An interesting discussion is brewing on Allena Tapia’s About Freelance Writing blog. She shows a few articles that bring up the idea of a glass ceiling in freelancing. One article she points to is a New York Times piece on a perceived glass ceiling in blogging. Wisely, Allena doesn’t draw conclusions on the suggestion, but asks readers for opinions. Here’s mine.
I’ve come across a glass ceiling once in my entire working life. The boss didn’t like girls. He worked with the men of each department and held meetings that omitted women – some of whom held supervisory positions over said men. That was the clearest indication ever that this boss was not allowing women to advance or participate.
Beyond that, I’ve seen no evidence in my freelance life that a glass ceiling exists. I write for a lot of industries that are “male” in nature. Except for the errant interviewee who thinks a girl wouldn’t know the first thing about his industry (I let them live, but I may have emasculated one or two with a show of how much more I knew about their industry than they did), I have never been treated any differently than the boys in terms of pay or assignments. While there are editors or publishers who may indeed pick boys over girls (I know of one), it’s not that common. They want talent and reliability – who cares what package that comes in?
My opinion – and you’re not going to like it – is that we women are the cause of a lot of our own glass-ceiling-type problems. I saw it when I worked on the magazine staff. Freelancers would negotiate rates and nine times out of ten, the women would accept the lower offers while the men would bargain for and win the higher rates.
The New York Times article points out the Pew Internet and American Life Project that shows the disparity between male and female bloggers does exist, but with 14 percent of male Internet users blogging to 11 percent females, can we really consider that signs of a glass ceiling?
How about you? Have you experienced any glass ceiling?
I bring the axe with me to smash it.
Seriously, though, I think women are expected to settle for lower pay rates, while men are expected to be stronger negotiators, and too many people allow themselves to be boxed in to those roles.
Amen to that thought. If you don’t allow it, it won’t happen. Expectations are usually based on reality, so I say we need to do exactly what we’re not expected to do. 🙂
I read this at Allena’s blog as well, and I have to say that I’ve never–not to my knowledge, anyway–experienced any glass ceilings in my writing career. Outside that, of course, is another matter.
I can see how women would more likely take lower rates or be afraid of negotiating. I don’t like negotiating over money either, but it’s like you guys are saying: we have to smash the assumptions!
I would think that the ability to work virtually as a freelance writer would eliminate some of the glass ceiling senarios when it comes to low pay and fewer writing opportunities.
I don’t care for negotiating my rates – so I don’t. After careful research, what you see is what you get.
Since I have only been writing for a few weeks now, I have not seen any type of ceilings, glass or otherwise, to speak of. All I see is blue sky.
I think a lot of the restrictions we see are self-imposed. The glass ceiling we are talking about, wasn’t there a “glass ceiling” during the woman’s movement into the workplace? What about the “10 second glass ceiling” on the 100 meter dash? All it takes is someone to take the first step and then get word out and it spreads like wild fire.
The comfortable box we live in is created by ourselves so that we have an excuse if we don’t do well. If you want my humble but accurate opinion, we all need to step out of our comfort zone a little more and see what happens. Besides, “We now know 1000 ways not to build a light bulb” – Thomas Edison on the invention of the light bulb.
Hi Lori- Thank you so kindly for the link. I’m still not sure as to my opinion…still forming I suppose.
I’m hung up by my past in full time cubicle work, and cannot get past that to say “there’s not glass ceilings!”
What interesting discussion you have going on here~!