The reason Demi Moore’s speech struck a chord with women

On Monday, at the Golden Globes, Demi Moore set my Instagram feed ablaze. In a season that usually revolves around breathtaking fashion, celebrity snubs and hot takes, Moore’s acceptance speech for her role as a fading celebrity in The Substance offered a moment of human vulnerability and connection. 

Holding her first ever acting award, Moore took the stage and tearfully lamented believing the words of a producer who told her that she was a ‘popcorn actress’, undeserving of the respect and recognition that, at 62, she was finally getting. 

“I’ll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting – in those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough, or basically, just not enough. I had a woman say to me, ‘Just know, you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.’”

Her speech quickly became the award show’s defining moment. Moore, who most of us would consider a highly successful and talented actress, was able to clearly distill a fear we’ve all felt: that who we are is not enough. Moreover, the idea that we should trust the judgement of others above our own, even when it hinders or hurts us.

“The message is clear: no matter how much you achieve, someone else will always think you don’t deserve to be there.” 

In my experience, this is a feeling that women in particular can relate to. For two years, I’ve been the executive producer of an FW podcast called Too Much interviewing extraordinary women who are leaders in their field. The premise is simple: that women are suffocated by narrow and rigid stereotypes of how they should behave at work and that these outdated stereotypes hold them back. 

Whether it’s acclaimed international human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson being told she was ‘too young’, author and businesswoman Turia Pitt being told she was ‘too combative’ or 2024 joint Australian of the Year Professor Georgina Long AO being told she was ‘too passionate’, the message is clear: no matter how much you achieve, someone else will always think you don’t deserve to be there. 

Yes, this can be true for anyone but international research has long confirmed that women are held to a different standard than their male counterparts from the get go. In 2019, Australia’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency noted that women and men are held to different standards during recruitment, with women more likely to face tougher evaluation standards or have their achievements and qualifications “more closely scrutinised”. 

That same research also found that women are less likely to receive challenging assignments regardless of their seniority. This was attributed, in part, to the fact that managers – who are still predominantly men – perceived women to be less motivated than their male counterparts. That is to say, they are sceptical that women can perform difficult tasks, meaning those women are therefore never given the opportunity to do and get better at them. A self-fulfilling prophecy. 

While the Golden Globes’ glittering stage may be far away from the rooms where most of us spend our working lives, watching Moore’s speech I was struck by this universal catch-22. That we’re too much but also never enough. So in 2025, let’s all agree to put down the measuring stick.

Image credit: Getty Images