Belkin begins by pointing out an uncomfortable truth:

[I]t is also unsettling to face the fact that so much of the history of women in the workplace (both their leaps forward and their slips back) is a reaction to what was happening to men.

That was the case in the 1930s, when working women were dismissed so that they didn't take jobs from able-bodied males with families to support. During the 1940s women were invited back in, a replacement work force when the men went to war. By the 1950s and into the '60s women lost their higher-paying blue-collar jobs and took lower-paying ones in the expanding retail and service sectors or returned home; in the 1970s the most ambitious among them rebelled - a period when women truly commandeered the train and drove it forward, often sacrificing dreams of children to get ahead. By the 1980s mothers worked because of the growing feeling that households needed two incomes, and the realization dawned that the workplace was designed to fit the life of a man with a wife at home rather than a woman juggling work and family.

As times have progressed, women have made modest gains in the workplace, but true equality still eludes us. Issues like equal pay, adequate child care, and the penalty for opting out of the workforce to raise a family still plague workers, but have also acted as a somewhat unwelcome benefit:

Primarily, women are still cheaper. They earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man, and in a flailing economy employers see that as an attractive quality. Women who are returning to the work force after several years at home raising children are particularly cheap. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy, has estimated that the penalty is 10 percent of income for every two years out of the job market, a loss that is never recouped. From the hiring side of the table, that may be a good bargain.

In addition, women are concentrated in lower-paying industries, like health care and education, where there have been fewer layoffs, rather than in higher-paying realms, like finance, construction and manufacturing, which have contracted. Why this is true has long been an economic chicken-and-egg question - are these professions less lucrative and prestigious because they are predominantly held by women, or are they predominantly held by women because men are less likely to take them given their lower pay and status? But whatever the cause, the end result is that the "female" professions have not suffered as much this past year.

In addition to the fact that women workers are seen as cheaper, we're also apparently big on commitment:

When choosing among overqualified applicants for a position, employers often seem more comfortable hiring a woman for a step-down job. Ellen Galinsky, president and co-founder of the Families and Work Institute, says women might be seen as less resentful about taking a job with less money and authority, and they might also be less likely to bolt if something better comes along. Especially "if a woman is coming back to work and has had difficulty finding a job, the assumption is she is going to be more grateful than the man," she says.

But David Zinzecko's concept of the he-cession is still a ways off the mark - according to studies, successful, high earning women are being laid off at the same rates as men.

As Belkin concludes:

It is not good news when women surpass men because women are worth less. Perversely, real progress might come when we reach the place where a financial wallop means women lose as much ground as men.

The New Gender Gap [New York Times]

Earlier:
"Breadwinner Wives" Are Still Losing

Today Penelope Trunk, CEO of brazencareerist.com and self-styled career advice expert, posted the video of her appearance on CNN on Tuesday, in which she defended her controversial decision to tweet about her miscarriage in a board meeting last week. While I haven't changed my mind (even a little) about the wisdom of announcing such private information in a professional setting (and, yes, her particular Twitter account was a professional setting and she framed it as career advice from an expert — this was not a woman venting to her friends; this was, essentially, a press release), I now believe that if this highly unusual exchange is what resulted, maybe the whole weird thing was worth it.

Aside from the entertainment aspect of watching Rick Sanchez basically throw up his hands in defeat here, Trunk's matter-of-fact way of talking about abortion is so unheard of that it's jarring even to the ears of a die-hard pro-choicer. I've heard women talk about abortions this way with their friends, of course, but never on national television. And honestly, it's refreshing. Sanchez starts the interview by calling Trunk "young lady" and asking if she has any shame. Trunk takes it from there:

"Whether or not you believe women should have the right to abortion, they do in this country." Wow. While I still think I would find it difficult to respect a boss, male or female, who announced the details of his or her bodily functions in the workplace, and while I firmly believe that it was terrible career advice, if Penelope Trunk had to lose some people's respect to get us talking openly about abortion access on national news, then more power to her.

My Miscarriage - On CNN, ABC And AOL [CNN]

Earlier: What Was Penelope Trunk Thinking Twittering About Her Miscarriage?

[Tokyo, September 15. Image via Getty]

TOKYO - SEPTEMBER 15: A child makes a hamburger as she plays the role of a hamburger shop clerk during their work experience activities at KidZania on September 15, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan. KidZania offer children more than 50 career experiences with parents not allowed to help their children during 30 minutes long activities. Kidzania have been fully booked every day since its opening in 2006. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

First, some background. I'm generally an introvert by nature, and I converted myself into an extrovert sometime in high school. It was not a simple process, and my introvert self manifests in some weird ways. (Example: Most of my friends know that if they haven't heard from me in a few weeks, it just means I'm in need of alone time, not that I'm dead.) So, going up to complete strangers and trying to talk yourself up seemed like a horrifying proposition under the best of circumstances. Doing something like this in a work context was even more mortifying, and I openly envied the skills of my boyfriend and close friends, who seemed to have no problems at all starting up conversations with the people next to them on the bar stool, the bus, or in line at a concert.

But, unfortunately, we can't escape networking. The idea that we have to network, network, network is a staple of career advice, but they never explain exactly how we are supposed to go about this. It's great to say "be where the people are," but then what do you say to them? These career articles never seem to focus on the talking part. So, here are some quick tips on networking, from an fake extrovert who still finds herself nervously fiddling with a drink before she can put on her game face:

• Focus on Making Friends
  There seems to be this idea that networking means you always work the room, schmoozing and handing out business cards like there is no tomorrow. This does not work for me. The only time I ever feel compelled to work a room is when we host a Racialicious meet up. Other than that, I'm cool. But one of the tactics I've found to take the pressure off of networking is to go to events and try to locate one person that you want to talk to. Instead of rushing around and trying to meet everyone, focus on two to three people you would like to get to know. For example, I was at Feminism 2.0, just listening to the speakers, and heard girl pipe up that she worked in video games. After the session was over, I made a beeline to her seat and introduced myself as a fellow girl gamer.

  The person I made friends with that day was Tina Tyndal, and she ended up introducing me to her world of gaming professionals. And while I have more fun with Tina's crazy personality, it also helps that she is able to point me toward getting more involved with the gaming world.

• Use Tools
  Some times, networking isn't as much about meeting new people as it is about keeping in touch with those you already know. A while ago, I had designs on working for the Discovery Channel. They had a job that looked tailor-made for me, and I was raring to get into the company. But my resume didn't reflect my digital knowledge, and I really wanted to meet with someone in human resources there who could explain my chances. I went to LinkedIn, and searched for "Discovery Channel" to see if there was anyone close to someone in my network who worked there. Lo and behold, one of my old coworkers currently had a job there. We hadn't spoken in a few years, but it was a lot easier shooting off an email to him than to someone I had never met.

  
  

• Force Yourself to Make Three Openings
  A long time ago, when I was so broke I tried to work as a telemarketer, I learned something from the training that has always stuck with me. The trainers at the company made sure to stress that you always should attempt to get in "three asks." Before someone hangs up the phone, you need to ask them to try the product at least three times before admitting defeat. Unfortunately, I wasn't great at harassing people to purchase magazine subscriptions, so I only lasted a day. However, that three asks idea stuck with me, and I started re-inventing the rule for various scenarios.

  In networking in a new environment, I always try to make three openings. Normally, I'm slightly uncomfortable and sitting back against the wall nursing a drink. But by implementing the three openings rule, I force myself to approach three people, and try to initiate conversations with them using three different topics. (Why three different topics? The first one doesn't always catch, leaving awkward silence.) After that, if I completely strike out, I'm free to hang on the wall with my drink. But what normally happens is that at least one person is receptive to the opening, and then I have a hang buddy. Or, best case scenario, I chat up the right person who will make all the introductions for me. Sweet!

• Plan Ahead
  Before going to a conference or event, try to get some information. Who else is attending? Is anyone else you know going? Can you bring a friend? Is there anyone speaking that you are going to really want to pitch yourself/your product to? Be prepared - it's a helpful way to combat nervousness.

  
  

• Make the Most of Your Downtime
  A few years ago, I read Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time. The book was a worthwhile read, but it was his title idea that made the most impact on me. After one particularly fruitful conference, I was having a hard time trying to remember to contact all the people I met on business cards. Ferrazzi's tip was to schedule lunch meetings, calls, and other types of relationship maintenance when you are otherwise idle. So you grabbing a sandwich turns into an hour long catch-up session at Cosi, and you being stuck waiting for the bus can be turned into time when you are talking to someone you met at an event. Quality relationships do require some nurturing, but if you are smart about your time, it's much less painful.

  
  

• Think of Networking as "Paying It Forward"
  A lot of people - especially women - have problems talking themselves up. It feels like bragging or boasting, and some people just are not comfortable with that. And that's fine. So instead of thinking about networking as a way to promote yourself, think of it in terms of being able to do favors for others. How can you help someone? Can you connect your friend who wants to do more advertising for her business with a friend that does graphic design? Or connect a show producer with someone you know would be an interesting guest? Then there you are.

  I say think of it as "paying it forward" because regarding networking as a series of favors does not lend itself to a tit for tat trade-off. Think of it as banking favors from the universe. If you have a request of someone you've done a favor for, by all means, ask them, but don't have any expectations that they will do so. Instead, focus on connecting people in need - I find that is a great way to keep people thinking of you, and trying to figure out how to repay the favor.

• Accept Invitations
  Just go. Go out. When someone says let's go somewhere, force yourself to go. A lot of times, our personal networks are limited because we just don't know that many people. So the solution to this? Meet more people. Don't worry if the first few times, you're just showing up. Get your three openers in and keep showing up. Eventually, you'll start to meet people who are moving in the same circles. I dragged my friend Tina to a writer's meet up, where she didn't know anyone and I met quite a few cool people, while reconnecting with some other folks I knew. At that meet up, I banged into Nisha Chittal, who runs Politicoholic and recently moved to the area to continue her total domination of all things tech and politics. Though I didn't know her, I remembered her photo from her site and talked to her for a few.

  The next week, Tina dragged me to a tech meet up where I thought I didn't know anyone. Then, Nisha came in through the door and introduced me to Shireen Mitchell a.k.a Digital Sista. And, as I was walking around in search of a chair, I ran into Kety Esquivel of Cross Left and NCLR, who I had last seen at South by Southwest.

  After a while, you become an accidental regular.

• If You Admire Someone, Let Them Know
  I was in the middle of working on a paper on race, video games, and digital space when suddenly my blackberry started going off. In the same day, I got five separate emails from friends and readers all asking me the same question: Did I know Celestine Arnold? One friend was even launched a playful jab - "You better get on your grind, LP, someone's about to take your spot!"

  At that point in time, I wasn't aware of any other black women talking about video games in the public sphere. So, I looked her up. She had rocked her speech at PSFK and had been making huge moves in marketing and branding. I felt a quick stab of professional envy and quashed it just as fast. That competitiveness between women and people of color is encouraged, many times in the hopes that we will focus on taking each other out. So I shook it off, googled her a bit, found her email address and shot off an introduction and congratulations. And what do you know? She wrote back, and is every bit as awesome in person as she appears online.

Any tips from your own experiences? Something I forgot to address? Leave them in the comments.

Official Site [New Demographic]
Game On! Working in the Video Game Industry [Tina Tyndal's Blog]
Official Site [LinkedIn]
Never Eat Alone [Amazon]
Official Site [Politicoholic]
Official Site [Shireen Mitchell]
Official Site [Cross Left]
PSFK Conference New York Speaker: Celestine Arnold [PSFK]

The Forbes piece rehashes what I've seen in a thousand other articles about women in the workplace. The article opens with this story:

When Marny Lifshen, a 40-year-old Texan and mother of two, began her career as a marketing and PR coordinator at a law firm some 20 years ago, she made a big mistake: not negotiating a fair salary. Her error set a precedent that followed her for nearly two decades.

"To some degree that has limited the amount of money I make today," Lifshen admits. "I didn't have the guts [to ask for more money]. I knew I was worth more."

As usual, the focus falls solely on the shoulders of Lifshen. No mention is made of the social penalty that women face for negotiating, or how aggressive negotiation may change how people perceive Lifshen at the office.

I've already come to terms with the fact that I will never be a "nice girl" (and maybe that wasn't in the cards for me anyway, considering the attendant stereotypes that hover around black women). However, the shifts in perception and attitude toward women who negotiate is more than just an annoyance: it's actually costing us money.

The Forbes piece then meanders into ideas on how women can better communicate:

One 32-year-old recruiter from New York, who chose not to give her name because she is starting a new job this month, was ostracized by many of her former colleagues because of her undiplomatic communication style.

"I tended to speak from the 'I' voice too often," she says, when calling out other people's perceived shortcomings, especially when upset. By voicing such statements as "I don't understand what you're driving at" rather than "Here's what can happen if we're not clear on this issue," the recruiter contends that she was seen as a complainer and not as an effective problem-solver, a quality closely associated with executive leadership.

Do they tell this to men? Because I have yet to work with a male supervisor who has issues using the "I" voice, as in "I see you fucked this up - go fix it."

They also warn women against gossiping at work. No, I'm not kidding.

But fine, whatever. This Forbes piece won't be the last article peddling a bunch of watered-down advice for women in the workplace. It's a little too easy to spend this whole post just nitpicking at something that has been taken down before.

So let's shift focus. I wrote a similar take down piece on the wage gap and watched the comment thread with interest.

And some of you really expressed reservations about what was covered in the wage gap post: namely being aggressive and sharing your salary information. We're going to parse this out a bit more and I will share some resources and techniques that may help you in the work place.

For Everyone

It's time to take stock. The most important thing in a negotiation is to be honest with yourself. How much money are you currently making and how much do you think you should be compensated? Don't just pull a number out of the air. Do some research on various sites to see what similar jobs pay. Go to Monster, indeed, Payscale, and Craigslist. Look at your job as well as jobs that are similar. What is the common pay range? Where do you fall?

Tap your networks. The best way to get current salary information is to actually speak to people doing similar jobs. Some of you were a little jumpy at violating company policy. But let me tell you something - it's company policy, not law. Think what you will about Penelope Trunk, but she is dead on when she says:

I mean, who is being protected by secret salaries? Certainly not the employee-the more transparent salaries are, the more accurately an employee can assess his or her value to a company.

You'd think that companies benefit from secret salaries and that's why they keep them secret, but really, if salaries were 100% accurate-perfectly pegged at the employee's worth to the company-then the company would have no problem revealing all salaries.

The only people who benefit from secret salaries is the human resources department. If they make an error, they can hide it. No one will know. And then they can make ten errors. Because no one knows if the secret salaries are hiding one error or one hundred.

Refusing to discuss your salary is not helping you. Start talking about it. However, with times as they are, there are more subtle ways to go about investigating.

Best Case Scenario: Find a close friend and confidant working in the same industry. If you can find this person at your own company, even better. This person needs to be similarly career minded, but not so competitive you try to take each other out. Discuss with them your salary, bosses, and negotiation tactics. The key to this relationship is two-fold: (1) Only engage in friendly competition - if you are actively competing for the same things without a solid base, you are on shaky ground. Friends can become enemies, so choose wisely. (2) Ensure that they are trustworthy first. If you wouldn't tell this person about your private life, don't talk to them about salary.

Next Best Scenario: Network aggressively and make sure you are involved in the world of your business. You need to be connected. This benefits you in multiple ways, not just on the salary quest. (For one thing, you can leverage your connects to help find a new job.) On this type of mission, you aren't looking for friends - you want friendly associates. Don't be shocked if most people are initially coy about how much they make. You need to establish that you are trustworthy and many people are uncomfortable discussing salary. But don't sweat that - you only need four or five people to confide a range for you to get a clear picture. At one industry meetup I attended, I learned that the average intro salary women were making in that realm hovered around 35K. The lowest paid main? About 40K. You want to know these things going in.

Next Scenario: So you are too shy to network, or you still weren't able to get a clear picture. Now you have to fall back to research. Start Googling people who work in your industry and see if any of them dropped numbers. Check message boards and gossip sites and personal blogs. Also, reach out to more outgoing friends and ask them to inquire for you. You also may want to keep up your relationships in the office. An HR clerk may keep their lips zipped while they still work at your company, but if they leave and head some where else, they may be willing to spill a bit over a drink.

In addition to salary check, you need to do a self-check. Are you really a good employee, or did you blow your last three deadlines? How much does your boss ask for your opinion on situations? Do you really need more money, or do you really just want some additional time off? Once you understand what you want and need, you can set some clear boundaries for negotiation. You also need to evaluate how much you can risk. The bigger the risk you take, the higher the potential reward, but sometimes you can't afford to gamble.

If you feel like you are not in a position to walk away from a job or offer, don't pull an all or nothing negotiation where you are trying to force your boss' hand. That only works when you have the absolute upper hand, and even then it can fail. Instead, rechannel your energy. Where can you reduce costs to put yourself in a better financial situation and what can you propose that may involve hours or workspace that would make your job easier? And if you are over a barrel, take some time to puzzle through and reflect. What is the absolute worst thing that would happen if you were fired? How would you live? How would you eat? Seriously. If you were fired, you would have to start puzzling through the problems - so get a jump on it. Looking at the worst case might actually spark some ideas on pathways out of desperation and toward a better negotiation.

For Beginners
Are you new to the world of work? Are you grappling with the knowledge that you should ask for more money or to reshuffle your workload, but can't bring yourself to do it? Do you have problems applying career advice to your life? Try checking out Ronna Lichtenberg's Pitch Like a Girl.

Lichtenberg's book is excellent for people just starting to ask themselves the larger questions about their careers. Pay special attention to her section on internalizing stereotypes, where she explains:

The stereotypes our culture has about women, both positive and negative, also have a powerful effect on how we think about ourselves and others: nurture matters at least as much as nature. Because stereotypes shape expectations and set limitations, they can, if you let them, hold you back. The weight of other people's beliefs about you sometimes feels like an anchor around your leg: the weight of "their" prospective approval or disapproval can cost you time, energy, and opportunity. That is our enemy.

Lichtenberg breaks down the common issues women have with stereotypes and internal fears. Have you ever said any of these to yourself?

"I don't deserve what I want because I'm afraid it's bad to want it."
"I don't have any accomplishments."
"If I just try hard enough, someone will notice my work, right?"
"I hate talking about money."

If you've said any of these, try Lichtenberg's book.

Advanced

Do you have a good grip on what you want and just need a little more guidance on how to get it? Do you want to learn how to take big risks? Are you intrigued by the concept of failing forward? Then you should try Christine Comaford-Lynch's Rules for Renegades.

I can't describe the book any better than Publisher's Weekly:

High school dropout turned self-made multimillionaire and five-time CEO, Comaford-Lynch presents an upbeat, irreverent business book for entrepreneurs, free spirits and eponymous renegades. Focusing on passionate young people who have grit and vision but limited experience and/or resources, the author presents practical, step-by-step advice for starting a company, making it in a cutthroat environment and reaching life goals in record time, while recounting her entertaining, often hilarious life story. To some extent, all first-time CEOs are making it up as they go along, she says. Sure enough, she's found herself brazening her way through plenty of bizarre and touching situations: hiring employees before she actually has a firm; posing as a man to score a programming job in the macho world of '80s Microsoft; dating Bill Gates to learn confidence; making (and losing) millions of dollars through guts, sales know-how and force of personality. Emphasizing visualization and self-confidence, she tackles the spiritual issues of prosperity as well as the down-and-dirty details of payroll and writing a killer business plan. Entrepreneurs and leaders at all levels of their careers will find this inspiring, rags-to-riches story as pleasurable to read as it is thought provoking. (Sept.)

Comaford-Lynch's book is on my all time favorites list for many different reasons, and, though it is geared toward entrepreneurs, career-minded corporate climbers can easily tweak her recommendations and stories to fit their needs. You can even sample what she's offering. The Rules for Renegades site has a bunch of free (with registration) resources for download, including:

• A Pitch Critique Template
• A Format for Effective Board Reporting (which can also be used for your annual review)
• A Presentation on Positioning Your Product or Service (or yourself)

If you are looking to up your game or transition into entrepreneurship, Rules for Renegades is the book for you.

These are some tactics to get around the issues of discussing salary and negotiation, one of the ways to make a dent in your own personal wage gap. Now, changing society so that we are no longer faced with this problem? That's going to take a lot more effort.

Self-Sabotage At Work [Forbes]
Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling [Washington Post]
Figure Out How Much You Should Be Paid (and Three Cheers for Transparent Salaries) [Brazen Careerist]
Pitch Like a Girl [Amazon]
Rules for Renegades [Amazon]
Resources [Rules for Renegades]

Earlier: The Truth About the Wage Gap

I almost didn't get through this one, kids. How can, on the one hand, a book take one of the most modern approaches I've run across towards women in male-dominated industries, but at the same time be filled with caricatures like the family's faithful retainers, Ben and Teneh, who speak in a minstrel-like, Lol-cat patois that's hard to read in about every way one can intend those words? And how could, on the one hand, Helen Wells be writing modern, thoughtful career romances while at the same time Ruby Lorraine Radford was writing about the hired hands being scared of 'haints?' That is, I suppose, the late '40s for you.

I don't recommend seeking this one out, so I'll give you the upshot. The Heroine, Peggy Parker, is a mechanical wiz who lives with her mother in a northern industrial town, doing work she loves for "the Dodson plant."

The Dodson officials gave every encouragement to inventive ability. Before Peggy had been with them a year, she made a suggestion that saved them a hundred hours a month on the assembly line. When she invented a gadget that doubled the efficiency of her own machine, she received personal commendation from the president himself. "It's not often a nineteen-year-old girl shows such inventive genius," Mr. Frank Dodson said at the annual banquet for the employees, when he was giving Peggy her first award.

When a great-uncle dies, Peggy and her kid brother Joe, recovering from "a spot on his lung" that requires a warm climate, inherit a Georgia farm called "Pine Island." The family relocates and finds the fort being held down by forementioned couple, Ben and Teneh, who are eager to see the farm returned to its former glory. The place is in rough shape, taxes are due, and everyone advises them to sell. But! Uncle Joe wouldn't sell land that some English King gave the Parkers, and Peggy and her brother regard this as a sacred trust.

Down South, people are always saying things like, "she looks more like a debutante than an inventor to me!" and "never thought a woman with that kind of turn would be a pretty, gray-eyed miss!" However, Peggy's family is very supportive: her mother is extremely proud of her technical ability, and her brother says things like, "Peg's smart as a whip!" and "Peggy's a real mechanic. She had two years' experience in an industrial plant - has inventions to her credit, too."

They quickly meet the Love Interest, "lean, handsome" Ted Marshall, a young lawyer who helps Peggy and Joe claim their property. She is thrilled that his family runs a "completely modern" farm, although Ted's southern belle sister mocks her interests. "In spite of teasing from the other girls, Peggy spent many hours in the fields, learning how various machines operated, and listening to Mr. Marshall as he pointed out their defects. She spent many hours, too, with tools in the sheds, studying how they were put together."

Then the villain appears: neighbor Andy Bateman, who has his eye on Pine Island and will do whatever it takes to get it. Accordingly, he spreads rumors of ghosts so Pine Island can't get any hands to help them out, destroys a bunch of timber, steals an invention of Peggy's, gets a crooked salesman, "Mr. Meyer," to sell them a busted cotton-picker, tricks them into mortgaging a choice piece of land, and prevents the corrupt sheriff from investigating anything. To add insult to injury, a gale knocks out the rest of their cotton crop.

Although their mother has taken on stenographic work in town and Peggy's managed to get a lot of machinery in working order, everything seems doomed! Peggy sells a few inventions to her old factory, but it's not enough to get the Parkers out of the hole or save their mortgaged land. And then! In quick succession, Peggy has a brainstorm for improving a cotton-cleaner, and a geologist finds the land Bateman so covets is rich with phosphate. Two execs show up, are impressed with cotton that's "cleaner than hand-picked!" and get into a bidding war. Ted, obviously, announces that they're going to get married.

Don't think I won't be still working on inventions even if I don't go into a factory again...with Ted over there to be the business manager of our concern, I'll have more time than ever for inventions.

Peggy Parker notes several times that the war has changed the way people think about women working, and while in hindsight this seems like postwar optimism, it's indeed heartening to read about a girl doing such challenging, "men's" work. But it seems shocking that an author who can appreciate the war's gains for women, see the equality it imposed between the sexes, can't make the leap towards viewing African Americans, who'd just helped win the war, as more than retrograde caricatures. I like these career romances because they're such a true window onto time periods and, especially, young women's experiences. But at times like this, that can be seriously depressing.

Earlier:A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Flair For People
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Campaign For Pam
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Designed By Stacey
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Dreams To Shatter
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Special Kind of Love
Career Romance For Young Moderns: Patti Lewis, Home Economist
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Lee Devins, Copywriter

The Heroine: Ann Roberts, idealistic college graduate. "Attractive, with an appealing voice," Ann is a "natural leader," although she has a fear of public speaking.

The Job: Personnel! Both Ann and the author are earnest about the challenge of helping people. "Ann knew that the ways people earn their living, the human problems they face at work, are anything but dull." In the course of her work at a factory, Ann helps a boy named Johnny who wants to go to night school (she persuades him to work for a promotion instead), a worker with man problems (switch to the engaging doll clothes department for distraction) and a high-strung, artistic neurotic who's ruining factory morale (Ann gets her her own line of "character dolls.")

Love Interests: Ann initially falls for a blond smoothie named Blake Walton who's doing some engineering work at her factory, despite the fact that he's obviously a self-absorbed jerk who sees employees as cogs in a machine. In contrast to the suave Blake, there's self-made Chips Simon – "a tall, lean, quick young man with dark hair and dark eyes full of laughter" – who can't take Ann fancy places but shares her passion for good works.

The Villain: The beautiful, callous store buyer, Carole Crane, who, "whatever Nature had given her, had made herself into a work of art."

The Plot: Ann is recruited to do personnel work in Gray's doll factory in New York (a "union shop") where "the employees are almost all women. That's why a girl rather than a man is wanted for their personnel." Ann moves into one of the "residential hotels" where everyone lives in these books. Says Mr. Gray, who is characteristic of the novel's unusually progressive universe,

We try to treat the employees the way we'd want to be treated ourselves, if we were working here…if there's any sign of prejudice, we clamp down hard and fast. We don't permit that.

Ann makes her bones as a sympathetic personnel director, but finds her idealistic and ambitious plans are thwarted by the conservative management, so she moves on.

Her next job is at shmancy Hamilton's department store, where Ann encounters her boss, Mrs. DeLacey (who "was probably sixty but looked forty, with white hair as satiny as her pearls, a trim, slim, commanding woman"), Chips, and her roommate, the wholesome Dorcas. They move into what, the super explains "apologetically," used to be a loft(!) and so is really cheap (!) Ann and Chips come up with a "plan" for employee morale that involves a more human touch and a Junior Board of store employees (which is always capitalized like that.) Unfortunately, the suave Blake shows up with some warring plan that involves firing everyone and treating them like robots. Ann sees his true colors and is shocked at his lack of compassion. Who will prevail?!

At just this crucial juncture, disaster strikes: Ann hires a sullen, insolent girl with a disfigured face and a missing tooth. The girl, Minnie, has a great desire to be around beautiful things, so she goes to work for the nasty Carole Crane, who is cruel to her. Then money and clothes start being stolen – and it turns out it's someone in the store! Minnie confesses defiantly that it's her – that she was hurt in a car accident and never received plastic surgery, that she was mocked and considered an ugly duckling in her family, and so needs money for some charlatan plastic surgeon. Oh, and she won't stop stealing. Ann is so moved by this story that, not only does she not fire Minnie, sullen and insolent though she is, but decides to give her an Extreme Makeover, as well as a second chance. In addition to raising money for a dentist and plastic surgeon, Ann enlists a team of store friends.

Mr. Don cut and waved her hair so that her face no longer looked bony, but slender and clear cut. The make-up expert performed some artfulness that brought Minnie's features into harmony, gave light to her eyes. The buyers of junior misses' clothes put Minnie into tawny colors which lent her warmth. Lily, the model, stayed after hours in order to teach Minnie how to stand, walk and sit with grace. The actress Alicia Weir-Bennett invited Minnie to her apartment on Sunday afternoon and taught her the elements of good diction and a pleasant speaking voice. On orders from the store physician she was eating to gain weight.

Blake and Carole consider this behavior "coddling" and Ann and the forces of good prepare for a showdown in front of the store's president, Miss Parker. Blake and Carole are all for soulless mechanization and have a dazzling array of facts and numbers at their disposal. Will Ann and Chips be outclassed? No! Conquering her fear of public speaking, Ann launches into an eloquent description of Minnie's case and the need for the personal touch. What do you know? Miss Parker used to be poor and love pretty things, too! She approves of Ann's approach of giving makeovers to sullen new employees who've stolen hundreds of dollars in merch! Blake and Carole are routed and left fuming; Ann and Chips, triumphant, get engaged. In Ann's words,

It's so simple. People, employees, are the core of any business. No number of machines or methods or merchandise are of any use unless you have efficient, willing employees. They're human beings. You have to treat them humanely.

Earlier: A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Campaign For Pam
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Designed By Stacey
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Dreams To Shatter
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: A Special Kind of Love
Career Romance For Young Moderns: Patti Lewis, Home Economist
A Career Romance For Young Moderns: Lee Devins, Copywriter

The drop is pretty small — from 25.2 years in 2005 to 25.0 years in 2006. But it's statistically significant, and it's the first drop in forty years. Sue Shellenbarger in the Wall Street Journal offers several possible explanations. The number of Hispanics in America rose, and they tend to have families earlier. Births to older teens (between 15 and 19) rose 4%. And and the children of baby boomers — a large generation — are entering reproductive age. But the most hotly debated explanation is advanced by Stephanie Coontz, director of research at the Council on Contemporary Families, who says today's young women may not feel the need to "prove themselves" in their careers before having kids. Mom Sarah Distel concurs: "We weren't fighting for careers like the older generation. It was something we take for granted."

Salon's Lynn Harris calls bullshit on this theory, arguing that the numbers point more to demographic shifts and less to changes in women's attitudes. Feminist Finance points out that the not-pausing-to-prove-yourself hypothesis "ignores that sizable chunk of womandom for whom their job is not a "career" as she seems to be thinking of it—service employees, retail worker, skilled and unskilled laborers of various sorts. Decisions about whether and when to have kids has an economic aspect for anyone, but not every woman does the kind of work where proving yourself on the job over the course of a decade is really a concern." She also says some women may be having babies earlier not because they take their careers for granted, but because early work years or graduate school may actually be a good time for some to take the "resume gap" that having a baby can entail.

We don't buy that the working world has gotten so friendly to moms that women are no longer worried about the consequences of childbirth (it is kind of telling that Distel is a stay-at-home mom). We do, like Feminist Finance, "think it's worth noting that this whole conversation assumes women actively choose to time their reproductive lives." Of course, women aren't the only ones involved in the timing. Stephanie Coontz herself reports in yesterday's Times that the vaunted drop in marital happiness after the arrival of a baby doesn't really occur if "couples plan the conception and discuss how they want to conduct their relationship after the baby is born." Harris notes that the Journal's coverage of younger motherhood leaves out "the other people often involved in this calculus: men." As we learned earlier in the week, not every family has one, but if a dude is in the picture, he should be an equal partner in the decision — whether it happens at 25.0, 25.2, or 40.

No Waiting: Younger Women Are Saying Yes to Motherhood [WSJ]
Women Are Opting To Have Babies Younger [The Juggle]
Women opting for younger motherhood? [Broadsheet]
On Young Moms [Feminist Finance]
Till Children Do Us Part [NYT]

This is a strange one, kids: Norma Newcomb's A Special Kind of Love from 1964 gives us one of the least appealing heroines in the genre, whose "special kind of love" seems to be contempt for everyone.

The Heroine: Helen Wilder is a social worker who is - how do we put this delicately? - a bitch. Or, as the book would have it,

It took persistence and determination to find jobs for her handicapped clients, and sometimes social worker Helen Wilder stepped on a few toes in the process. Usually she was forgiven because, for one thing, she was a very pretty brunette.

With due respect for the difficulties a woman in a man's world faced, there is no logical explanation for why Helen is so consistently abusive to her secretary, colleagues, clients and suitors.

Why, for instance, does she mock her assistant's love of opera? "To needle earnest little Polly, Helen said contemptuously, 'Well, opera's a wretched art form, anyway.'" She frequently describes her clients as "useless" and "worthless human beings" - all part of her plan: "After all, the outside world isn't gentle with the handicapped, and they must be trained to cope with an unkind world. The sooner the training is begun, the better it is for the patient."

The Profession: Helen works for a hospital rehabilitating disabled clients with her charming brand of abuse. We are frequently told of her "commitment," "kindness" and how much everyone adores her, but only see her playing weird mind games with people and trying to break their spirits.

The Hero:Helen is pursued by Stan Antonelli, a "slick young lawyer" whom the establishment distrusts. Not surprisingly, Helen treats him poorly, but he is devoted to her.

The Wrinkle: Another suitor of Helen's, the wealthy industrialist Harold Hiktrow, says he'll take all his funding out of the social work program unless Helen marries him. Meanwhile, a former client of Helen's, Mrs. Gray, has been accused of theft at her job, putting the agency's reputation on the line. While dealing with these problems, Helen has to find work for Rory O'Shea, a handsome lout whose career as a gigolo has been ended by a car accident ("lamentably opportunistic and amoral, and quite stupid to boot," as Helen describes him); the bratty heiress who can't deal with Rory's handicap ("I suspect you're the selfish type"); and a suicidal opera singer who needs to find confidence in herself.

The Resolution:Helen shames Harold into coming to his senses, Mrs. Gray is exonerated by a colleague Helen bullies into confessing, Rory is forced to become a watchmaker against his will, rich Virginia Haskins becomes Helen's assistant, Virginia's parents sponsor the singer's career, and Helen and Stan get married. As she says to the spoiled Ginny in summation, "They're cases, Ginny. That's how it must be. We can't become emotionally involved in every case we have. That's the road to insanity." Maybe...but couldn't she be a little nicer about it?

As people spend more and more time at the office, workplace relationships have grown closer and more fraught - in short, more family-like. An increasing number of companies are actively analyzing family dynamics to help manage office interactions. says one shrink,

Work is nothing more than an entirely complex set of relationships. You have partners that are your equals, subordinates, superiors...It’s parents and siblings. All of these dynamics that are exactly the same in the workplace, just the titles are different.”

As is so often the case, things come down to birth order:

Firstborns...tend to be fearful of losing their position and rank, so they may be extremely anxious at a time of layoffs and downsizing. Second-born children tend to be most adventurous and open to change, he said. In fact, [psychologist] Dr. Dattner said that companies he had worked with found that when sending employees overseas, second-born children tended to fare better than older ones. As the older of two daughters, Ms. Frankel said she sometimes feels competitive with Ms. Delio, which reminds her of competing with her sister for their parents’ attention.

Of course, as a composition teacher might say, where's the "so what?" To a degree, all interaction can probably be reduced to familial dynamics - which in turn can likely be explained by some biological imperative. At its worst, can overanalysis of this kind of pre-determining absolve us of adult responsibility? And to a certain degree, isn't what they're describing, at the end of the day, just your "personality?" For the most part, it seems moot: I'm scared of losing my job not because I'm the elder of two, but because we're in a recession; probably any responsible employee craves a boss's approval. What's more interesting is the degree to which an office life can allow someone to break out of his or her assigned roles, building new relationships and dynamics that in a sense give you a chance to do it better. To be crassly pop cultural, Don Draper may be a philanderer in the suburbs, but his commitment to his job is unstinting; where the character of Peggy may be one of a large crowd at home, her experience with dealing with a lot of people allows her to navigate the work "family" and promote herself. To the extent awareness of your proclivities makes you better able to harness them, I suppose this kind of knowledge is useful. But to the extent the formality of an office setting imposes structure and a certain professional courtesy, it seems like that, conversely, can inform home life. Those of us who work from home can just morph into spoiled only children and throw tantrums...with no one to hear.

Family and Office Roles Mix [New York Times]

The Heroine: 19-year-old brunette Polly Wallace, who is forced to drop out of art school and abandon a promising career in ceramics to care for a neurotic mother prone to migraines and panic attacks, and her three younger siblings. Polly is initially resentful of the demands made on her.

I suppose I feel about clay the way a musician feels about his instrument. I only feel alive when I begin on a hunk of clay, wedging it, pounding it, throwing it on a wheel - and then the joy of feeling it grow from a blob of stuff into the form you had in your mind all the time. I only feel alive when I'm making a shape out of a no-shape.

The Industry: Ceramics! Just by chance, the area where Polly lives is home to some of the finest "natural ceramic clay" deposits in the world, and has attracted a famous bohemian potter names Sven Svensen. Although a recluse, Sven becomes Polly's mentor, encouraging her natural talent. Polly's mother initially dismisses ceramics as a messy hobby, by watching the magic of pot-throwing she comes to understand the art form.

The wheel turned steadily, hypnotically. The clay rose, rounded, was pushed back gently, evened out, bulged, was molded back. It was a bowl now, responding almost imperceptibly to the carefully controlled fingers, fingers that seemed rather to follow some preordained shape than to direct it.

The Love Interests:Polly has a long-term steady, Kevin, whom she takes for granted. Kevin is a reporter on Mr. Wallace's paper and doesn't really get Polly's passion for ceramics. So, when the dashing potter Josh MacIntosh comes to town, building her kick-wheels and talking kilns, Polly is smitten...but why does he seem immune to her charms?

The Supporting Players:Polly lives with her parents, a self-absorbed sister named Tish, a kid brother. Tommy, and the scheming 10-year-old Vicky. She has a frumpy but dependable best friend, Enid, and a circle of older acquaintances in town who run the "fine arts club."

The Plot:Polly is desperate to continue her ceramics, despite her mother's wish to control her and prevent her from building a small studio in the basement. When Polly and Josh discover an abandoned doll factory on the outskirts of town, they decide to try to turn it into a ceramics studio and offer lessons. But will the kiln work? Will Polly's mother relent? Will they find students? Will the town elders come to accept the ceramics workshop? Will Polly win the enigmatic Josh and, in the process, lose dependable Kevin to Enid?

The Resolution:Despite continued problems with the kiln and one very dramatic scene in which a collapsed chimney destroys all the pottery they've made for an expo, all is resolved: fired by a passion for the local clay, the town decides to spring for an Arts Center - with woodworking and weaving, too! Upon learning that Josh is married (although separated) Polly realizes she's loved Kevin all along - and that she can pursue her dreams without even leaving home.

The Heroine: Pam Pomeroy, feisty brunette journalism major with an interest in current events. Pam is highly efficient and wears "dark-rimmed, oversized glasses." (Yay!)
The Industry: Pam comes onboard the campaign as a sort of girl-Friday, working on speeches, press, image and every other facet of the race. She also becomes the resident expert on environmental concerns

The Hero: Red-haired, leontine young state senator Lex St. John, who has an idealistic interest in environmental issues and wants to break the political mold. "For too long there's been this image of the southerner in public office - long hair, string tie, the old colonel, suh, concept - that's existed mostly in the minds of northern urban liberals." Whereas Lex St. John is a reformer!

The St. Johns' measure will mark this state as a commonwealth concerned with clean air, pure water, and preservation of our priceless marshlands. This year we can take that first step back toward living in the kind of environment the Creek Indians knew when their heartland stretched along our river valley, when their sacred 'holy-ground', the source of their spiritual and material refreshment, lay richly in the salt marshes and estuaries, the shorelines of our coastal areas. We can go back, we must go back, if we are to go forward together.

The Cast: Pam lives with glamorous, blonde Caroline, a possible romantic rival who ends up with another state senator. In addition, there's Phil Zienta, the campaign's patronizing P.R. guy, whose respect Pam has to earn; some millionaire who funds everything; and Pam's down-to-earth widowed mother.

The Villain: The Sills Syndicate, a mobbed-up developer who wants to build on the waterfront and put a landfill on the coastline.
The Plot: Pam's initially a typist in a steno pool, when a chance encounter with Lex St. John impresses the senator, who's been looking for someone "with a flair for words, a sense of the dramatic, a dash of decision, initiative, integrity - and all this, combined with a knowledge of the Washington scene." They form a team and Pam develops feelings for her boss. "She'd take her chances, doing everything she could to get Lex elected, and try not to inject the personal angle at a time when he needed every thought, every energy, every purpose, to get elected." This includes putting together a homespun grassroots campaign, with a homey campaign headquarters called "the Store" decorated with antique rocking chairs, to emphasize Lex's down-to-earth candidacy. Quickly the principled Lex makes enemies in high places, which eventually leads to his kidnapping in an attempt to keep him away from a crucial vote on an environmental bill. With Pam leading the charge, his team manages to find and rescue Lex, bring down corruption and make sure virtue prevails. In an attempt to throw her off the scent, heavies knock Pam down with a car; she's banged up but undaunted, and all ends with Lex confessing his love, proposing, and, one assumes, a flourishing political partnership.

Distinguishing Details: Caroline on smoking: "I'd had this little cough and my doctor ordered me to quit. He asked how many I smoked a week, and I said maybe two packs. That funny man suggested I cut down to six cigarettes."
-Pam wears numerous knit frocks, most notably a "shrimp-colored polyester knit" with matching pumps and cardigan.

I did the quiz again and chose B), and that got me labeled "Blindly Ambitious," which, in Cosmo world, is a no no. Because showing your ambition makes you seem like an undainty "bulldozer," and nobody likes that in a lady. Just for the good of womanity, I took the quiz a third time, and chose C) and other answers that were similarly manipulative. Like for the question, what do you do when you hear that your crush is dating another girl, you're supposed to "Snoop around to find out how serious they are. If it's just a casual thing, you can still make a play for him." When I choose those sorts of passive aggressive responses, Cosmo was delighted, and called me a "savvy goal-getter" who could manage to be simultaneously "likely to succeed…and likable." Sigh. The takeaway: stabbing your coworkers and friends in the back with your fuck-me heels is a-ok by Cosmo standards as long as you have a shit-eating grin on your perfectly glossed lips.

Are You Destined For Success? [Cosmopolitan]