Dakota Fanning, who rose to fame in the 2001 movie "I Am Sam," has grown and matured both in her personal life and acting career.
Her maturity has widen her view of society. In a recent interview, the actress shared her thoughts about one of the most prominent issues in Hollywood: the gender-wage gap debate.
The 22-year-old actress recently sat down for an interview for the October 2016 issue of Elle Canada, wherein aside from sharing glimpses of her beauty, she also gave her opinion on the running gender-wage gap debate in Hollywood.
She believes that the issue has been talked about since the 16th century. She feels it is incredulous that after 500 years humanity still seems to have not yet solved the matter.
The actress said: "It's frustrating that you still have to talk about it. As part of my school, I've studied lots of different periods, and if you go back to, like, "The Taming of the Shrew", it's talking about the disparity between genders, and it's crazy that we still haven't cracked that."
William Shakespeare wrote "The Taming of the Shrew" around 1590 in the 16th century. The story revolves around a woman, referred to as "the shrew," and her subsequent "taming" by a man who wishes to marry her. The comedy has been dissected by scholars for its misogynistic themes.
Dakota's comments on the gender-wage gap echo the sentiments of many actresses in Hollywood who believe that they get paid lower than their male peers simply because they are female.
The issue came to fore in October 2015 when "Hunger Games" star and Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence wrote an essay about her experiences of Hollywood's apparent gender pay differences
The "Silver Lining Playbook" star was praised for speaking out against Hollywood's gender pay gap which some people apparently accept as status quo.
The lament of Fanning and Lawrence is backed up by research. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Management Inquiry entitled "Age, Gender, and Compensation" came to the same conclusion that earnings reach their peak level for women between the ages of 34 and 39, while men's wages continue to rise steadily until around age 50.
With the high level of attention being given to the issue, many hope that not just in Hollywood but in all professions, men and women would be given equal pay.
