Here’s The Beyoncé Essay That Everyone’s Talking About: ‘Gender Equality is a Myth’
In case you aren’t in the loop, there’s been much discussion over the feminism (or lack thereof) of Beyoncé‘s surprise self-titled album. Scholars from all over have spoken up about whether or not the pop star’s messaging falls in line with feminist theories. And to be fair, Bey opened herself up to this kind of discussion from the very beginning, by using a well-known from African feminist scholar Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche on her song “Flawless.” Here it is:
We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls: “You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful; otherwise, you will threaten the man.” Because I am female, I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is most important … why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same? … Feminist: a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.
And, now, Bey seems to be participating directly in the debate: she’s penned an essay on gender equality for the Centre for American Progress’ annual Shriver Report. She wrote the piece in response to this finding published in the Shriver Report: 42 million American women are either living in poverty and/or “on the verge of financial oblivion.”
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Beyoncé takes on everything from the economic consequences of gender inequality to the false perception that gender equality has already been achieved in the First World.
And while we completely agree with Queen Bey on most points, and generally consider her new album to be a pop culture victory for ladies everywhere—or, as Pharrell put it, Beyoncé “just ran through the jail and let all the women out”—we aren’t too impressed with her execution in this piece of writing.
Read it in full for yourself below, download it for free here, and tell us what you think!
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.
If women received pay equal to their male counterparts, the U.S. economy would produce $447.6 billion in additional income.
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 voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.
