Amy Schumer has said women her age were “raised under the illusion of equality”.
The actress and comedian, 36, is a vocal supported of the Time’s Up movement and said it would take a long time for there to be a true gender balance.
She told the Press Association: “I think we were raised under the illusion of equality and until this next generation dies out women are not treated equally and we are not spoken to equally.
“I think that we were lied to about it, because you don’t want to tell a little girl ‘you are going to some day make 80 cents on the dollar for the same job’ and then I feel selfish even saying that because of how much worse it is for people of colour but we all need to be helping each other to achieve that.”
The Trainwreck star, who will next be seen in I Feel Pretty as a woman suffering from low self-esteem until a head injury makes her think she is incredibly beautiful, also spoke about the amount of criticism that is levelled at her.
She said: “I definitely think that we like to build up women and then tear them down, and I think there can be a lot of the Left eating itself, and at a time when we need to all be really banding together and showing support, we demand such perfection.
“That, I think, is harmful to people who all have the same common goal but I think people can get easily angered, especially by women and are looking to burn them at the stake.
“But I don’t take any of that personally, I just know what people think about me is none of my business, they don’t know me and I am just going to keep working really hard and I’m gong to do the best I can.
“Sometimes it is hard when you feel like the people you are trying to create work to help are the ones trying to tear you down but that is OK and I’m not going anywhere.”
She continued: “My whole goal is to empower women and the reason for that is selfish, it’s because we need everybody right now.
“We need everybody to be living up to their full potential and you can’t do that if you’re afraid somebody is going to insult you, you’re less likely to raise your hand in class, you’re less likely to be active through that fear.
“So I think this movie isn’t the answer but I think it’s a step in the right direction and if you’re open to it, I think people have had a good time.”
I Feel Pretty is in UK cinemas now.
