I've been a subscriber of "Lenny," an e-newsletter filled with fabulous discussion of real-world ideas manned by actress Lena Dunham and "Girls" producer, Jenni Konner, for a bit now, and I was thrilled to read Jennifer Lawrence's essay, "Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?" on the very real wage gap she's experienced in her own career. It's not an article brimming with statistics and it's not an article demanding more of our broken society; it's article challenging women to treat ourselves the way we want to be treated--as equals on all social, political and economic fronts.

Now what is this mysterious "wage gap" that's been such a hot topic these last few years? It looks pretty simple: Divide the median annual income for women by the median annual income for men. In 2014, that gap came out to a 21 percent difference between the annual salary of a man versus the annual salary of a woman. That means that for every dollar the average man makes, the "average" (white, unmarried, no children) woman makes 79 cents. That number is even lower for women of color and mothers.

Common first thought when presented with this statistic: Women choose lower paying jobs. Possibly. Women are frequently pointed towards relational jobs and caretaker positions which do often make less than, say, STEM researchers or finance managers. But even within the 20 most common jobs for women, men still make more money in every single career. There's a problem here: Women are treated differently in the workplace.

We've seen this fight from every angle: Demanding the feminist movement make political change, demanding men be more understanding to the plight of the working woman, demanding that society shape up and realize that work done to the same capacity deserves the same pay. Lawrence, in her essay, presents the most simple idea, but one that is oddly new to this movement:

Demand equality yourself. Men do it all the time.

Lawrence noted, "I’m sure they [male co-stars negotiating salary] were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share." You've heard the saying, "Men are bosses, women are bossy." It's become a difficult thing for women to ask for what they want in the work place, to fight for what they deserve.

I worked this summer in an office comprised of almost entirely men, save for my direct supervisor, a woman in her mid-20s. Now this lady was, truly, the only reason deadlines were kept in the office. She pushed her coworkers and her bosses to be professional and aggressive--she's everything I want to be one day. One day at lunch, I overheard two male coworkers talking about my supervisor as the "slavedriver" of the office, about how she nagged too much. This woman had nothing but my utmost respect, but to these men she was an annoyance. To quote Lawrence, "For some reason, I just can’t picture someone saying that about a man."

At this point you might be thinking "yes, I've heard all this before, what else is new?" Nothing. Nothing is new here. Of course you've heard this all before, of course nothing is new because nothing is changing. It's taken 50 years since the Equal Pay Act in 1963 to close the gap from 58 cents to 79 cents per dollar, and the rate has stalled in the last decade.

This will keep being brought up over and over and over until something is done, until equality is reached. Women: Start treating yourselves the way you want to be treated.