Jezebel: Careers

Data Proves Moms Aren't Slackers at Work

Anna North — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST

You know how working moms are always taking time off because their kid is sick or there's a school play or something, and that's why they're just unreliable workers who can't be trusted with real responsibility. Yeah, that's bullshit — and there's data to prove it. More »

Women With The Most Education Also Get The Most Maternity Leave

Gwen Sharp, PhD — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:50:00 EST

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released a report on employment and parental leave for first-time mothers, showing how little time women now take off when they have kids. The data also show that the least-educated women in America have the least access to paid leave. More »

Male Sex Hormones May Make Women More Interested In "Things"

Anna North — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:00:00 EDT

A new study provides a sure-to-be-controversial explanation for why women are less likely than men to pursue careers in science and engineering: exposure to male sex hormones in utero appears linked to a later interest in "things" rather than people. More »

Kindergarten Career Day Dares Us To Hope For The Future

Dodai Stewart — Fri, 13 May 2011 18:03:00 EDT

People change. Dreams change. By my highly scientific and official count, you change your mind about three hundred and thirty-three point six gazillion times between kindergarten and age 30. But let's pretend this chart, created by a young inner-city schoolteacher, is a wonderful sign of things to come: Only one "princess" and one "millionaire." More »

Dad Sues Law Firm For Paternity Leave Discrimination

Anna North — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:12:00 EST

A father is suing his former law firm, alleging that they punished him for taking paternity leave. The case highlights something that's obvious but often overlooked: work-life balance is a men's issue too. More »

Flirting At Work May Be More Beneficial Than You Think

Fast Company — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:38:00 EST

Although women make up half of the nation's workforce, they hold only 16.4% of corporate offices in the Fortune 500, 14.7% of Fortune 500 board seats and 1.6% of Fortune 500 CEO positions (Catalyst 2007). So what's new here? More »

Dyeing Your Hair Is The Latest Workplace Concern

Sadie Stein — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 17:40:00 EST

Someone wrote into the career blog Corporette asking for advice on how to look older — a common refrain for young women. But this conversation went off in an interesting direction: to dye or not to dye. More »

Office Wardrobe Options: Bitch Chic Or Slut Style

Sadie Stein — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:28:00 EDT

Writing on MSNBC, Eve Tahmincioglu really kind of sums it up: "Too sexy. Too frumpy. Too conservative. Women can't get a break when it comes to what they choose to wear to work." Which is, it turns out, a problem. More »

Should You Disclose Depression To Your Employer?

Dodai Stewart — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 13:26:00 EDT

"If I had diabetes I would probably tell my company," Sandy says. "But I've never told them this." By "this," she means the fact that she suffers from depression. More »

Will The Mancession Harm "Macho" Career Women?

Anna North — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EDT

Especially since the recession hit, the media's been referring to trades like construction as "traditionally male fields." So what happens when you're the woman on the job site? More »

Today's Interns: Thieving, Scheming, Slutty

Sadie Stein — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 15:45:00 EDT

When we were interns, our biggest concern was finding enough busy-work to look occupied. That's passe: nowadays, "stories of interns abusing their meager status are abundant." More »

Will Guys Read The "Anti-Maxim?"

Anna North — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EDT

Magazines aimed at twentysomething guys lean heavily toward boobs, beer, and boorishness — will young men pick up a title about "career advancement, finances and family life" instead? More »

How Do We End The Wage Gap? Demand Transparent Salaries

LatoyaPeterson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:40:00 EST

Today at Forbes Woman, Mary Ellen Egan questions the cause for the persistent wage gap between men and women. But where are the solutions? More »

If There Were More Female Executives, We Would Have A Different Business World

LatoyaPeterson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST

If women ran Apple, would they have unveiled a product called the iPad? In Business Week, Vivek Wadhwa argues more women are needed in the executive suite (and not just for name changes). More »

Staring Into The Void Of The New Gender Gap

LatoyaPeterson — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:40:00 EDT

Stereotypes abound when it comes to the assessment of women's worth in the workplace. In yesterday's New York Times Magazine, Lisa Belkin analyzes the emerging trends facing women in the recession - and how these perceptions benefit and hurt us. More »

A Reconsideration Of Penelope Trunk, The Miscarriage-Tweeting Career Advisor

Lindsay Robertson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:00 EDT

Last week, career advisor Penelope Trunk Twittered about her miscarriage, sending the blogosphere into a frenzy. I, for one, was nonplussed. But after watching Trunk hold her own with CNN's Rick Sanchez, I've changed my mind. To a point. More »

Special Sauce, Lettuce, Cheese

Anna Holmes — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:10:00 EDT

[Tokyo, September 15. Image via Getty]

What, Only Women?

Sadie Stein — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:30:00 EDT

Auctioneer Kerry Taylor "has what many women might consider the dream job: travelling the world to rummage around the wardrobes of the rich and famous in search of choice pieces of haute couture." [Telegraph] More »

"But... I'm Too Shy To Network!"

LatoyaPeterson — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EDT

In 2008, I started attending conferences with Carmen, had a pocketful of business cards that I only distributed a few of, and felt really uncomfortable and nervous in crowds. This year, she asked me for tips on networking. What changed? More »

Do Women Self Sabotage at Work?

LatoyaPeterson — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:20:00 EDT

Forbes poses the question that I hate to hear: Do women make mistakes at work? Of course they do! Can this be discussed separately from structural and societal issues that contribute to self-sabotage? Hell no! More »

And Eat It Too

Sadie Stein — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:20:00 EDT

Cake-artist Kristin Peres: "I spent far too long in a job I didn't love because I thought I couldn't do this for a living...I have learned that you can make anything work if you want it bad enough." [Shameless] More »

Keep On Truckin'

Sadie Stein — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:20:00 EDT

"Once a rare sight on British roads, women lorry drivers are increasing in number. Better technology has made the driving easier and, along with female-friendly policies... is helping to erode what was a sole preserve of the unreconstructed male." [TimesUK] More »

A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Peggy Parker, Girl Inventor

Sadie Stein — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:00:00 EDT

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I was so excited when I found Peggy Parker: Girl Inventor at a rummage sale, but when I started reading, my happiness turned to ash. Despite taking a progressive view towards female inventors, the book is incredibly, how do I put this, racist. So, this time it's not a recommendation. More »

A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Flair For People

Sadie Stein — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EDT

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1955's A Flair For People, by CarRom fave Helen Wells, takes us into the wild and woolly world of personnel wars, where Ann has to learn to balance her heart with her head...or does she? More »

Are Women Having Babies Earlier Because They Take Their Careers For Granted?

Anna North — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST

Basketball star Candace Parker is pregnant at 22, making her one of the young moms driving down the average age of first-time motherhood in America. Why the drop? Sit back and watch the media speculate. More »

A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Special Kind of Love

Sadie Stein — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:40:00 EST

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"Social Worker Helen Wilder's philosophy was simple: some decisions are made with the head, some with the heart. But what happens when the heart is divided?" Find out in this career romance for young moderns! More »

Oldie But Goodie

Sadie Stein — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:40:00 EST

If women are leaving science careers in droves, you can't blame the Gilbert company, whose 1958 "Lab Technician Set For Girls" probably gave a lot of budding Marie Curies their first crack at chemistry! Why, you ask, couldn't they just use a regular old "boy's" chemistry set? And why, for that matter, was "lab technician" the apex of aspiration? Hey, there were probably a lot of parents who would not have stuck this under the Christmas tree without that pastel palette to reassure them - especially as it's described as a "career-builder set!" And from what we can tell, with the exception of a few pink accents, the actual contents of the set was disappointingly gender-neutral. [Guardian, Chemical Heritage Flickr] More »

Saint Joan

Sadie Stein — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:30:00 EST

You think that wax Joan Rivers stays so perfect without surgical intervention? She gets her tuneups at the Madame Tussaud's repair room, "a gruesome human body shop of sorts, a grisly place where unmouthed teeth and disembodied heads are strewn across the tables and the floor." The wax museum's team of artists and costumers is privy to the "confidential files" of all their subjects — necessary, presumably, for accurate replication — as well as repairing those breaches of ego caused by unflattering representations. But as they see it, their job is a lot bigger than that: one wax artist likens their work to that of the 16th century churchwomen responsible for dressing the figures of saints. “It says something dreadful about our culture, but celebrities are the saints of today.” [New York Times] More »

The Office: Your Job Is Like A Big, Unhappy Family!

Sadie Stein — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:20:00 EST

Hate your boss? Maybe that's because he's a stand-in for your withholding dad. Competitive with a coworker? Obviously she reminds you of your little sister. According to a piece in today's Times, workplace relationships tend to mirror family (dys)function. Which means, basically, we're all screwed. More »

A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Dreams To Shatter

Sadie Stein — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST

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"Polly thought her dream of creating beautiful, original pottery was over — broken like some fragile vase — but it was to come true in a totally unexpected way." In case you guessed that our latest career romance for young moderns, Virginia Kitzmiller's Dreams to Shatter was written in the 60s, you'd be right! 1967, to be precise, when ceramics were sweeping the nation! So: Potter's wheels, shattered dreams and, of course, romance — after the jump. More »

A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Campaign For Pam

Sadie Stein — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:00:00 EST

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"His enemies would stop at nothing to block Lex St. Johns' nomination for the U.S. Senate - and Pam, who loved him, would stop at nothing to protect him." Welcome to a simpler time in American politics, and this week's career romance for young moderns, Teresa Holloway's A Campaign For Pam, from 1970. Handsome young politicians, earnest environmentalists, polyester knit dresses, feisty career gals, intrigue - and, of course, romance - after the jump! More »

Oldies But Goodies

Sadie Stein — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST

A tipster sent us a swell Friday treat: 1951's The Home Economics Story, from the Home Ec Division of Iowa State. The film follows Kay, an earnest high school student who is inspired to pursue the exciting path of Home Economics after seeing a riveting assembly speaker. After arriving at college, Kay and her friends study physics (that "even a girl could like!"), art, chemistry, nutrition and diorama-making before deciding to pursue careers in teaching, applied art (to become a department store buyer), "household equipment," and hospital nutrition. "Good jobs. Interesting jobs. Well-paid, too!" [YouTube] More »

9 To 5

Anna Holmes — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:30:00 EDT

An interesting yet ultimately depressing hypothesis found on a blog-post about our feature Fine Lines: "I can’t remember where I read this, but on a blog recently someone hypothesized that the reason Jezebel is so popular is because smart women are underutilized in their jobs." [South In The Winter] More »

Cosmo Thinks Women With Integrity Are Total Failures

Jessica G. — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EDT

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Cathy Alter might claim that women's magazines saved her life, but we're a little more skeptical. To crib a line from Cher Horowitz, looking for advice in a Cosmo quiz is as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie, and yet, something about the title of this quiz enticed me: Are You Destined For Success? Feeling reasonably content with my career trajectory, I thought to myself, I am totally going to ace this idiot quiz. How wrong I was! My lack of ruthlessness or duplicity caused Cosmo to term me an "Undetermined Dawdler." (BURN!!!) Here's the first question: "While shopping, you and a pal spot a top that you both love, but there's only one left. Do you let her have it?" The options are: A) Yeah, it's not worth fighting over. B) Hell no, you'll tear it out of her hands if you have to. C) You try to steer her toward another shirt that would look much hotter on her, hoping she'll take the bait. I chose A, because, you know, she's my friend and it's just a shirt. Wrong answer! More »

Want To Make More Money? Don't "Sound Black." Or Southern!

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Over on the New York Times "Freakonomics" blog, Steven D. Levitt tackles the issue of "sounding black." Specifically: As it relates to one's salary. Levitt's University of Chicago colleague, Jeffrey Grogger, compared the wages of people who “sound black” when they talk to those who do not. Apparently, if you "sound black," you earn 10% less than if you do not "sound black," and Levitt adds that this is "even after controlling for measures of intelligence, experience in the work force, and other factors that influence how much people earn." Plus! "For what it is worth," he writes, "whites who 'sound black' earn 6 percent lower than other whites." Oh, and ready for this? Levitt notes: "It turns out you don’t want to sound southern, either. Although pretty imprecisely estimated, it is almost as bad for your wages to sound southern as it is to sound black, even controlling for whether you live in the south." Effing hell. Where to begin? More »

Should You Get Plastic Surgery To Stay Competitive At The Workplace? Gordon Patzer PhD. Thinks So!

Moe — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Fun new trend being reported by two-thirds of plastic surgeons! People are getting it done to "remain competitive in the workplace," with eye jobs and teeth-whitening two of the most popular procedures. Hey, cheaper than going back to school and easier than learning Flash design! Maybe I should look into it? Gordon Patzer Ph.D, author of Looks: Why They Matter More Than You Ever Imagined, a book bemoaning this trend, would apparently advocate it. "It's a good investment for the workplace," he says, noting that investments that improve your physical appearance and make you appear younger can ultimately delay the decline of your workplace effectiveness as you age." Einstein and Napoleon, Patzer warns, are "exceptions, that do not disprove the rule." More »

When Does Getting Fired Feel Too Much Like Getting Dumped?

Moe — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:20:00 EDT

Yesterday's post about voters' breakup letters to Hillary Clinton prompted a reader to bring up a fascinating topic: being "dumped" by another important constituency that is not your boyfriend, which is to say, your boss. It has happened to all of us — or anyway, me — which is to say: Male boss hires female employee; male boss grooms female employee in the image of some other female employee with whom he had a tempestuous relationship/used to jerk off thinking about; male boss realizes female employee does not precisely fit the underling mold he had envisioned, male boss finds pretty new replacement and commences walking the long way around old female employee's cubicle in effort to forget he ever hired her. Is this common? And how do you fight back? By sending the whole pathetic story to Jezebel for commenteraderie, of course! After the jump, reader "Lindsay's" sad tale of the pink slip that read like a crap email: More »

Angry Women In The Workplace Seen As "Less Competent" Than Men

Jessica G. — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Yale psychologist Victoria Brescoll has confirmed what has long been the suspicion of many women: you cannot afford to get angry at the office if you own a vagina. According to science news site EurekAlert, Brescoll's study, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, showed that "People accept and even reward men who get angry but view women who lose their temper as less competent." The study involved showing subjects videos of male and female actors applying for a job; aterwards, the viewers were asked to rate the "applicants" on how competent they were, how much salary they deserved, and if they should be hired or not. "Both men and women in the reached the same conclusions," notes EurekAlert, "Angry men deserved more status, a higher salary, and were expected to be better at the job than angry women," regardless of the level of job for which the fake applicants were applying. More »

Women Are Underrepresented In Corporate America. Corporate America Is A Laughingstock. Coincidence?

Moe — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:00:52 EDT

Why don't women have more power in corporate America? This month's Portfolio wrings its manicured hands over just that! The number of female board officers of Fortune 500 companies has been steadily falling over the past few years. As is the number of female lawyers! Zoe Cruz and Carly Fiorina, two of capitalism's highest profile females, have left leadership altogether! But it's such a sore subject, no one wants to talk about it. (Oh, also, when the Wall Street Journal did its annual section about "50 Women To Watch," all the ladies looked kinda butch. And then there was that Hillary Clinton Vogue debacle. Why do none of the women in power really want to appear very womanly?) And amidst all this there is this new book coming out called Warren Buffet Invests Like A Girl? It just doesn't make sense! Oh, but it does! Stop skirting the issue! Women don't run shit in corporate America because corporate America holds up high everything we hate about dudes. Obsessed with short-term thrills. Driven by them. Too often wholly lacking in any sort of long-term exit strategy. Competitive to the point of lunacy, arrogant to the point of self-immolation. More »

Crying At Work: Generally A Dumb Idea, Right?

Moe — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:00:37 EDT

Thirty letters I never expected to see on the cover of a women's magazine: "Why you should have a good cry at work." But there they are! On the April Marie Claire, boasting a story pegged to Hillary Clinton's voter-friendly tear session on the campaign trail. Immediately I began thinking of snarky substitutes for Cover Lies. "Great idea! For me to blow my snot on!" or "No, listen! Women more gullible than you will read this story and NOT REALIZE WE'RE PURPOSELY SABOTAGING THEIR CAREERS. Thus clearing the way for you smart 'Marie Claire' readers to advance! See that? Darwinism, baby!" Yeah, anyway. So: then I felt like a hypocrite. Here I am, in my home office, hard at work, and oh shit, lookie here, a tear. (Though I will note I have company in at least one Wonkette reader's conservative 75-year-old granddad.) Anyway, back to the point: of course I've cried at work. We all have! But we'd take it back if we could, right? More »