Women & Work
5 Tips to Carpe the Chaos and Thrive
NAFE, the National Association of Female Executives asked me to write a “Five Tips” article for their latest newsletter.
I chose to write about 5 tips to use chaos as opportunity, or as I’ve put it in No No Excuses power tool #5, Carpe the Chaos. I had recently spoken on this topic to the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Women’s Roundtable and the International Museum of Women. In my experience as a leader, it has been a very useful concept that got me through tough times when many people thought there was no way to succeed.
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Shay’s Story: Struggling to Be Taken Seriously at Work
Truthfully, I’ve never thought of myself as a feminist yet as I read your book and watch your presentations, I know that I am and always have been. I struggled from the time I entered the business world at 17 years old to be taken as seriously as my male co-workers. I made attempts to be unattractive so that my superiors would see that I was a smart, assertive hard worker. I was passed over for promotions and opportunities repeatedly. I was even once was told by the hiring manager that though I was the heir apparent, the executive team could not “picture” me in the job. They hired a man with 5 years less experience from outside the company. But I did not give up and I stayed at that company until I got the promotions. At a certain point, I brought up my concern that I was not being given deserved promotions based on my sex and age. I got the next one. What they feared even more than a smart woman
Read MoreWhy Equal Pay Day 2010 Is Equal Power Day
Pick a number between one and fifty-one
If you picked one, you’ve picked the District of Columbia, where the median earnings gap between all men and women over age 16, employed in full-time, year –round jobs is narrowest: women earn 88 cents to a man’s dollar. If you picked fifty-one, you’re in Wyoming, where women are paid just 64 cents to each smacker earned by a man.
If college education is factored in and you survey workers over 25, Wyoming leaps to first place at 88 cents, click image to take actionand Alaska slips to that 51st place at 64 cents for women to men’s dollar. Check out the AAUW’s information base on fair pay to find out where your state fits into the pecking order.
Read MoreGoldilocks SOTU: Not Too Big, Not Too Small, Just Right
“I am feeling so disempowered,” the woman prefaced her question to me at a “Passion to Action” conference in Grass Vally, CA, sponsored by the See Jane Do organization. But her face telegraphed very powerful emotions: anger, frustration, fear. It was a look we’ve seen on the faces of teabaggers as they shouted wild allegations and disrupted town halls across the nation.
This woman was no teabagger. She was a progressive Democratic woman, a key member of Obama’s base. The impassioned ones who swept him into office on a frothy wave of belief in the change he promised; the ones now feeling somewhere between skeptical and cynical.
“I want real health reform. What happened to that and what can I do about it?” The questioner lobbed this at me after my speech encouraging women to use our power as activists. If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then it would be very important to listen to what women like her had to say about Obama’s State of the Union address.
Read MoreMaking It Too Hot for Chili’s to Ignore Sexual Harassment
This is a story to warm your heart this holiday season. It’s a story of a sister who cared enough to combat injustice publicly. It’s a lesson in how to answer the question “So what are we going to do about it?” by giving those responsible for the injustice some serious heartburn. It’s a tale of hanging in there long enough to be effective in fomenting the change that’s needed to bring about fairness and justice.
Rebekah Spicuglia is media manager at the Women’s Media Center (full disclosure-I’m on the WMC board and that’s how I heard about this). Furious that her sister had been sexually harassed repeatedly, yet repeatedly disregarded by mangement when she reported it, Rebekah decided to tell the world about it in the Huffington Post Tuesday:
Read MoreThe Problematic of Work Life Balance Part 3: To Be or not to Be Gender Differences
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This is the third and last (for now at least) of Debjani Chakravarty’s series exploring work life balance through the lens of economic and political culture. in this post, she asks the question of whether work life balance can or should be gender neutral. Debjani is a graduate student and artist, currently pursuing a PhD in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Arizona State University. She has worked as a journalist and social worker in India.
Rebecca is a grad student, and she works part time at Starbucks. She is getting a degree in social work, hopeful of pursuing a career she’s passionate about. She also works as an editor and ghost writer on the side. When I ask Rebecca about work life balance, she says, “Strange I never think about it. My parents never went to college and they never left their little Ohio town where I grew up. For them, my life’s a dream come true, and they are hopeful that someday I’ll be able to do all those things that they only planned about, travel, work a respectable job, buy a big house. Work life balance, let’s see. For me it’s about taking the occasional Adderall, so that I can keep working. My life’s on hold right now, work is all that matters.”
Read MoreThe Problematic of Work Life Balance, Part 2: A Project of the Self
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Here’s part 2 of Debjani Chakravarty’s essay on work life balance. A PhD in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Arizona State Debjani ChakravartyUniversity who worked as a journalist and a social worker in India, Debjani is also an artist. You can view her beautiful artwork here. Comments below will thrill us both.
Neo traditional discourses and the media constructed mommy wars point at the fallacy of women having too much on their plates. The answer lies in choosing one role set, preferably home and child bearing over paid work. Motherhood is aligned with a discourse of citizenship and duties by the state. The question of a mother’s rights is articulated only by feminists in this post feminist era where women’s problems are framed as having solutions in increased consumption. The solution can range from taking a work life balance quiz in Cosmo or Oprah to setting up a home office with the latest technological gadgets. The question of work life balance becomes a project of the self, with the issue state and workplace policies not considered by the very women oppressed by multiple role expectations, smarting under immensely demanding gender identities.
Read MoreThe Problematic of Work Life Balance, Part 1
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This guest post is by Debjani Chakaravarty, a PhD in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Arizona State Debjani ChakravartyUniversity who worked as a journalist and a social worker in India. Her global approach to this much discussed topic of work life balance starts today and will continue through the week. Please ask your questions, tell your stories, and leave your comments for Debjani in the comments section below.
Here is Cosmo’s sagacious take on the issue: “When you have a million balls in the air— job, gym, boyfriend—life becomes a blur. You’re so busy struggling just to get through the week; you lose sight of what’s really important to you”—this particular notion of work life balance has generated a million self discovery quizzes and “work-life balance calculators”, been the subject of many self improvement books and is almost always directed to women, and working mothers.
From the popular framing of this issue, it does seem that it is only women that must achieve this fine balance, women with jobs, access to formal workout spaces and with a man and/or children in their lives.
Read MoreWas Wooly Bully a Woman?
The recent New York Times article entitled “Backlash: Women Bullying Women” instantly reminded me of the 1960’s song, “Wooly Bully”*. Its logic was garbled and its presentation just plain silly, but it was nevertheless so entertainingly in tune with the culture of the day that it became a big hit.
Though the piece began by acknowledging that men are the majority (60%!) of workplace bulliers, that fact was quickly dismissed. Why wasn’t it the headline? Because it’s so obvious. It’s not a “man bites dog” story.
Instead, the reporter zeroed in on the finding that of women who do bully, 70% choose other women as their targets. Then the article proceeded to analyze this through the lens of a recurring cultural narrative, far too often embraced by even the New York Times despite evidence to the contrary, that women can’t get along, that women don’t support other women, that women are their own worst enemies when it comes to fostering workplace advancement.
Read MoreSee Red, Be Red for Equal Pay Day, Today
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Red happens to be my favorite color. I’m an Aries after all. A classic one according to my sister (maybe that wasn’t meant as a compliment? Pioneering, passionate courageous, dynamic they say, but also selfish, impulsive, impatient, foolhardy.). Even my planet, Mars, named for the god of war, is red.
So I laughed when tweets from AAUW and National Women’s Law Center (NLRC), two organizations that have been pushing for the Paycheck Fairness Act and have declared this Blogging for Fair Pay Day, told me to wear red today.
No problem. I’ll just close my eyes and pull something out of my closet. It’ll more than likely be red.
There are many fabulous people blogging today about the fact that women make on average 78 cents to every $1 earned by a man, and women of color earn even less: African-American women earn 62¢, Latinas earn 53¢ for $1 earned by white, non-Hispanic men. NLRC can tell you how the comparison shakes down in your state.
Rather than write a long diatribe, I want to link Heartfeldt readers to some sources I’ve found particularly compelling or useful.
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