Stop Telling Women to Work Harder

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.
Ex-employees of the Kardashians didn’t waste time in sharing the working conditions they dealt with on Twitter. Jessica DeFino tweeted: “I was an editor on the Kardashian apps in 2015 in LA, worked days nights & weekends, could only afford groceries from the 99 Cents Only Store, called out “sick” more than once bc I couldn’t put gas in my car to get to the office, & was reprimanded for freelancing on the side.” What kind of “work ethic” is able to overcome exploitative workplaces, low salaries that keep women in poverty, and toxic bosses? The answer is none .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Beyond the fact that Kardashian has been threatened with a toxic work environment lawsuit by her own staff, it must be noted that most work that keeps the Kardashian empire running isn’t done by Kim herself. It’s done by the staff she delegates everything to, from cleaning her mansion to doing her make up to posting on her social media accounts. It’s extremely likely that all of her staff works more than Kardashian herself, but earns much, much less money. No work ethic will trump the decision of an employer to overwork you and underpay you — that’s a fantasy invented by the rich, who need their employees to believe things will get better, if only they work harder.
It’s time to bury the myth that women will be empowered through work and earning a wage. As I’ve written about previously, this is an individualistic and capitalist form of “feminism” that does not liberate most women. There’s no work ethic that will liberate us from employers like Kim Kardashian. If anything, it keeps women working for richer women like Kardashian for poverty wages and in exploitative conditions.