Patron saint of surfboards, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles Carter, has contributed a feminist essay to Maria Shriver’s eponymous Shriver Report published in conjunction with the Centre For American Progress and titled ‘Gender Equality Is A Myth!’ It features in an issue also boasting contributions from Hillary Clinton, Eva Longoria, LeBron James, Jada Pinkett Smith and more around the theme, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink.
A supplement to the feminist themes explored by Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in Yoncé’s ‘***Flawless’ – whose inspiring TED talk is embedded below – Bey implores her reader to dispel the illusion of gender equality, predominantly in a world of financial imbalance where men are raised with a lingering sense of entitlement and, at least on paper, still run the world. She writes:
We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.
Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.
We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of the voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.
If you have a Kindle, A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink is available for free download at Amazon.
