Jane Fonda urges US to guarantee equal pay for equal work

Actress and event host Jane Fonda. AP FILE PHOTO

UNITED NATIONS—Jane Fonda said Thursday she wishes the United States would guarantee that women get equal pay with men for the same work, just like 117 other countries around the globe.

Fonda, a longtime women’s rights activist, came to the United Nations to help launch a campaign by the women’s rights group Equality Now urging all governments to repeal or amend all gender discrimination laws.

She said 139 countries now guarantee gender equality, 125 countries have outlawed domestic violence, 117 countries have laws against sexual harassment and the same number of countries have equal pay laws.

“I wish my country would do the same,” Fonda said of the United States, as the crowded meeting room burst into applause and loud cheers. “Something we have to work on.”

She said 115 countries give women equal rights to own property and 22 of 28 African countries where female circumcision has been practices now have laws against it, which drew more applause.

As examples of how things have changed in the last five years, Fonda said “rapists can no longer escape punishment by marrying or settling with their victims” in Argentina and Morocco. In Kenya and Senegal, she said, women can now pass their citizenship to their children on the same basis as men. Iraqi women can get a passport without a man’s permission and Australian women can get a job anywhere in the military, she said.

“Each discriminatory law that is repealed gives new hope, new chances, to women and girls,” Fonda said.

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