Enough Of The Gender Divide, Already!

If you haven’t already heard that James Chartrand of Men with Pens is actually a woman, then you must have been hiding under a rock. I read the entire post with bated breath and then tried to work out how I felt about it.

I’ve always thought James rocks and that hasn’t changed. If anything I respect James even more for what must have been a tough decision to keep things together at home.

What I find disturbing is that in the 21st century, women are still having to deal with this gender bias cr*p! Writing doesn’t involve any heavy lifting — except of the mental kind — so the only important thing should be whether you can do the job or not. You should also get equal pay if you can do the job — that should be a given.

I never considered operating under a male pseudonym, though I had a friend who did a similar experiment and found that her earnings increased when she did. She got more respect and less haggling. But I do wonder whether all the times when — in spite of my 20+ years of experience and string of clips — I had to make a case for being worth my hire, it was because I am a woman. I’ll be thinking about that one for quite a while.