Jennifer Lawrence has more to say about the gender wage gap

Jennifer Lawrence wears many hats– actress, our beloved BFF, role model– but perhaps the most important hat she wears is that of feminist spokesperson. In a recent interview with Charlie Rose Jennifer Lawrence discussed the essay she wrote for Lenny regarding the gender wage gap. And she had something really interesting to admit: she sees the totally unfair discrepancy in pay as her fault.

“When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early,” Lawrence said. She then reiterated the point she made in her essay, namely that she’s speaking from a place of wealth and privilege. Nonetheless, Lawrence believes a public conversation on the wage gap would be beneficial to all working women. We agree.

Lawrence also spoke about internalized gender bias, the kind of invisible forces that temper our belief that we can and should negotiate for better pay. This is something many of us battle during yearly reviews with our bosses or at interviews for new jobs. As Lawrence explains, “As a woman, we almost put this gender bias in ourselves…. I wanted to say, ‘I feel awkward negotiating, I feel uncomfortable asking for more money. I don’t want to seem like a brat, I don’t want to seem like all of the things that are words that that are used for women; they don’t have those words for males.”

As if we needed another reason to love her.

“I want to be that person who will say that thing that’s really hard to say, that’s really awkward and really difficult,” Lawrence concluded. “One day I want to be able to just say it, and not make a joke, and not try to make it cute, but to just say it.”

Thank you, Jennifer Lawrence, for saying it.

Check out the interview below:

(Image via Shutterstock)