Jennifer Lawrence didn’t ask to be paid as much as her American Hustle male co-stars because, like so many women in the workplace, she didn’t want to seem “difficult.”
In an open letter on Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letters website, Jennifer acknowledged that she had been “ever-so-slightly quiet” on the issue of feminism until now, and that she was still trying to “find the ‘adorable’ way to state my opinion and still be likable.”
Jennifer said that when she found, via the infamous Sony email hack, how much more her male co-stars were making during the filming of that movie, “I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself.”
“I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early,” she writes.
“If I’m honest with myself, I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an element of wanting to be liked that influenced my decision to close the deal without a real fight.
“I didn’t want to seem ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’ At the time, that seemed like a fine idea, until I saw the payroll on the Internet and realized every man I was working with definitely didn’t worry about being ‘difficult’ or ‘spoiled.’
“Those men all fought and succeeded in negotiating powerful deals for themselves. If anything, I’m sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share.”
She adds that she thinks other women struggle with the same worries: “Are we socially conditioned to behave this way?”
