Salma Hayek Calls for Gender Equality In Hollywood At Variety's Power of Women Event

Salma Hayek graced Variety's biannual Power of Women event and talked about gender equality in Hollywood.

The Mexican-born actress addressed the significant changes happening to women in the entertainment industry.

"We're not the women who just want to see a movie of how our prince is going to come and rescue everyone," she said during the luncheon held last Friday, Oct. 9, as quoted by Fox News Latino. "We changed, but nobody took the time to change with us in the industry. So it's a really exciting time to really define who we are, and I think this is the true heart of equality: not only when we can make as much and we can speak as loud, but when we really have the freedom to be ourselves instead of trying to survive or fit in."

Hayek, 49, was selected as a Variety Power of Women honoree alongside Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anna Kendrick, and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. The three-hour luncheon was presented by Lifetime at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills.

Variety's event, held both in Los Angeles and New York every year, recognizes the most inspirational and charitable women in the entertainment industry

Hayek was honored at the luncheon for her work with the Chime for Change charity, a social media-based campaign aimed to raise awareness for women's issues globally. In her acceptance speech, she said that the organization helped 400,000 women and 3 million families and communities in only two years, People reported.

"I think the voice of women can change the world, but we don't know our voice," she said, as quoted by the news outlet. "We've never really investigated. We've been too busy for many, many decades and generations, trying to operate within systems that were designed by men. I don't think we really have tapped into our potential or our own creativity."

Hayek, who has an 8-year-old daughter named Valentina with husband François-Henri Pinault, also used the Variety event to give advice to girls.

"I think the most important thing to tell for the new generations is to have the courage to be unique, to be curious about who they are, instead of trying to blend in," the star of "The Prophet" said, as reported by People.

The movie star continued, "The most important thing to say to the girls is to not try to be like the other girls. Not to try to fit in, but to try to really be profound thinkers that are excited about their differences and explore what they are and who they are and what can come out of the new."