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.