Women across the world only make $0.77 for every dollar a man earns for work of equal value—and the United Nations wants to #StoptheRobbery.
UN Women, an entity of the organization, launched a new, month-long campaign on Monday to raise awareness around the gender pay gap. People are invited to use the robbery hashtag to show their support for equal pay. To really drive home the fact most women are “robbed” of an estimated 23% of their earnings, according to UN Women policy director Purna Sen, that same number of characters will be blacked out.
The campaign also encourages people to share their support for women’s economic empowerment, as it’s a key part of achieving full gender equality, Sen told Fortune. “The issue of pay inequality has pledged women for centuries. We want to use this campaign to speed up the time the world is responding to this issue,” she added.
Globally, women have████work 3 more months every year████make████same as█████#stoptherobbery https://t.co/WTJP4oNLEm @UN_Women pic.twitter.com/kaSAWqroRi
— UN Women (@UN_Women) March 14, 2017
The█pay ga█ █ob█ █ome██of█23% o█ █hei█ pa█.██e█’█ █t█p█th█ ██gges████bb█ry█i█ h█story #stoptherobbery https://t.co/G3imIrpnIm @UN_Women
— Abby Wambach (@AbbyWambach) March 14, 2017
Actress and activist Patricia Arquette, soccer superstar Abby Wambach, and UN Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka are among those championing the campaign, which coincides with the UN’s Equal Pay Platform of Champions. The latter is part of the broader UN International Labour Organization and UN Women Global Equal Pay Coalition — an alliance that pushes for equal pay laws. But according to Sen, celebrities aren’t the only ones embracing #StopTheRobbery: leaders from trade unions, civil society, government, and the private sector are also in support, too.
“Women sometimes become invisible if they’re not seen beyond the value of the men they are with,” Arquette said Monday, who also yelled “we want equal pay now,” according to the UN.
The UN Women’s #StopTheRobbery movement is also a way to show solidarity with the 61st Commission on the Status of Women — the largest inter-governmental forum on women’s rights and gender equality. The theme this year is on women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work.
“Though we want to ensure this gets paramount attention this next month, the complexity of unequal pay will take longer,” Sen says. “But considering it will take 70 years to close the gap, we want to make this matter urgent in a way it hasn’t been before.”