Identity and gender issues in today's world at work

James Chartrand is what one can say a successful author in a very competitive field of freelance writing. He is a regular contributor at copyblogger and his own blog Men with Pens is listed in the top 10 blogs for writers. But the success did not come easy for him. Not too long ago he was struggling to make the ends meet. He just came out of a bad relationship and has two daughters to care for as a single parent. He was earning just $8/week writing articles on the net. But he persisted and was doing better consistently. Despite his best efforts, he had hit a plateau in terms of earning. Then he decided to do something drastic. He made a conscious decision to switch his identity - he became a male. Yes, James is female and became James(it's her pseudonym) when (s)he decided to change her online identity. Not unexpectedly enough, James saw an increased respect and billing for her work. James would sometimes submit two resumes with both identities and invariably her male identity would get more interview calls, had more success getting the assignments and better rates. The story of James Chartrand in her own words can be found here.

Few years ago I was working in Dallas. My roommate was also my classmate while I was at WVU. One day he had a question - 'What is a good Indian name for a woman?'. I did not get the point of that question. So I asked him why he wanted a female name. He said that there was a woman at his work who was a consultant and her current work is about to come to an end. She seems to have trouble getting calls for prospective work. She felt that her identity as an African American was the cause. I sympathized with her as I have seen immigrants both male and female changing their identities especially names to more European/anglicized ones. But this was the first and only instance I have seen a US citizen resorting to a tactic of reverse identity change for reasons which are highly stereotypical. So she took an Indian identity following the stereotypical association of Indians being good with computers. I believe the reason for immigrants taking up anglicized names are similar - avoid being screened off of potential jobs, wanting to blend in and other reasons.

Women have taken up the identify of men in the distant and near past for reasons well known. The most popular is the Joan of Arc. Another lady Dorothy Lawrence was an English reporter who dressed up as a man to participate in the World War I. There are examples in folklore as well where women who have taken up identify as men. The story made famous by the Disney movie of the same name is that of Mulan based on a Chinese Ballad. It is interesting to note that all the above instances are of women dressing up as men to fight in wars. War catches attention like nothing else.

I am sure there were many other instances where women had taken up an identity as men in the ages where women rights were not honored and were legally not considered as equals to men. But after so much advancement and after successful women's rights movement, one would think that those stories are of the past and women do not have to resort to those sorts of measures. It is failure of our society to provide equal opportunities to women as those provided to men.

Is is a well known fact that gender wage gap exists. It appears to be a saving grace when you consider the fact that women fare better than men during recessions. More men tend to get laid off during recessions. But if you take a deeper look, it is only because more women work in recession proof jobs like those in education and health care whereas men are more employed in industries like manufacturing, banking and construction which get impacted by a recession more severely. So the 'faring better' fact can only be attrributable to the industries than the fact that society somehow sees women to be better working than men. Also the fact that women only earn about 80 cents to every dollar a man makes tends to sheild them from getting laid off. Moreover, women are less likely to negotiate than men, while women who do negotiate are seen in a negative light and tend to be penalized subtlely. It appears discrimination does exist and it will take some time before we call it quits on Equal Pay Day.

In the words of James Chartrand 'if just a name and perception of gender creates such different levels of respect and income for a person, it says a lot more about the world' we live in.

The gift that was not to be.

This Thursday when I reached work, on my port replicator was a small package. I was pleasantly surprised and quickly opened the lid on the cylinder box. I was about to open the contents in the see through polythene bag inside the box when my manager came to my desk. He talked about some project I was working one. Without thinking much, I had assumed it was a gift from him for the holidays.

I opened the contents in the plastic package and I found that it was decal. It was like an epiphany - the decal had the saying 'Family - is one that believes in one another'. My kid and the family are in India and I felt like this was a divine message for me. Epiphany or not, I decided to thank my mystery gift giver. I checked with my first suspect on my next meeting with him. My manager said that he did not and asked me to tell him if I find who it was as he found it amusing. I went around the work, preposterously thanking people only to be more desirous to solve the mystery when they said it was not them who was the generous gift giver.

As Murphy's laws states, you will find the thing you are looking for in the last place you look. So as one last attempt, I called my colleague who had already gone for the day. He said that it was he who placed the decal on my desk. The mystery had finally been resolved. I felt like Sherlock. But as it happens with me always, the story has a twist in the climax.

He mentioned that it was the item that I had ordered from him as part of his girl's Girl Scout donation drive at work. Well my euphoria was gone. It is not a gift as I had thought. But then again the story would be simple if it ends there. The item I had on my desk was not the one that I wanted. I had ordered a photo frame.

We have been in a photo and photo frame buying spree in the last few months. We have been decking the walls in our homes with the pictures of our baby. First it was the small frame for holding the regular 4X6 photo when the kid was 3 months. By the fifth month, the frames graduated to the 8X10 size. Recently, on the heels of my kid's sixth month, we have been to the picture people and were amazed by the quality of the pictures they take. We wanted to buy every picture they were showing us. They took about 16 good photos for 2 costumes. I am glad we did not take more costumes. Cooler senses prevailed after finding the price of each portrait-$18 per portrait picture. We still managed to end up buying 5 of them and the frame size graduated to the mighty 10X13. At this rate, we need to move to a new home like a mansion or something with really huge walls for the picture frames and their ever increasing sizes at the alarming rate of 35 sq. in./month((13*10-6*4) sq. in./(3 months)).

Since we were in this photo frame buying spree, I had ordered a picture frame from my colleague when he came for his daughter's girl scout donation drive. I wanted to kill two birds at the same time; bought the frames though they were expensive so I can feel good about contributing to charity. Santa must have said from the north pole -'Bad, Bad boy. No gift for you this year as you have been naughty'. Thus, the curtain had finally dropped on this drama in my life with me receiving an item I did not want in the guise of a deceiving epiphanous gift.