Stand Up for Equality
Take Action Now
Margaret Cho asks comedians to participate in bringing down the wait for gender equality
Knock knock
Are you a comedian? Whether you're a veteran comic or just getting your start, we don't care as long as you're funny (just being honest here!). At the current pace of change, it’s going to take 208 years to achieve gender equality in the U.S. We need your help to spread the word about this ridiculous wait.

All you need to do is film yourself making a joke or doing a set about why gender equality can’t wait. Then share it with us.

See below for guidelines and thought starters.

Guidelines

  1. Film yourself in front of a live audience or do a selfie video. 30-60 seconds is great, but do you.
  2. We prefer no cursing, but if you must, bleep it out.
  3. Avoid outfits with branded logos.
  4. All jokes should be your own.
  5. Add subtitles if you can swing it.

Thought Starters


Caregiving and Health


  • 62% of parents have difficulty finding affordable, high-quality childcare. 42% of senior-level women say they don’t want to advance professionally because it would require too much of their families to make such a promotion possible.
  • Women, on average, do 4 hours of unpaid labor a day in the U.S. Men? 2.5 hours. Childcare, cooking, and other household responsibilities often unfairly fall on women’s shoulders, which keeps them from participating in the workforce.
  • The U.S. is the only developed country that doesn’t have a law guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers. 23% of women return to work within just two weeks of giving birth. Only 17% of workers have access to paid family leave through their employers.
  • The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and over the past two decades, that rate has more than doubled. Black and Native American women are three times more likely than other women to die in childbirth.

Workforce


  • Women represent only 26% of the tech workforce in the U.S. Women of color are more severely under-represented, with African-American women making up just 3% of the workforce, and Hispanic women making up 1%.
  • The percentage of women graduating with computing degrees in the U.S. has fallen in the past three decades—from 37% in 1985 to 19% today.
  • Only 2% of the $130 billion in venture capital money goes to women entrepreneurs in the U.S.
  • In the U.S., women occupied just 20% of the director, writer, producer, editor or cinematographer roles in the top 250 films of 2018.

Leadership


  • Despite being 51% of the U.S. population, women hold just 23.7% of seats in Congress and 25% of seats in state legislatures.
  • Only 10% of members of Congress are women of color.
  • Currently, only 1 of the 500 largest companies in the U.S. is led by a woman of color.
  • For every 100 men who are promoted, only 79 women are promoted, regardless of differences in performance and past experience. By mid-career, men are 70% more likely than women to be executives.