Insurgents' Ink: I'm Still Minding the Fucking Gap

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

I'm Still Minding the Fucking Gap

Wage inequality has just increased, according to a recent article by Forbes. They report the findings of The Institute for women's Policy Research, which tell us that

Controlling for inflation, women’s earnings increased by 0.9 percent, while men’s earnings increased by 2.6 percent since 2014.

When I was in college, my sociology teacher told us that one reason for this was that women don't usually negotiate their salaries. Well, I'd be damned if that was going to be me! Fast forward a decade or so and you'd find me ankle deep in confusing stacks of full-time, tenure-track teaching new-hire paperwork. I was already intimidated. In the teaching world, there is a chart: X degree + X number years experience = X salary. My professor had mentioned this too as one of the reasons women don't think they can, and therefore don't, negotiate.

Despite ALL of this, I thought I should check and be sure. I asked a fellow teacher at a different college and was told that some unions allow and some don't allow negotiation. I asked my union representative via email if I was allowed to negotiate for my salary. His response was not a simple "yes" or "no," but (are you ready for this...sitting down?) "Why would you negotiate?" Emails were exchanged where I tried to state my case for earning more (moving to a much more expensive area, beating over 200 other candidates, publications... "None of these," my union representative said, "would be convincing to the administration." I was defeated. If I couldn't even get the support of my union, I wasn't about to try with my new employer.

When I sat down to sign my formal contract next to my salary it said "or as negotiated." I could have cried right there in the office. Instead, I signed and have held a resentment for that dope of a union rep. ever since.

BUT, I want this to be INSTRUCTIVE for others who have yet to negotiate at that first "real job" or any job. Here's what I learned:

1) You don't have to ask if you can negotiate. JUST NEGOTIATE. It's always negotiable.
2) Ask someone for help with negotiating. My husband had negotiated his salary several times, but not once did I ask his advice. I thought I had to do it all on my own. BIG mistake!
3) It ain't over until you sign that contract. I could have told the HR person that I actually wanted to speak to X about my salary. I didn't have to sign it right then.
4) Believe in what you're worth. Then, ask for it. Men do, and that's part of why they get more money than us.

Insurgents, what advice would you give a young woman about to negotiate her salary for the first time?

P.S. I forgot to put in my original posting that taking my own advice above, I successfully negotiated my salary at my next job!

P.P.S. Here is a helpful article for current job-seekers/ interviewers: "Get the Salary You Deserve: 4 Steps to Figuring out What You're Really Worth."

And another one on Equal Pay Day (and why we still need it)

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Bios

Amber Dickey- Co-Editor
She received an M.A. in English with an emphasis on literature and a B.A. in English with an American literature concentration from CSU Sacramento. As an undergraduate, Amber won second place in the Bazzanella Literary Awards for her critical analysis of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland. She is an avid fan of the Lost Generation writers, Héléne Cixous, bell hooks, Judith Butler, and many, many others. Her interests lie in the arts, poverty and race studies, gender studies, queer theory, pedagogy, and the Feminist Movement debate. She credits her mother's strength and perseverance as a single mother of three with inspiring her to work hard for everything she wants and never take shit from anyone.

Autumn Newman- Co-Editor
Autumn is a feminist new-formalist poet who received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast low-residency program where she had the opportunity to work with poets Annie Finch, Baron Wormser and many other talented writers. She also holds a BA in English from California State University, Sacramento, where the poet and professor Joshua McKinney infected her with a seemingly innocent, yet unyielding, addiction to formal poetics. Autumn’s poems have appeared in various small poetry journals and most recently online at Able Muse and Cider Press Review. Aside from poetry and feminism, Autumn’s passions include: pedagogy, graphic novels, music, film, domestic violence education, race relations and all issues that affect and contribute to the unequal power structure of our society.

What's in a Name?

Insurgents’ Ink is a labor of love, and at no moment were the labor pains more evident than when we struggled to come up with an appropriate name for this blog. French feminist Héléne Cixous in her well-known piece from the 1970s, Laugh of the Medusa, famously explicated her concept of insurgency. In it, she urges her female readers to commit an act of insurgency by the simple act of writing, an act, she argues, that allows females to actively resist the historical imperative that women remain in the background. Writing allows women to reclaim their bodies and their minds.

Of course, the term “insurgent” has taken on a far more insidious connotation in our post-9/11 world; read anachronistically, Cixous seems to be likening écriture féminine to terrorism. While we certainly do not wish to take Cixous’ words out of context, we got a chuckle out of the female-writer-as-terrorist connection. But more importantly, we wanted to acknowledge the feminist thinkers who have come before us.

But “Insurgents” is only one half of the name; “Ink” forms the other half and is inspired by the same source. Cixous extends her insurgency metaphor to include writing with white ink: a dual reference to maternity and invisibility. It was important to us that our blog not only provoke our readers, but also inspire them to write. And it is our hope that Insurgents’ Ink will do just that.

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Unlike many blogs, Insurgents’ Ink is not intended as a forum for one individual’s personal opinions. Rather, the purpose of this blog is to provide a forum for a number of people not only to express their opinions, but also to contribute critical essays as well as poems and short works of fiction.

Our intent is to facilitate meaningful discussions, knowing full well that we will encounter differing opinions, and welcoming the subsequent dialogue.

Whether you are female or male, a believer in a “fourth wave” of feminism or a champion of the Nietzschean-like declaration that “Feminism is Dead”—we believe that virtually anything can be approached through a feminist lens. And perhaps more importantly, we believe that contemporary issues confronting feminists and females should be discussed amongst a broad collective of writers.

We encourage you to follow our blog and share your thoughts/writing with a community of feminists! If you’re interested in submitting an essay, poem, or short fiction, please read the “Submission Requirements."