Today is the day for obvious news stories. For example, did you know that Illinois is the second-flattest state in the mainland? And given that Alaska and Hawaii both have mountains and we only have the suburb of Mt. Prospect, I’ll bet we’re second flattest out of 50! You know why many people in the Chicago area have never been south of 87th Street? Because there is very little to see south of 87th Street.
Here’s another obvious story: women find it harder to get math-based jobs because of – get this – discrimination! Really? You could have fooled me. I know there’s a very real issue of women who opt out of hard subjects, but we live in a culture that thinks it’s cute and feminine to be incapable of balancing a checkbook. The workplace is complicated, but discrimination is very real. The only good that can come from studying that is that it may help convince the men who discriminate that the women aren’t being crazy.
Which is why this story was also maddening: women don’t negotiate job offers because there is a social cost to doing so. Sure, you get the higher salary, but then your boss decides you aren’t a team player. This is news? We blame a woman for not negotiating? Or maybe, just maybe, companies should just pay people what they are worth.
As a woman, who lives in Illinois, who has been south of Effingham, who works in finance, I could have told you any of these things. Illinois is flat. Women face discrimination. But now that there are official (often male) experts doing the reporting, maybe people will listen.
Didn’t you get the memo? All things go over better with a touch of mansplaining.