Across industries, Black women make 64% of what non-Hispanic white men are paid (according to stats from 2021) and as white women close wage gaps, Black women fall further behind. Black women’s wage gap was worse in 2022 than it was in 2021. That gap exists in Hollywood, even if there isn’t as much hard data to back it up. What we do have are the anecdotes from Black women in the industry who continually share their frustrations while it seems like gender progress is reserved for white women only. We see that truth amplified during awards season. Emma Stone just won her second Academy Award. It’s not that she doesn’t deserve the accolade. Stone was incredible in Poor Things. But as Sarah Marrs wrote for LaineyGossip about Lily Gladstone’s loss (she was up against Stone for Best Actress and would have been the first Indigenous woman winner and only third woman of color), “The concern, always, is that there simply aren’t the same opportunities for women of color as their white peers. Lupita Nyong’o’s presence at the Oscars this year reminded everyone that in a decade, she has not had another role to put her in Oscar contention,” Marrs wrote. “Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence bagged four nominations and one win in five years, and in the same decade Lupita was an Academy Award winner, Emma Stone got four acting nominations and two wins…. there is more to a career than an Oscar, but even WITH an Oscar, it can be hard for women of color to advance.”
