I have held some kind of job for 50 continuous years, beginning with one of the hardest occupations to do well -- babysitting. The first job I held in a real company was as a clerk in the insurance department of a hospital. When I filled out my paperwork to be hired, I asked why there were two minimum pay scales posted -- one for men and one for women. I was eighteen, and didnt understand why I was being paid 20 cents an hour less (a big sum in those days) to do the same job as the other high school senior (a male) that they were hiring at the same time. They told me that was the way it was, and to take it or leave it. I took it, because there was no alternative. As it turned out, I spent a lot of the summer correcting the male clerks work, and I consistently received a lower paycheck than he did. When I got to college, the library where I worked part-time paid everybody the same hourly rate, which wasnt a lot, but at least it was evenly chintzy across the board. However, when our senior year rolled around and the companies came to conduct job interviews for the graduating students, the female students (who had paid exactly the same tuition as the male students) were told to vacate their appointments to accommodate the demand from the male students if there was a shortage of time slots for interviews. When I asked why, I was told that it was more important for the boys to get the jobs since we (the female students) would probably just work a couple of years before we got married and got pregnant. And I could take it or leave it. I took it, but my appointment with a Chicago ad agency got handed to a boy whose papers I had edited for two years. I made my way into the general population of the masses yearning to be free, and worked as a corporate writer for a broad spectrum of industries ranging from manufacturing to religious publishing and agriculture. Along the way, I picked up some advertising copywriting clients, and that work continues to this day. If I was paid less than men who crafted prose about asphalt, horse stanchions, artificial insemination, methane recovery, and lay ministry -- then I was never aware of it. Im not saying its impossible. I just never bothered to investigate. Its still not perfect in the working world for women, but it is immensely better than it used to be. However, I am discovering that as a mature female, I am encountering a whole new arena of resistance to my presence among the employed, but it usually emanates from other women who cant figure out what I am doing tottering around unassisted. My days of sauntering into a boardroom for a meeting and winning the room with a smile are long gone. What I have been left with and have to offer is 40 years of experience as a corporate and business writer, and more miles I can track behind me than a satellite. If you want to hire 40 years of experience, be prepared for it to come wrapped in a spandex-free package. Because thats just the way it is, take it or leave it.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 18:50:27 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015