Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters (12 page)

Women work. We have to. So why is it that we’re still being told that our “natural” place is at home? Sure, women aren’t getting the old 1950s barefoot-and-pregnant crap—but there’s still a strong movement that wants us to back-track our asses to the kitchen, despite the reality of women working. Regardless of the retro messages (be they from the media, government, or otherwise), women are working in force. Still, we’re 40 percent more likely to be poor, earn significantly less than men—and we continue to work that second shift—and do the bulk of the cooking, cleaning, and childcare! So all is definitely not well.

Now, plenty of people—mostly old white guys with high-paying jobs—are arguing that this is all going on because of women’s choices. We
want
to spend more time at home,
so it’s only
natural
that we make less and climb the ranks slower. My ass. The vast majority of American women can’t afford not to work—there’s no choice about it. And these folks who argue that women aren’t making money because we don’t
want
to are the same ones who think that women belong in the home: They’re the leaders from conservative organizations, popular columnists, and even decision-makers in the government. Traditional ideas about women working are more common than you’d think, and there’s a movement of powerful people out there making sure that their messages are getting across—to you.

It’s young women who are most affected by this; we’re the ones starting our careers and maybe even families (married or not). Yet we’re still being fed the same drivel that our mothers and grandmothers were—in revamped language, of course. Ideas about women not wanting to work are being pushed under the rhetoric of “choice” (I know, it’s
our
word!): Women choose to make less, women choose to stay home, women choose not to work as hard. It remains to be seen how many of us will actually fall for this nonsense, but the prevalence of the message is disturbing enough. And when we
do
have children, the same people who were pushing us to be happy homemakers are nowhere to be seen.

The thing that worries me? Of all the issues that young women talk about and get excited about, this seems to be at the bottom of the list. And that seems strange. The things that will potentially affect us the most in life—work, family, money—are the things we discuss the least. That needs to change.

Most women work outside of the home—and have been for some time. So you would think that working life for the gals would be fine by now. Or at least a lot better. Unfortunately, not so much. Some of the same obstacles that existed decades ago are still around in force. Whether it’s pay inequity, harassment, discrimination, or outright lies about the very existence of working women—we’re still facing plenty of hurdles.

It’s pretty unbelievable, but women are still earning significantly less than men in the workplace—and we haven’t made that much headway over the years. The Equal Pay Act was signed in 1963, when women were making about 60 percent of what men did. By 1990, that number went up to 70 percent. Now? It’s a measly 76 percent. Not much of an improvement for more than forty years of so-called progress. Fuckers.

What really pisses me off about the wage gap, though, is that some people are saying it doesn’t exist. Never mind that these statistics come from the government. Whether it’s from the media, conservative pundits, or even the government, their argument is full of crap but scarily prevalent. The common line is that women make less because we take time off to care for kids and family members. My favorite anti-feminist organization, the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), has actually made a career out of making this claim.

Former IWF President Nancy Pfotenhauer has said, “Women often make different choices than men. . . . Many women are willing to trade more money for more flexibility. [They] choose jobs that offer greater flexibility so that they can spend more time with their families. . . . This is a choice that women should be able to make.”
¹
Another conservative, Warren Farrell, makes his living trying to dispute the wage gap. Even worse, he does it in a way that makes it seem like he’s
helping
women. He wrote a book called
Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap—and What Women Can Do About It.
Yeah, right. Farrell says that the wage gap exists because of the choices women make—because they stay at home with their kids or because they cut back to part-time, for example. The problem with arguments like the IWF’s and Farrell’s? They’re total bullshit. The government stat reporting that women make only seventy-six cents to a man’s dollar comes from data that looks at women and men who work full-time. It doesn’t include women who took time off or who worked part-time. So there.

Despite the fact that these folks are clearly talking out of their asses, they’re getting heard. Not only do reputable news sources quote them constantly, but they have pull with government leaders as well.

In fact, in 2004 the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) decided that reporting on women’s wages wasn’t a priority anymore—so they decided to stop. A sneaky move if there ever was one; if the government doesn’t collect data about women’s earnings, then we won’t know how they compare to men’s. So no more wage-gap talk from those annoying feminists. Thankfully, in 2005, the Senate passed an amendment that required the BLS to continue collecting info on women’s pay.
²
But it was a close call.

How to fix the wage gap is a whole other story. Discrimination is widespread, so it’s no easy task. One study out of the University of North Carolina says—and this makes sense to me—that having more women in high-ranking positions can narrow the pay gap.
³
The study reported that American women earn more if women in their company are in senior-level positions; the idea being that women will help other women out. So climb the ranks, gals! We need you there. If only the way to the top weren’t littered with oh-so-fun hurdles like sex discrimination.

Like the wage gap, the glass ceiling is still alive and kicking. Women aren’t in senior positions in the same numbers as men, and they face more obstacles along the way. The glass
ceiling (a term started in the ’80s to describe the “invisible” barriers that stop women from advancing in the workplace) may be even more relevant than in years past, because now, similar to what we’re hearing about the wage gap, people try to argue that it doesn’t exist.

The truth is, it’s still pretty hard for women at work. I’ll spare you the stats (you can get those at the end of the chapter), but let’s just say women in top positions at corporations are few and far between. Especially when it comes to women of color.

But I thought we’ve come a long way, baby?! While there’s no doubt that working life for women is better than it once was, sometimes it seems that not a whole lot has changed.

In the 1960s, the National Organization for Women (NOW) fought for women flight attendants; they were routinely fired for getting pregnant or for being over age thirty-five. The organization also brought attention to help-wanted ads that were separated out by gender. Crazy, right? Antiquated sexism of the past? I wish.

In 2004, Viacom sent out an email about a job opening in the government relations department reading, “We need to hire a junior lobbyist/PAC manager. Attached is a job description. Salary is $85-90K. Must be a male with Republican stripes.”
⁴
In 2005, Virgin Airlines was sued for hiring women based on their looks and age.
⁵
And these are just two examples. (Glad to see we’ve come so far.)

I’m not trying to be a downer, but trying to pretend that we’re all good now just means we’re ignoring the discrimination that still happens—something we can’t afford to do.

So now that we’re all up to speed, here are some common barriers that keep women in lower job ranks:

It’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their sex (or race, color, national organization, or religion, for that matter), but it still happens all the time. The Federal Glass Ceiling Commission found that one of the reasons for discrimination is a “difference” barrier that “manifests through conscious and unconscious stereotyping and bias.”
⁶
So basically, the people who do the hiring like hiring people who look like them. And if it’s a white guy doing the hiring . . . well, you see where I’m going. Sex discrimination also relates to pay, promotions, and general treatment at work. One of the biggest sex discrimination cases to date is a class action suit against Wal-Mart. The corporate giant has been accused of systematically denying women promotions and paying them less. In fact, women make up more than 70 percent of the company’s hourly workforce but less than a third of its management.
⁷

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical
conduct of a sexual nature” that affects a person’s ability to do his or her job or creates “an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”
⁸
So ass-grabbing is definitely out. I joke, but this is serious stuff. Work can be torture for women who are being sexually harassed. And for women who need their jobs to survive (which is most of us), this is an awful situation. Just a couple of examples: A woman in California was spanked—yes, spanked—in front of coworkers.
⁹
And an August 2006 report even showed that a large number of women who try to join the military are abused and harassed by their recruiters.
¹⁰
Sweet, huh?

Plenty of people will become parents while they’re working—but it’s women who take the brunt of discrimination against parents and soon-to-be-parents. Though it’s illegal, employers will routinely not hire young women they think might get pregnant in the near future. Bad for business, you know, ’cause you’ll have to take time off to give birth and such. Beyond that, parenting can take a real toll on a career. Statistics show that mothers earn less and less with each child they have. Welcome to the Mommy Wage Gap. For the first kid a woman has, the wage difference between her salary and a non-mommy’s is 2 to 10 percent less. For the second kid, the gap grows to 4 to 16 percent less. And the reasons why moms get paid less aren’t what you think. A Cornell University study showed that with equal resumes, job experience, and education, not only were women with children
44 percent less likely to be hired than women without children, but when they were offered a position, their starting annual salary was $11,000 lower on average.
¹¹
So as Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, coauthor of
The Motherhood Manifesto,
said in an interview with Feministing, “This is an actual bias up front against mothers—not because of something moms are doing wrong, but because with equal circumstances, the bias is there.”
¹²
The Mommy Wage Gap isn’t there because moms take more time off, or because they don’t work as hard. You do the math.

While the media madness surrounding women and work isn’t something that directly affects women’s day-to-day work lives, it’s something I have to mention because it affects how we all see work and women’s roles.

The “women’s choices” line of reasoning has been around for a while, but it’s made a hardcore comeback in the media these last few years. The worst one I’ve heard yet? Lisa Belkin, a writer for
The New York Times,
wrote an article
on women “opting out” of work in order to stay at home with the kiddies.
¹³
Her subtitle: “Why don’t women run the world? Maybe it’s because they don’t want to.” Puke.

As horrible a tagline as that was, boy, did it cause a stir. That one frigging article from 2003 has been reborn a million times over in the media. And it’s wrong every time. Belkin’s original piece argued that all these highly educated women were dropping out of the workforce to take care of their kids and be housewives because they found it more enjoyable. The problem? Belkin’s theory was based on the idea that
all
the women in America are like the Harvard MBA-holding, rich-ass white women she interviewed. Yeah, not so much. Most women don’t have the financial ability to just decide not to work. Not to mention that just because a handful of elite women are doing something doesn’t make it a social trend. But since the Belkin piece ran, countless similar articles have followed, citing the same “opt out” nonsense. While a couple of articles may not seem like a big deal, the fact is, they put out the false notion of a “trend.” And duh, trends are trendy. Telling young women that the cool new shit is to stay at home (and this, of course, entails having a rich hubby) is not exactly the best message in the world.

The truth? Women aren’t opting out. We can’t! Even those who do have the financial options aren’t dropping out of the workforce. The Center for Economic Policy and Research put out a paper this year titled “Are Women Opting Out?”
¹⁴
The answer was a resounding “hells no.” The paper noted that “the early 2000s recession led to sustained job losses for
all women—those with and without children at home,” and “between 2000 and 2004, thirtysomething mothers with advanced degrees saw no statistically significant change in the effect of children on their labor force participation rates.”
¹⁵
In fact, the women who did leave the workforce because of childcare responsibilities often did so because of the Mommy Wage Gap!