Stop Telling Women to Work Harder
The myth of meritocracy has died. It’s time for it to be buried for good. I’m looking at you, Kim Kardashian.
This week, in a Variety profile, Kim Kardashian thought she was giving women of the world invaluable advice on how to succeed in business. “I have the best advice for women in business,” Kardashian told Variety. “Get your fucking ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days.” Unfortunately, this advice was not taken kindly by a majority of women who are overworked, underpaid, and, in many ways, simply exhausted. So yes, Kim — nobody wants to work because we are all tired of working every single day, for people like her, who get to reap the profits of our labor.
Kardashian’s advice isn’t only ignorant, it’s blatantly out of touch with the current situation of women across the world. Women work much more than men on average and they earn much less — to suggest this can be remedied with a better work ethic is to live in a world of meritocratic fantasies. Many women work hard to earn a wage and take care of their families, but never make it out of poverty nor do they become billionaires — this is because capitalism is an inherently unequal system that punishes and overworks women.
