Enough Of The Gender Divide, Already!
If you haven’t already heard that James Chartrand of Men with Pens is actually a woman, then you must have been hiding under a rock. I read the entire post with bated breath and then tried to work out how I felt about it.
I’ve always thought James rocks and that hasn’t changed. If anything I respect James even more for what must have been a tough decision to keep things together at home.
What I find disturbing is that in the 21st century, women are still having to deal with this gender bias cr*p! Writing doesn’t involve any heavy lifting – except of the mental kind – so the only important thing should be whether you can do the job or not. You should also get equal pay if you can do the job – that should be a given.
I never considered operating under a male pseudonym, though I had a friend who did a similar experiment and found that her earnings increased when she did. She got more respect and less haggling. But I do wonder whether all the times when – in spite of my 20+ years of experience and string of clips – I had to make a case for being worth my hire, it was because I am a woman. I’ll be thinking about that one for quite a while.
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4 Responses to “Enough Of The Gender Divide, Already!”
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Get Paid To Write Online by Sharon Hurley Hall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Copyright for posts written by guest authors remains with them.Useful info
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In a way, it’s shocking to think that it could still be an issue at all today, and yet… I do know that the gender bias is still there, all the time.
Terrible though, isn’t it?
It is, Shelly. That was a jaw-dropping post and I’m reloading every so often to follow the comments, some of which are equally mind-boggling.
Just yesterday, I was talking with a colleague who was lamenting about her stagnant career. As I was listening to her, I realized she given her power away to other people. And, I had that same reaction while I was reading James Chartrand’s post.
I think her decision to use a male pen name was more complicated than just “women don’t get respect.” In my view, her life circumstances led her to believe that women don’t have any power in the business arena. Yet, she was still willing to become a successful self-employed business person. Not many people can have such a strong self-defeating view and still succeed anyway. She was able to pay her bills and be an example to her daughters.
Do I honestly believe a gender gap still exists? I believe that you get what you ask for. I know, if they hire me, my clients are getting someone with a PR and advertising background and a graduate degree in marketing communications. When I quote my rate, no one ever haggles with me for a lower price.
While I respect James Chartrand’s choice, I hope that future women writers don’t feel it is mandatory to pretend to be male in order to achieve their dreams.
I certainly hope we get past that one day, Johanna. On reading the comments on the original post, I think it’s clear that our attitudes to gender are complex and sometimes surprise us.