In his acceptance speech for winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in La La Land, took a moment to In his acceptance speech for winning a Golden Globe for Best Actor inLa La Land, Ryan Gosling took a moment to thank the ‘lady’ in his life , fellow actor Eva Mendes. While he was singing, dancing and playing the piano for the role, she was at home, holding the fort, looking after things so that we could have “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film”.“If she hadn’t taken all that on so that I could have this experience, would surely be someone else up here other than me to today. Sweetheart, thank you”, said the actor.

She wasn’t just making sure his dinner was cooked by the time he came home, no, she was “raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer”. Despite the swooning on social media for his Notebook-esque outpouring, I can’t help but feel that Eva Mendes, an award-winning actor in her own right, took one for the team and provided the emotional labour needed for Gosling to further his own career.

Gosling’s appreciation for his wife, may be genuine but it plays into structural inequality women face in the workplace, least of all Hollywood. Yes, Mendes has agency, and the decision to put her career on the back burner for the sake of her husband’s was hers, but why did she have to make that decision to begin with?

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  1/32 Actress Emma Stone Getty

2/32 Actress Natalie Portman Getty

3/32 Sophie Turner Getty

4/32 Evan Rachel Wood EPA

5/32 Zoe Saldana EPA

6/32 Actress Octavia Spencer Getty

7/32 Actress Sarah Jessica Parker Getty

8/32 Actress Priyanka Chopra Reuters

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10/32 Drew Barrymore EPA

11/32 Sofia Vergara Getty

12/32 Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Getty

13/32 Actress Kerry Washington Reuters

14/32 Emily Ratajkowski EPA

15/32 Actress Viola Davis Getty

16/32 Actress Blake Lively Getty

17/32 Meryl Streep EPA

18/32 Musician/Actress Janelle Monae Getty

19/32 Actress Lily Collins Getty

20/32 Millie Bobby Brown Getty

21/32 Actor Ryan Gosling Getty

22/32 Actress Jessica Biel and singer Justin Timberlake Getty

23/32 Actor Donald Glover Getty

24/32 Musician Pharrell Williams and Mimi Valdes Getty

25/32 Actor Tom Hiddleston Getty

26/32 Actor Mahershala Ali and wife, Amatus Sami-Karim Reuters

27/32 Actor Andrew Garfield Reuters

28/32 Jonah Hill Getty

29/32 Actor Casey Affleck Getty

30/32 Actor Hugh Laurie Getty

31/32 Musician Questlove Getty

32/32 Actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson Getty

In In 1,206 films, 60 to 90 per cent of the dialogue was delivered by men , and in an additional 307 films, that figure shot up to 90 per cent. More damning still, a pathetic seven per cent of Hollywood directors are women. It would seem that male directors are hiring male actors for male roles, meaning that Mendes simply doesn’t have the same amount of opportunities as her husband.

This isn’t a trend consigned to the entertainment industry. According to data from the This isn’t a trend consigned to the entertainment industry. According to data from the Pew Research Centre , the number of stay-at-home mothers in the USA has been steadily rising for the past 15 years. In 2014, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns . No wonder more women chose to put their aspirations behind those of their male partners.

What’s more, there’s often an assumption within relationships that the woman will stay at home to look after children, sick or in other cases, ageing relatives. This isn’t something that women are just “better at” and we’re “angels” for taking on such work. Rather women are taught to be self-less and to care, and more often than not, feel an obligation to do so. It is something that is expected of women, and valorising it perpetuates this as an ideal that women have to live up to, and often make sacrifices for. Earlier this year, Gosling What’s more, there’s often an assumption within relationships that the woman will stay at home to look after children, sick or in other cases, ageing relatives. This isn’t something that women are just “better at” and we’re “angels” for taking on such work. Rather women are taught to be self-less and to care, and more often than not, feel an obligation to do so. It is something that is expected of women, and valorising it perpetuates this as an ideal that women have to live up to, and often make sacrifices for. Earlier this year, Gosling told the Evening Standard that women are “better” and “stronger” than men. Putting women on a moral pedestal in this way excuses men from transgressions, such as not coming home and helping with care work.

Gosling's speech runs uncomfortably close to the old adage "behind every great man is a great woman". No, she's not behind you: she's standing right next to you, and maybe you should tell the audience next time that you’ll be home to help out more.