My last post** was about my search for a job, and finding my GWS major a bit of a liability. I asked if it was a sound measure to leave that major off of my resume (I have another major and a minor) when applying for certain jobs.
The response was largely supportive, and I am thankful to the feministing community for the consistently good advice and good wishes. Some of the responses, however, brought up an issue that I think is overlooked.
Some comments suggested that to leave my major off of a resume was "selling out" or even "anti-feminist". It was also suggested that "no job is worth" having to edit your politics and principles.
I can be sympathetic to this line of thinking. I do think that there is such a thing as selling out and that whenever possible ethics and principle have to come first. But I think that we feminists have to continue checking our privilege , and realize that not everyone is lucky enough to be able to live according to their principles all the time.
I have an aquaintence who spent a summer working at a country club. It was locally known that that establishment does not admit Jewish or African American people as members or guests (YES! Places like this still exist! I was also shocked to find this out). She was using the job for spending money, as her bills were taken care of by her parents (one of whom is a Jew and accordingly wouldn't have been admitted to the club). She didn't need that job. She didn't need that money. She was lucky enough to have option of refusing to work there or support that racism, but she didn't. And I don't consider that choice ethically sound.
I have another friend that has similar politics to me. She is lucky enough to be very very intelligent and is recognized as such by various Universities, several of which have afforded her opportunities to learn and travel for free. She has become very worldly and informed and conscious of her actions. She doesn't have to work, and is generous enough to volunteer her time, pursue activist work, and work part-time at jobs she finds interesting while she studies. Instead of seeing how lucky she is, she seems to consider herself more of a feminist, more of an activist, and more informed than the rest of our social group even as we struggle to educate, feed, house, and clothe ourselves (often taking unfulfilling, corporate, or demeaning jobs to do so).
My point is, living one's ethics is to a certain degree a PRIVILEGE. And when it is a possibility, I think it is an obligation . But when it isn't (and for most people it isn't, completely) it doesn't mean that someone is a sell out. It doesn't mean that someone is anti-feminist. And it doesn't mean that someone has mixed up priorities. It just means that not everyone is LUCKY ENOUGH to be able to choose.
I get it, I see the point. Ideally, I would be able to proclaim my feminism to anyone, anytime, and not have it compromise my ability to earn a living. The sad reality is that this is not the case. I am luckier than many (one has to be incredibly lucky to be born into this country AND end up with a college education) but I have no fall back plan. I don't have parents that can pay my way until I find a feminist employer. Most people don't. So we have to find jobs, even if it means not fully expressing ourselves. Because having a job is worth a hell of a lot to most people.
* Apologies for the length of this post, and for fueling it with several glasses of wine (which have done my writing no favors).
** Previous post was not in any way intended to discourage WGS scholars from their studies. I find my WGS major very rewarding, even if it's not doing me any favors in the current job market.
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Thank you for having the courage to say this. I learned it the hard way when I took time off between college and graduate school and, like so many other women, had to take a job that was way below my qualifications and continuous sexual harassment was part of the unspoken job description.
We all have to remember Kathryn's post when in conversation with people who have "unfulfilling, corporate, or demeaning jobs", or who can't participate in protests because it means eviction and no food on the table. And when we, too, find ourselves in her place.
yeah, this is such a good point. It needs to be said.
"My point is, living one's ethics is to a certain degree a PRIVILEGE. And when it is a possibility, I think it is an obligation . But when it isn't (and for most people it isn't, completely) it doesn't mean that someone is a sell out."
Yes, so true! We should live according to our ethics as much as possible but people need to pay rent and buy food. At this point I'll take almost any job I can get because nobody is calling me for an interview. A job would be fantastic.
Kathryn
Thank you for writing about this topic with such common sense.
My only complaint is that I would love to have shared that bottle of wine with you!
I wish you all the best in your job-searching.
I am really, really glad to see someone else writing about this.
In my case it was (and still is, unfortunately) working at a minimum-wage job during college, an experience most people have to go through. Both my co-workers and past bosses (I've gone through two) were APPALLINGLY sexist, however, and it took all of my energy to get through it. Luckily, I have a different boss now, but I always struggled with the suspicion that I was somehow "selling out," even though it took me a long time to find even that job, and leaving it was never an option for me.
I've struggles with that too... It makes me sad to think of how much many women's experiences in low-wage jobs share a common thread of sexual harassment. I have also dealt with sexual harassment and sexism in several jobs. Why does this get a free pass when it's directed at women in low wage positions?
I mean, I've worked for a corporation where my boss would have been fired if he said some of the things to one of his female equals or betters that he said to me routinely. Is it because I was considered replaceable? because they didn't pay me enough to allow me to afford to engage in legal recourse?
How sad that the threat of sexual harassment seems to go down as the wage goes up(not to suggest that high-earning women aren't subjected to harassment).
"My point is, living one's ethics is to a certain degree a PRIVILEGE. And when it is a possibility, I think it is an obligation . But when it isn't (and for most people it isn't, completely) it doesn't mean that someone is a sell out."
I agree. I also think that feminists have a lot they can bring to the corporations. While it may be less than fulfilling to work in that kind of environment, if the for-profit world can be reformed, feminists are the kinds of thinkers that can accomplish the transformation.
I want to echo the voices of support here. We can't always live our ideals all of the time. Survival comes first. And then, if you find yourself with a bit more stability, it may be easier to put energy into the issues you care about.
I think it's important for those of us who get lucky breaks--or well worked for opportunities--to be supportive of whatever activist/ethical efforts our friends are able to make. All the small things we do have significance, even if we have to make occasional compromises too.
I agree.
As a rape survivor I often become disillusioned with the support and treatment available. I bitch about how backwards and shitty my city is. I'm fucking LUCKY as shit to even have treatment and support networks available.
I'm lucky I even had the opportunity to take my case to the police (even if they were fucking assholes about the whole thing.) etc etc
So whenever I get all raged up about this kind of thing I take a moment to think about the fact that my grandfather is a Holocaust survivor and found out two weeks ago that one of his brothers survived. After sixty years of thinking his whole family was dead he's learned that ONE other member of his family survived. I know that ANY hardship I face in my life time is pretty much jack shit compared to what life must have been like in a concentration camp.
On another note - my cousin did womens and gender studies and he's doing very well for himself, I'm not 100% sure what he's doing/how he got into it, but he's still a more or less fresh graduate. So if you like I can ask how he got into what he got into. :)
Unfortunately, a man with Women's Studies is seen as "enlightened", or, to a sexist, a "wuss", but still no real threat.
A woman with Women's Studies, however, is expected to hiss quotes from the S.C.U.M Manifesto, "bust everyone's balls" about every joke they tell, and ultimately sue sue sue!
It's the same, though more extreme, reaction when you "out" yourself as a feminist in casual conversation or at work. lol. Suddenly, everyone is real careful about what they say to you...
Thanks for this post, Kathryn. I've been occasionally frustrated by hetero-normative people who constantly question my difficulty getting a job, health insurance, etc. But my status as "a minority" makes these things VERY difficult. Hence their confusion when I do not take my "white privilege" for granted (I'm Caucasian) and express my frustration at the intolerance and difficulty I do encounter.
And I'm happy to say your post, in general, expresses these feelings I have. So thank you.
I would like to echo the voices of support here as well, but also add that this phenomenon that Kathryn points to (however wine-fueled it may have been) adds texture to the question of feminist identity and what it means to be a feminist in a society that is, at best, unpredictable in its reaction to those who identify themselves as such.
I think that it would behoove us to have more discussion in this forum on the tension between ideals and practice in the feminist context. I have definitely struggled with situations where I had to choose between survival and adherence to ideals. I think that anyone who is conscious of their beliefs and how they transcend daily routine has probably felt the same.
In other words, bring it on! Let's talk about these struggles more and maybe we can start to identify innovative ways to deal with them!
It would also be the feminist and privileged choice for me to divulge my mental condition to people. But due to ignorance and prejudice in this society, should I actually do so I would be discriminated against, so I don't. That, of course, means that when my condition causes me problems, I also get the blame for it, because I didn't tell anyone about my deeply personal problems - as if that would somehow have prevented my melt-downs.
Welcome to the world of "Damned if you do, damned if you don't". It's not pretty, and sometimes we must do what we can to just get by.
I disagree: it is only a privileged to live your principles easily. If you add "except when it would be hard for me" to everything you believe in, there is no cause you can't claim to be a part of. Your actual principles are apparently to value your own life first, fighting discrimination second. Maybe you don't see anything wrong with that, and maybe there really isn't, but it has nothing to do with your privilege. Millions before you have chosen death to the compromise of their principles, what makes you so much more valuable?
Indeed, rather than it being okay to compromise your principles in the face of hardship, I would say that times of hardship are the only times a person actually can demonstrate their principles at all.