This week the New York Times is under a lot of heat for firing Jill Abramson, the first female ex-ecutive editor of the prestigious paper that is often under attack for being too liberal, but now appears to be throwing stones from a very fragile glass house.
Abramson was fired after allegedly challenging the New York Times for not paying her as much as her predecessors. Regardless of the many issues that we may be unaware of surrounding this topic, the one thing it does do is make us understand once again why women are often too afraid to speak up and use their voice when it comes to what they feel they are owed.
While yes, it brings us back to the debate about gender and rate of pay, I also feel that it triggers something much deeper- much like we explored in my article on the “confidence gap:” Are we valuing ourselves enough to demand what we deserve, and then do we have the necessary support systems around us for the backlash that this may cause? And while those internal ques-tions are brewing the external occurrences begin to get us just as equally baffled . . .
Honestly, do men have to worry about being fired when they decide to approach their boss about a raise? And while there are issues they say surrounding this (such as Abramson hiring an attorney to look into it which sparked her dismissal), why is it that when it comes to us as professional women we have to deal with all these “extra” reasons for why our demands or re-quests are not justifiable? Why is it that when we speak our minds and use our voice we are the bitch compared to our assertive male counterpart?
Further what does this do to our psyche? What it does is reinforce old stereotypes, images, and belief systems. Women for far too long have been treated like children in the workforce with the silent rule that they are to be “seen and not heard.” In turn this diminishes our sense of worth as well as our ability to feel capable and competent.
For this reason it is important that we not only challenge this male hegemonic culture, but also challenge those voices within ourselves that start to reason why we can live on meager salaries or not rightfully attain what we know we deserve. While this story of Ms. Abramson is highly un-settling, it is also empowering. After all, if a boss lady like this is willing to walk the ledge, then it is validation for the rest of us ladies to do the same. It is time to tap into our Erin Brockovich and declare war on those situations that would otherwise make us stay silent, and use our voice to create a new culture no matter how unpopular or difficult.
We need to stop being afraid to “make waves” or “rock the boat,” especially in a time when it is needed far more than ever. This does not mean that we go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and declare that everything we go through at the work place is due to our gender and become so rigid that we do not take into consideration that some of it perhaps IS due to our work performance. However, it does mean that we need to start being very real and recognizing the internal and external factors that are crippling us and to stop settling for less to attain what we know should be ours.