Beyoncé Writes Flawless Feminist Essay

No flaws to be seen here.

This morning, news came out that Beyoncé penned a to-the-point, powerful feminist essay titled “Gender Equality Is a Myth!”

The simple argument Beyoncé puts forth is that gender equality is impossible until men and women work together to achieve it, and we should raise boys to believe in gender equality and treat women with respect, so that women may have “100 percent of the opportunities.”

And you know what? Damn straight. Women are increasingly competitive with men with regard to earning potential right out of college, but we still face large earning gaps later in our careers, when childcare often requires women to take time off. The fact is that women face constricting wage gaps and limitations to higher management and executive positions (and needless to say the situation is even worse for women of color). So kudos to Queen B for taking the time to directly and eloquently say, “lololol what gender equality?”

The essay was published in The Shriver Report, an annual report produced by the Center For American Progress detailing the status of women in the U.S. Other notable women who also wrote essays for the report included Hillary Rodham Clinton, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Sheryl Sandburg and Lebron James (who is not a woman, but he wrote an essay on the power of single mothers). The report is available for free download until Jan. 15.

Also, can we officially stop the “Is Beyoncé a feminist?” debate now.

You can read the essay below:

“We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.

If women received pay equal to their male counterparts, the U.S. economy would produce $447.6 billion in additional income.

Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible.

We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of the voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.”

(h/t Pitchfork)