6 Celebs Who Flawlessly Stood Up To Gender Inequality In The Workplace

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It's inconceivable that August 26 will bring another Women's Equality Day without blanket equality in the workplace but, unfortunately, it's true. Research shows that global gender parity won't happen for years, as there are countless examples of people being passed over for positions, sexually harassed, and/or paid less because of their gender. According to the Pew Research Center, on average, U.S. women were paid just 85% of their male counterpart's earnings in 2024, while a 2017 study found around 42% of U.S. women workers had been discriminated against. But there are several celebrities flawlessly standing up against the issue.

In 2015, Jennifer Lawrence wrote a candid Lenny Letter piece about her experience of the gender pay gap. Lawrence wrote about her previous decision to not fight for more money she felt she was owed, explaining (via Teen Vogue), "I didn't want to seem 'difficult' or 'spoiled.' At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn't worry about being 'difficult' or 'spoiled.'" The star also got candid about a conversation she had with a male co-worker, which she believed was negatively misinterpreted because of her gender. "All I hear and see all day are men speaking their opinions, and I give mine in the exact same manner, and you would have thought I said something offensive," she shared.

The following year, "The Hunger Games" actor defended her dedication to equality to Harper's Bazaar. "I don't know why [feminism] is so scary to people; it shouldn't be, because it just means equality," she said. And she's not the only one who has made their feelings about gender inequality public.

In 2015, filmmaker Ava DuVernay defended the existence of the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards while speaking at the event. She explained she'd been quizzed about if "women's media" was still needed and shared her poignant response. "I said, 'Well, as long as women make up only 20% of Congress, as long as senior movie studio execs are 93% male, and only 4% of studio films are directed by women; as long as the President of the United States, the VP, the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tem, the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, of Defense, are all men — you have to go seven layers down to find a woman, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, on the succession plan — then I'd say, 'Yes, we need women's media.'" DuVernay later became one of thousands of people who signed the Open Letter for Reel Equality, which aimed to end gender-related pay discrepancy in Hollywood. 

But she also put her money where her mouth is. Deadline confirmed the crew on DuVernay's OWN series "Cherish the Day"'s was intentionally more than 50% women, with many in senior roles. Oprah Winfrey (the CEO of OWN) fully supported DuVernay's dedication to tackling gender inequality in the workplace, sharing in a statement, "Achieving a production crew of over 50% women is an incredible accomplishment and we are so proud that Ava has a space at OWN to provide opportunity for new voices and faces in the entertainment industry."

Emmy Rossum became the poster girl for fighting the gender pay gap in 2016 amid her plight to be paid on par with William H. Macy, her male co-star on "Shameless." Variety reported Rossum had made less than Macy for several seasons and demanded to be paid more than him for Season 8 to make up for it. Rossum later spoke about her decision to Daily Beast. She explained that although she didn't intend to make her contract negotiations public, "...It was part of a larger conversation and that's important," which reminded us why it's important to discuss salary with our co-workers.

Macy publicly supported Rossum's decision to demand more money, telling TMZ, "They wrote the Equal Rights Amendment in 1927. It didn't get passed by both houses of Congress until 1972. It still hasn't been approved by all the states, therefore it didn't make it as an amendment to the Constitution. About f**king time, don't you think?" He added of his co-star, "She works as hard as I do, she deserves everything." The "Boogie Nights" star also told People when asked if Rossum should be paid on the same scale as him, "It's a no-brainer. It's just sort of obvious. Emmy is in most of the scenes, she works harder than anybody else, she's a brilliant actress."

Michelle Williams has also spoken publicly about gender pay disparity after discovering a serious discrepancy in compensation between herself and co-star Mark Wahlberg on the movie "All the Money in the World." According to USA Today, Wahlberg earned $1.5 million for reshoots, but Williams was reportedly compensated less than $1,000. Williams went on to push for equality in the workplace in Hollywood and beyond, even visiting Capitol Hill to raise awareness of the important cause. Speaking about the moment she found out about Wahlberg's pay check, she said, "This came as no surprise to me, it simply reinforced my life-learned belief that equality is not an inalienable right and that women would always be working just as hard for less money while shouldering more responsibility at home." She also vowed, "There won't be satisfaction for me until I can exhaust my efforts ensuring that all women experience the elevation of their self-worth and its connection to the elevation of their market worth."

Williams later addressed the issue again in her 2019 Emmys acceptance speech after winning her first Emmy for Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for "Fosse/Verdon." "The next time a woman, and especially a woman of colour, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, male counterpart, tells you what she needs to do in order to do her job, listen to her. Believe her," she said.

Viola Davis has been outspoken about gender inequality at work. "I believe in equal pay, first of all. I'm sorry, If a woman does the same job as a man, she should be paid the same amount of money. She just should. That's just the way the world should work," she vehemently told Mashable in 2016. "What are you telling your daughter when she grows up? 'You've got to just understand that you're a girl. You have a vagina, so that's not as valuable,”" she added. The "Fences" star also raised awareness of the struggle non-white, women actors face just to make as much as their Caucasian co-stars. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, in the U.S. in 2022, Black women earned, on average, 66.5 cents for every dollar white men earned.

Davis (who's poignant memoir, "Finding Me," is the top rated read of all time from Oprah's book club) went on to speak about feeling she was discriminated against as a woman actor, sharing the importance of her salary matching her worth. "People say, 'You're a Black Meryl Streep... There is no one like you," she told Women In The World in 2018. "Okay, then if there's no one like me, you think I'm that, you pay me what I'm worth," she added.

Actor Geena Davis has a long history of pushing for equality in media, so much so she launched the Geena Davis Institute to boost inclusion. The star opened up to AARP about how the initiative began, sharing she got the inspiration after noticing there were more roles for boys in her 2-year-old daughter's play. "I saw it in G-rated videos and other shows, and I was horrified. I knew there was gender inequality in general, but I had no idea it would show up in entertainment for the littlest kids," she said. "That kind of imbalance trains kids to have an unconscious bias from minute one ... My daughter's experience spurred me to launch an institute on gender in media in 2004, to advocate for fairer representations of girls and women."

Davis recalled speaking to many higher-ups in the entertainment industry about the lack of women in prominent roles, sharing, "They were embarrassed they hadn't noticed and wanted to make the change." And the Geena Davis Institute saw impressive results. "The institute has already achieved two goals: According to our research, lead characters are now 50/50 male/female on kids' television shows and in family-rated movies," Davis said in 2023. The "Tootsie" actor's work attempting to end gender inequality in the workplace has been widely praised and she's receive multiple accolades, including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Governors Awards and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bates College.