In this episode of Boss Files, Academy Award winning actress and activist Patricia Arquette,

you'll certainly remember her 2015 Oscar speech about the gender pay gap and calling for true equality for women.

Well, today, she is keeping up that fight. We explore that, and she opens up about her struggle

as a young single mother living paycheck to paycheck, a candid conversation with Patricia Arquette.

Patricia Arquette, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me.

I've read many of your comments. I've watched them as a woman and a new mom sort of figuring it all out. Your work has certainly meant a lot to me to watch.

So thank you for what you've done for women across the board, first and foremost.

Well, thank you.

And I'm so grateful for all of the great activists.

I mean, people have been working on this for decades, for generations,

and I'm just hoping that together we can all do what we need to so that we finally have equal pay for women.

You're here in New York because you are part of the UN summit on women, the status of women,

women in equality, your focus, what you're speaking about, equal pay for women.

How did this become your cause? Why is this what you champion?

Well, now we have about half of the households in America are headed by female breadwinners.

We have one in five hungry kids in America.

And when we look at equal pay, we see the highest educated women have the biggest pay gap

with men and also the lowest paid workers, which are women.

So it's the glass ceiling, sticky floor analogy that they use.

One of the things that we could really do to make a difference in women's lives

for the lowest earning women is to make sure that there's really a solid, real living wage.

At the Oscars in 2015, you won for boyhood. Congratulations.

...