Actress Michelle Williams won the best actress Emmy for her role in the FX limited series Fosse/Verdon and in her acceptance speech, she made the perfect case for treating women like people in Hollywood.
"I see this as an acknowledgment of what is possible when a woman is trusted to discern her own needs, feels safe enough to voice them, and respected enough to be heard," she told the audience. "When I ask for more dance classes, I heard yes. More voice lessons, yes. A different, wig, fake teeth not made out of rubber, yes. All these things require effort and cost more money, but my bosses never presumed to know better than I did about what I needed in order to do my job and honor Gwen Verdon."
She then said a special thank you to her studio for paying women equal to their male counterparts.
"Because they understood that when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch with their own inherent value," Williams continued. "Where do they put that value? they put it into their work. So, the next time a woman, especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white male counterparts, tells you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her, believe her, because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in spite of it."
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