Re: Fee disclosure & discrimination

[Mona Albano <Mona_Albano -at- PROMIS -dot- COM>]

On Mon, 19 May 1997, Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> asked,

> Having been born with a Y chromosome (and the X one is still "intact" so
far as I'm aware), perhaps I'm blind to patterns of discrimination here,
but is there actual evidence of it...a pattern, not isolated cases,
anecdotes, or gripes?


Tim, there is certainly statistical evidence. Just the other day I was
reading
in _The Globe and Mail_ that since the 1970s, when initial blind auditions
(performer behind a screen) were introduced, the number of female musicians
in symphonies has climbed dramatically, from about 5% to about 25%. It has
been calculated that about 24% - 45% of the increase is caused by a
reduction
in sex discrimination. That indicates that an initial blind audition could
virtually double a woman's chance of getting a job. From the phrasing
I think that while initial auditions hid the performer, later ones did
not; and I'd like to know what difference _that_ made. I'd like to know if
anyone hires musicians based solely on blind auditions.

I once read (probably a U.S. statistic) that a woman needed 4 years more
education to be offered the same starting salary as a man for the same job.

On the other hand, some of the "discrimination" we constantly hear about
appears
to be collateral damage. For example, when the salaries of single,
childless
women in white-collar jobs are compared to men's in the same field, women's
are about 95% of the male rate--implying that little difference is due
to sex and much is due to factors I know all too well, taking time off for
your children or not being able to work late... basically, "life
decisions,"
whether we think they are fully voluntary or not, that affect one's ability
to put in extra value on the job.

That being said, I once worked for a certain bank, which shall remain
nameless, where women were perceived to be unreliable workers because they
might get pregnant and take time off. At the same time, the bank maintained
a ski lodge for employees and if a employee went skiing and broke a limb
(and had to take time off), that was considered sheer bad luck and not
held against him. There were plenty of other examples of a double standard,
some of which would be illegal now.

I was in a small group of JCL analysts, one male, two female, where
the male was considered by his (male) boss to be the expert. The
manager decided to have a test to "standardize" us and show where
we women needed to improve. The results of the first test came in:
male - failed; females - one good pass and one excellent pass (me).
Solution: stop giving tests and return to former unevaluated opinion.
(Boy, I loved that one! Finally voted with my feet.)

On the plus side, all my horror stories are _at least_ ten years old
and therefore qualify as ancient history. I haven't noticed any
descrimination for a long time, but I have more experience to wave at
prospective employers, and also I now tend to work for smaller companies
where performance is obvious and appreciated.

I think that technical writing is an excellent career for a woman,
partly because the long projects give the flexibility that a working
mother still needs. Also, becuase as a field it's relatively new,
or the explosion in numbers is relatively new, like programming
it didn't have an entrenched tradition that only men did it.

[Anyone see the TV programme about the Avro Arrow, where historical
revisionists inserted a female aeronautics engineer into the story?]

On the salary issue, one way we avoid shyness about discussing our
rates is for the local STC chapter to do a salary survey every few years.
Results are submitted anonymously along with demographic information,
and are published "statistically." Then people can see where they are
in the usual range for the local job market.

     -- Mona Albano
     Technical writer & editor

     work: mailto:mona -dot- albano -at- promis -dot- com

Mail here for information about the STC Toronto chapter:

     home:     mailto:mab -at- user -dot- rose -dot- com

P.S.      Thanks to all who attended the Toronto edition of STC's annual
     conference and helped to make it a success. You endured part of
     the coldest May in 80 years!

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