jobs

Welcome to the latest installment of Ms. Opinionated, in which readers have questions about the pesky day-to-day choices we all face, and I give advice about how to make ones that (hopefully) best reflect our shared commitment to feminist values—as well as advice on what to do when they don't. This week: If you can't enjoy "funemployment," how do you stay focused?

There's been a lot of discussion about the gender pay gap. But there are some jobs that pay women many more pennies than 77 cents to the dollar. Among them: Shoe Shiner, Butler, Secretary, and Computer Repair Technician.

I did it for the money but it was also true that I enjoyed it. Like no job I’d had before, stripping took skills. Yes, it was physically strenuous, but it was not only physical. Interacting with customers required intelligence and personality. I was free to be myself—or, at least, a part of myself. Indeed, of all the jobs available to me at the time, there was no question: stripping was, by far and in many ways, the best. It had the best uniform. I could make my own hours. I liked to dance. I felt genuinely good at it. And then there was the money. 

We’re seeking a senior editor to join our staff in a part-time, but ongoing, capacity. For more than 15 years, Bitch Media has published Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, a quarterly magazine devoted to media- and pop-culture critique and analysis. Each issue of Bitch offers commentary on our media-driven world via essays, columns, reviews, and interviews with artists, thinkers, and culture-makers. As a reader-supported magazine, we have a unique publishing model that allows our content to be free of the dictates of advertisers and owners. And as a staff of people who love to read and learn from others, we value smart, engaging, and witty writing and editing. Our ideal candidate for the Senior Editor position is someone who values those things as well, and who’s ready to join an evolving, highly collaborative nonprofit workplace. We’re not looking for someone to simply grab a chair and start in on a pile of grunt work (although, truth be told, there will be some grunt work). We want someone whose ideas, vision, and passion will help us continue to make content and programming that people depend on and care about.

It should come as no surprise to anyone who's been on the job search in the last two or three years that networking is now being held up as the be all and end all of job hunting strategies. Normally, I simply skim this ubiquitous and rather facile advice (it's on par with Cosmo beauty tips when it comes to regurgitating the same ol' same ol'), but this piece from the Wall Street Journal was effectively the straw that broke the camel's back. I think it was the use of voila. It's a recession, lady. There ain't a whole lotta voila-ing going on, ya dig?


Photo by Richard-G