October 27, 2019 by Madison Redd
Does Age Have an Effect on the Gender Wage Gap in Hollywood? (4)
Have you ever learned something new that makes you rethink your previous thoughts and opinions on that topic? I know I have.
Summary
On January 28th, 2014 authors, Irene E. De Pater, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A. Scott wrote an article published through the Journal of Management Inquiry entitled “Age, Gender, and Compensation: A Study of Hollywood Movie Stars”where they discussed the issues involving the gender wage gap in Hollywood. In this article, the authors came up with three hypotheses about age influencing the wage gap in Hollywood. In order to get answers to their hypotheses, the authors conducted a test of 265 male and female Hollywood actors, “who all had at least one leading role in a movie between 1968 and 2008” (De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott). The test measured: age, gender, earning, star presence, number of films with leading roles, award nominations and wins. The main point the authors were making was that the wage gap is influenced by the ages of male and female actors. According to the authors there is less value attached to female actors because they cannot attract spectators and cannot carry high budget movies after they reach a certain age. This article was very interesting I admire the authors because they used actual data as a basis for their beliefs instead of just their own opinions.
I used to think that the gender wage gap was mainly based on preconceived roles of women that have passed down over time, but after reading, “Age, Gender, and Compensation: A Study of Hollywood Movie Stars,” I now see that age has a huge effect of the gender wage gap, and this is important because it demonstrates that discrimination against women goes as far as age, calling women unattractive after the age of thirty-four and saying that because they are old they should not make as much money as men.
Why analyze Hollywood movie stars?
Hollywood is the perfect profession to analyze because of how much it has changed and how now it demonstrates discimination against women. Hollywood’s initial creation did not contain all of the discrimination that it does now. The authors discuss how “movie acting was one of the first high- status, high-income occupations that… used to pay men and women equally” (De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott). Hollywood is a profession where men and women do the exact same job. They spend the same amount of time shooting and reshooting for a film. All of these attributes that Hollywood used to have makes it a great candidate for the author’s test seeking an answer to the question: Why does Hollywood now discriminate between men and women on the basis of wage? The shift in the practices of Hollywood happened gradually as an organizational hierarchy was created putting women below men. It was reverting back to the old views of women being undeserving of the same treatment as men. Therefore, people tried to rationalize why this was occurring; and these authors determined that it was due to age.
Age in Hollywood
According to the authors, age in Hollywood is a super prevalent issue and can explain a reason for the gender wage gap disparity. The authors suggest, “that that there are double standards of aging for men and women, with older women being more harshly evaluated than older men” (De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott). Critics are quick to judge women as they get older for having too many wrinkles or not looking as esthetically pleasing as when they were young. Women are, “valued for appearing young” (De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott). The authors test showed that the
“average earnings per film of female movie stars increase until the age of 34, but decrease rapidly after that. For male movie stars, average earnings per film are the highest when they are 51 years of age. Growing older than 51 does not negatively affect their average earnings per film” (De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott).
This was very interesting to me because in Hollywood men and women do the same job and the idea that people will be less inclined to watch a movie with an older woman in it is absurd. It’s rather sexist to state that women age badly and should therefore not be cast, or receive less pay than their male co-stars. There are plenty of men in Hollywood who have aged badly and still get paid very well. However, when I really thought about this idea and popular older female actresses I could only really come up with Meryl Streep, Betty White, Susan Sarandon, and Julie Andrews. As a society, we have built up this stigma that women age poorly and our views have carried over into Hollywood and has affected how female actresses get paid.
Deepened My Understanding:
This article deepened my understanding of my topic because I initially viewed the issue of gender wage gap only pertaining to gender and race. I had never thought about the idea that the age of actors had any effect on the pay they received. Now after this article I am going to further explore this idea in Hollywood that women are seen as aging poorly compared to men and because of that their careers plateau after the age of thirty-four.
Works Cited
De Pater, Irene E, Timothy A Judge, and Brent A Scott. “Age, Gender, and Compensation: A Study of Hollywood Movie Stars.” Journal of Management Inquiry 23.4 (2014): 407–20. Web.
