And really… shouldn’t everyone?
Tag Archive for 'feminism'
Today’s USA Today has an article about women in the workplace. Among the positive news:
- Women now hold 49.83 percent of jobs in America.
- They are earning more jobs in the fast-growing sectors of the economy like health care and education.
Now, for the bad news!
- Women still earn 77 percent what men earn for the same jobs.
- On average, women still work fewer hours and are more likely to hold part-time positions that lack benefits.
- There are still people who believe that the man should be the breadwinner.
- The words “man-cession” and “he-cession” continue to exist.
I love Mad Men. However, as a feminist, there are definitely some things about the show that I find difficult to watch. The show is being historically accurate, and they do a great job showing the layers of all their characters, but having a 21st century mindset makes some scenes incredibly difficult to endure – the scene where some of the guys in the office chase down a secretary to see what color underwear she has on, for example, or the one where Betty’s psychologist reports on the details of her therapy session to her husband. Today, The Frisky has a first-person account from a woman who went on a job interview and found herself seemingly transported back into the Mad Men era, without any of the awesome clothes or Joan Holloway:
- I was informed the “girl” they let go was terminated because she was “too professional in social settings and didn’t know when to turn it on and when to turn it off.” I nodded, working through the possible implications of that, as he continued. “I mean, if you are the sort of girl who, when you are out with a client, and he reaches over and puts his hand on your knee—well, if that sort of thing is really going to offend you, then this isn’t the right job for you.” Ahh, so that is what he meant. Fabulous.
- I was treated to a 10-minute lecture on “how to do business.” This included choice phrases like, “I’m gonna let you in on a secret, little lady,” and, “The real deals get made during social hour with a few drinks and some buttons undone.”
Continue reading ‘interviewee discovers sexism still exists’
The US News & World Report is obviously trying to get on my bad side today. First they start off by announcing that the recession – or, “he-cession,” is affecting male “breadwinners” more than any other group. The depression and unhappiness that men face after being laid off isn’t just the result of losing their jobs, though – it’s the fault of their wives. Thankfully, the article has some “helpful” tips for those women who are totally harshing their husbands’ buzzes:
- Support him. Forget about the fact that your job might have become more stressful or that you might be worried about losing it as well – just make sure your man is happy!
- Offer “physical support.” In case you can’t read between the lines, this means “have sex.”
- Encourage him. Even though you want to be a responsible adult and talk about what your options are regarding unemployment checks or trimming the family budget, if you ask about it you will be “prying.” So just devote more time to reassuring your husband that he’s wonderful and special.
You can read the full barftastic article here.
I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, but after 2+ years of running this site, I had never seen the seminal assistant movie Swimming with Sharks. However, thanks to my brand new Netflix subscription, I finally watched the movie this morning. My initial thoughts (complete with spoilers, so if you haven’t watched it beware) are after the jump.
Continue reading ‘the very belated review: ’swimming with sharks’’
Liz Funk is the author of Supergirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls. Her book deals with the pressures many women and girls face to be ‘perfect’ at everything, often to their own personal detriment. She very kindly agreed to answer some questions from me about how this concept applies to the workplace.
STA: Do you think that, despite many laws and other concentrated efforts for gender equality, women are treated differently in the workplace?
LF: Absolutely. At each and every level, there are different standards and expectations for women. The most frequently echoed frustration that I heard from young women working on the job search and starting in their career track is not knowing what to do with their femininity, and trying to strike a balance between being cute and pretty and being competent. There is also a tendency to view women supervisors as mother figures, and we hold women in the office to a certain standard of niceness, and there’s a real trickle-down effect that compels many women at work to sugar-coat things.
STA: What particular goals, pressures, and ideas do women bring into the office?
LF: I personally feel that femininity is a great tool. As a whole, women are very intuitive and they’re natural negotiators. Powerful women aren’t always bulls the way powerful men frequently are, and I think women are better at meeting people where they’re at and finding common ground. Also, something that I’ve overwhelmingly noticed is that girls are much better at impressing others in workplace and having career common-sense, and I think they’re much less overentitled than guys (which is something that is scarcely brought-up in this “Gen Y overentitlement” media brouhaha).
STA: Where do you think this notion of “women must be perfect” come from?
April 28th is Equal Pay Day. I’m not sure exactly whether the day is supposed to be about “celebrating” the fact that men and women are allegedly being paid equally or about bemoaning the fact that men still make more than women for doing the same jobs. I’m going with the latter, obviously. Marie Claire has some sobering stats that we should keep in mind today:
- For every dollar a man makes, a woman makes 78 cents. That number has climbed 1 cent since 2006.
- Fresh-out-of-college women make $15,498 less per year than the boys; over a 35-year career, they’ll make $210,000 less.
- A 25-year-old female PR specialist makes the same as her male colleagues; 20 years later, she’ll make about $35,000 less.
- She-EOs make $303,000 less than their male counterparts.
- Male primary-care physicians make 22 percent more than lady docs.
- Male IT workers make 11.9 percent more than geekettes.
- According to the American Association of University Women, at the current rate, we’ll reach pay equity in 2040.
Woo, what a fun holiday! Time for some Jager bombs in the break room!
I was thrilled to see yesterday’s New York Times profile of one of my favorite blogs, Jezebel. The site, which covers “women’s issues” (everything from motherhood to fashion to celebrities to politics) in a smart and non-condescending way, got its first big rush of publicity last summer, when they paid an anonymous source for a photograph of Faith Hill posing for the cover of Redbook magazine. They compared the original photo to the heavily Photoshopped one that made the actual cover, and used the two photos as a jumping-off point to talk about the way the media distorts images of women.
Redbook’s editor in chief, Stacy Morrison, is understandably annoyed with Jezebel for making her magazine look stupid. Rightly, she criticizes them for paying for the photo, which is a somewhat questionable journalistic practice. But it’s not enough for her to stop there.
“Encouraging people to steal proprietary information was a somewhat dubious beginning, but I get it,” she said. “Gossip is fun, which is probably why all the assistants look at Jezebel.”
Oh, I’m sure that only the assistants at your company look at Jezebel. Because only assistants like gossip. Yeah, right. I actually had some sympathy for you until you had to tack on that slam against Jezebel via slamming assistants. In your mind, assistants are “fun” and “like gossip,” which is your not-so-subtle magazine editor way of saying it’s fluffy, light, and dumb, just like you think assistants are.
No, the real reasons assistants read sites like Jezebel are because a) it’s more interesting than the soulless work you probably make them do, and b) they often discuss feminism and workplace politics, which might inspire them to find jobs that don’t involve working for people like you.
