawerences letter in regards to being paid less than her male co stars was important for so many reasons but as a mother it makes me rethink the way I have raised my daughter. The truth is she didn't ask for more because she didn't want to seem difficult, because she wanted to be liked and in the end she is also to blame for that. If we don't demand to be paid as much than we are at fault too. Their job is to get you for the least amount of money as possible, it is your job to get what you are worth. Now with that said women should get paid the same as any man doing the same job, period but truth be told men are more aggressive at negotating than we are. They will walk away while we try to be 'fair' or a 'team player'. Let's face it they needed Jennifer for that part if she did as her male co stars and demanded more money she probably would have gotten it but we all know the story that follows. 'Jennifer Lawerence is too big for (insert amount) refusing to get out of bed for less then (insert amount)' not Jennifer refuses too get paid less than Bradley Cooper.

We raise our daughters to be compliant to a degree, be polite, be a lady and always have a smile my question is are we in turn raising them to accept less? When a women is strong or takes a stand she is a bitch. When a man cheats on his wife (insert Clintons), the wife is ridiculed for staying because she is trying to further her career, wait why are we upset with her she didn't cheat. An older man dates a younger woman and no one bats an eye, we don't have a name for him, oh but we call her a gold digger. An older woman dates a younger man and she is a Cougar, what to we call him? Oh wait nothing, we don't call him a gold digger or a whore. We get angry we are emotional or PMS but when a man gets angry he's going to get things done. We cry we are weak, he cries he is strong because he was able to show that emotion? Our daughters need to know they deserve more and they have to take the stand and get more. Playing nice has gotten us on average $0.78 for of every $1.50 a man makes for the same job. Its time to stop playing nice and start looking out for us which is hard because lets face it we are the 'caretakers' but maybe it is time to take care of ourselves. Get this, not only do we get paid less but we are essentially taxed higher it's called the Pink Tax.

Pink tax is about the essentials that we pay more for than the equivalent products for men. On average product to product, service to service we will pay 1350.00 more then men per year. From dry cleaning to deoderant the cost for a womens item is more expensice then for a mens products.

I say we boycott all 'female' versions of essentials and start buying the 'mens' version honestly other than maybe the smell or color it's the same procuct. You want your voice to be heard hit them where they listen, their pocket book.

In Jennifer's letter she blames herself for not taking the stand for being too scared of being percieved as difficult and a desire to be liked. It is how we think in general, we smile and grit our teeth when someone says something offensive at work becuase we don't want to cause any issues. Would our male co parts do the same? Why do we allow this, why do we put other people ahead of us? I've done it, I had a boss several years and jobs ago that use to tell me about some dream he had about me and I just let it go because if I did something it would turn into me being the problem so I just figured I could handle it. I know my career would have been stalled if i made a complaint so I did my best to handle it, after all several women had filed complaints against this same man and nothing happened. Well that's not true something did change, they no longer had jobs there. There is still the 'old boys club' mentality and when you complain, you become the problem, you can't take a joke, your too sensitive and labeled difficult to work with.

So what do we do? How do we stop this, everything from the pay gap to Pink Tax and the treatment of women in the work force? I wish I had real answers but I don't and the truth is I wasn't able to protect my daughter from learning this harsh fact of life. Letter's like Jennifer's are a start and we need more women to stand up, to tell their story. We need to be talking about this and making sure everyone is aware of the problems. I just learned a new term recently 'White Feminist' which I was completely thrown back but here it is and it has validity. White women make more then black women so now they have broken up our power, we have been broken up into different categories making our voice a little weaker. I wonder if that isn't done on purpose in order to keep everything the status quo. So here it is as women we ALL need to stand together white, black, blue or plaid and demand as a whole we get paid equally that the Pink Tax be abolished because together we have a strong voice. Together we vote the next President, Senators and Congressman. With that voice we can pressure them to take action and change policy because without us they won't have a job next term.

A little facts:

Women have the largest showing at the polls yet we still are not represented in the Senate or Congress.

Only 19.5% of Congress is made up of women.

Only 20% of the Senate is made up of women.

Only 4.6% of Fortune 500 Business' are women, only 5 of those women are black.

Only 14.6% of Executive Officers are women.

52% of Professional Level Jobs are women.

Please look for my next article on White Feminist, something I laughed at but as I am researching I have come to realize that this is not an urban myth. I am actually ashamed that I had no idea that this was happening.