VOA慢速英语2015 好莱坞致力于消除性别工资差距

Hollywood Works to Eliminate Gender¹ Pay Gap 好莱坞致力于消除性别工资差距

When actors receive their Academy Award – known as the Oscar – they often thank their producer, director, family members and even their agent.

Last February, Patricia Arquette won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the film “Boyhood.” She used her moment on stage to call attention to pay inequality in Hollywood.

"… it is our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”

Arquette was talking about a socio-political issue in America. For every dollar a man earns, women are paid around 77 cents.

This issue is called the gender pay gap.

Forbes magazine listed how much Hollywood actresses earn every year. The magazine named actress Jennifer Lawrence as the top-paid actress. She earned $52 million in 2015. Scarlett Johannson came in second at $35.5 million.

The Forbes list included international stars. Chinese actress Bingbing Fan came in fourth with $21 million in earnings².

There is no question about the wealth of these actresses. But the question is: Should they be richer?

According to Forbes, only four actresses earned more than $20 million. Twenty-one actors, on the other hand, made at least that much.

Overall, top actors like Robert Downey, Jr. and Jackie Chan earn hundreds of millions of dollars more than Hollywood’s top actresses.

This isn’t a problem only in the movie business. It tends to be an issue throughout the workforce³.

The American Association of University Women studied the pay gap earlier this year. The organization used the American Community Survey. The survey asks questions about the cost of living in the United States.

The most recent data from the survey came out in 2014. It showed men earn about 21-percent more than women in all industries.

Sony hacking⁵ revealed gender pay gap

When Sony Pictures was hacked⁶ last year, thousands of private emails became public.

Some of them included information about how much money the stars of the movie “American Hustle” earned. Jennifer Lawrence was one of those actors. Despite playing one of the main roles, she did not earn as much as her male co-stars, Christian⁷ Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner.

Thanks to Arquette and other women, Hollywood celebrities⁸ are talking about pay inequality.

Tough or confrontational⁹?

The first issue seems to be the idea that when a man negotiates his salary, he is seen as being “tough.” When a woman does the same thing, she is seen as confrontational and difficult. Some similar words were used to describe Hollywood actresses like Lawrence.

Lawrence recently wrote a commentary for the web magazine, Lenny. She wrote about not wanting to seem “difficult” or “spoiled” when negotiating with producers.

She makes the point that men and women are conditioned to behave differently when it comes to getting what they want.

“I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat¹⁰ [instead of] not getting my fair share,” Lawrence wrote.

Bradley Cooper and Jeremy Renner, who also appeared in “American Hustle,” shared their opinions about the differences in pay.

Cooper said he would work to help actresses negotiate better contracts. Renner first said it was not “his job” to worry about his co-stars contracts. But he then explained on Twitter that people should be recognized “by their merit or service.”

Will Hollywood address the pay gap?

How can Hollywood learn to reward men and women equally? Can the lessons from Hollywood be applied¹¹ elsewhere?

Dr. Martha Lauzen is a researcher at San Diego State University. She says women who use managers to oversee¹² their activities usually hire other women.

Lauzen looked at the top 700 films in 2014. She found that if the director was a woman, the writer would be female, too, more than half the time. But if the director was a man, only 8 percent of writers were women.

In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Lauzen said the decision to pay men and women equally in Hollywood still depends on the studio executives.

“Why aren’t we hearing from the major film studios? They are the ones who could change the gender dynamic. And they are silent. There has to be a will to change,” she said.

California’s Fair Pay Act

California lawmakers credited Arquette’s speech with helping¹³ them to pass the Fair Pay Act in October. The new law requires businesses to pay employees doing the same job the same level of pay.

Small differences based on experience or work quality are allowed. The same applies to actors and actresses in Hollywood.

Words in This Story

role - n. an actor's party; duties

stage - n. the place where theatrical¹⁴ productions are performed

gender - adj. relating to the state of being male or female

gap - n. the difference between two things

brat – n. a child who behaves very badly : an annoying child

hack⁴ – v. to secretly get access to the files on a computer or network in order to get information, cause damage, etc.

confrontational - adj. dealing¹⁵ with situations in an aggressive way

contracts – n. someone or something that has the same job or purpose as another

merit - n. the quality of being vry good or worthy¹⁶

apply - v. to make an official request

hire - v. to offer employment to

studio – n. a company that makes movies

contract(s) – n. business agreement

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

3 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

4 hack   

n.劈，砍，出租马车；v.劈，砍，干咳

参考例句：

• He made a hack at the log.他朝圆木上砍了一下。
• Early settlers had to hack out a clearing in the forest where they could grow crops.早期移民不得不在森林里劈出空地种庄稼。

5 hacking   

n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动

参考例句：

• The patient with emphysema is hacking all day. 这个肺气肿病人整天不断地干咳。
• We undertook the task of hacking our way through the jungle. 我们负责在丛林中开路。

6 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

9 confrontational   

adj.挑衅的；对抗的

参考例句：

• Fans love rappers partly because they strike such a confrontational pose. 乐迷热爱这些饶舌艺人一定程度上是因为他们所采取的那种战斗姿态。 来自互联网
• You prefer a non confrontational approach when it comes to resolving disputes. 面对争端，你不喜欢采用对抗性的手段来解决。 来自互联网

10 brat   

n.孩子；顽童

参考例句：

• He's a spoilt brat.他是一个被宠坏了的调皮孩子。
• The brat sicked his dog on the passer-by.那个顽童纵狗去咬过路人。

11 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

12 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

15 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

16 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。