When a serious issue like equal pay for women hits Disney, that’s when you know things have gotten bad.
We’ve all read about it in the news when the issue is occasionally brought up, causing a media storm for a few days, before then disappearing again: out of the press and out of people’s minds. Over the last few weeks a video has gone viral of a group of women – the “Disney Princesses – who sing about the need for equal pay for women. The parody of Little Mermaid’s “Part of Your World” addresses what is an ongoing and very serious issue in the fight for equality, but does so in a lighthearted way.
It amazes me – and most other people, I’m sure – that women are paid less than their male colleagues who do the same job. In a 21st century world there really is no logical reason why this issue should continue to exist. Fifty years after laws have been implemented to get rid of this unequal pay, the gap between the salaries of men and women is still significantly wide. While women are taking home an average of £23,1000 a year, men are taking home a larger sum of £28,700. That’s a difference of £5,600 a year and experts have said that it will take up to six more decades to achieve equal pay on a gender basis.
While approaching the issue in the way that these women have done – a clearly effective way to get people’s attention – much more needs to be done to achieve the rights that women deserve in the workplace. We definitely can’t wait around for another sixty years doing nothing, that’s for sure.
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