Shriver Report photo by Melissa Lyttle
The latest edition of The Shriver Report is out, and this time, Beyoncé is tackling gender inequality.
The pop queen has joined a prominent list of women who have contributed to Maria Shriver’s 557-page The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, co-produced with the Center for American Progress. “The fragile economic status of millions of American women is the shameful secret of the modern era—yet these women are also our greatest hope for change, and our nation’s greatest undervalued asset,” the document’s description reads.
The Shriver Report is now available for free Kindle download via Amazon through Wednesday, January 15.
Writing essays in addition to Beyoncé’s entry are Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Eva Longoria, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Anne-Marie Slaughter.
Read Beyoncé’s essay, titled “Gender Equality Is a Myth,” in full below:
“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 voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.”
