Thanks for all the great discussion around the WAHM post last week. I was glad to get such great feedback, and very happy Katharine brought up discrimination issues based on something an HR rep once said to me. She made an excellent point, too. What that HR rep said bordered on discrimination, if not crossed the line entirely. Not cool.
However, in the freelance world, discrimination isn’t monitored. How we put ourselves in front of clients makes a difference. I myself wouldn’t want to work for someone who would discriminate, but I’m also not going to give off an image of anything but a writer/editor. My Mom status has nothing to do with my skills. If I create an image in the client’s mind that mixes both family and career, is that client going to think I’m serious about the career part when I’m not able to separate it in my own mind?
I mentioned this discussion to the better half. He’d never heard of a WAHM. His first question – “Why would anyone call themselves that? What purpose does it serve?” The only one I can see is it creates a community among working moms, which feels supportive. That’s great. Let’s just leave it off the marketing stuff, okay? I do think it pigeonholes you into a role that only a few clients might feel comfortable dealing with. The rest? They’re going to pass you over because they can’t see how a mom or a dad billing themselves primarily as a working parent (and you do, you know – all those qualifiers in front of the noun still point to the primary subject, which is that you’re a parent) can focus on the work part and leave the parent part behind. And they’re allowed to discriminate. No laws protect you as a contractor from this kind of discrimination. It sucks, but it’s reality.