Queercents

Generally speaking I prefer to avoid generalizations. That is a paradox if I’ve ever heard one. Am I insane for thinking that the one true generalization is itself a generalization?

More to the point on careers that I read about this week and wanted to share with Queercents is the classic, but not unsubstantiated, generalization that men earn more than women even in positions demanding comparable levels of experience and expertise. It is the glass ceiling. This is a topic regularly discussed in some of the workshops I have conducted over the years.

The approach G. Richard Shell brings to the topic is one I haven’t heard covered to a very great extent and that I have seen explicitly avoided. In his book Bargaining For Advantage he detailed one study by Linda Babcock at Carnegie Mellon University’s business school. Her study revealed that the glass ceiling women MBA graduates faced limited their starting salaries by approximately $4,000. Read the rest of this entry »

Madame X over at My Open Wallet wrote a thought-provoking column this week and encouraged me to re-post it here for the queers. Read below… this is why everyone loves the Madame!

The (Almost) Truth About Bubbles

You know, writing this blog can be a strange thing. What interests me most about money is often the way it informs daily actions and relationships, and as such, I write a very personal blog. This can get tricky: I tell stories about friends, family, co-workers and loved ones, none of whom know that I write these things. In order to protect the privacy of myself and others, I often change identifying details in these stories– names, of course, but sometimes other things like locations, jobs, relationships to me, and even gender. But when it comes down to it, I am not, and could never be a fiction writer– despite any minor embellishments, the heart of every story I tell is true.

That said, there’s one story I’ve told where I realized my tweaking of details went a bit too far, to the point where the real issues going on were somewhat obscured– and that is the tale of Bubbles: Part 1, Part 2.

The quick recap of those two posts is that “Bubbles” meets “Mike” online and before going out with him, tries to figure out how she feels about some hints that he might be fairly wealthy. Once they meet, Bubbles is disturbed that he turns out to be older than he’d originally said, but despite an initial lack of any real chemistry, wonders if he’s worth seeing again because he just seems… nice. Read the rest of this entry »

“There’s nothing wrong with cash. It gives you time to think.” – Robert Prechter, Jr.

Ladies, ladies, ladies… the funny things you do. Here’s an interesting article that appeared in The New York Times on Sunday. It’s about women feeling the need to use cash as a way to hide from their husbands how much they spend on personal indulgences. I suspect this might be a shoes, bag, and clothes thing. Is it a straight thing too? Or do lesbians hide purchases from their partners by paying cash?

Shivani Vora writes, “After months of eyeing a black Chanel tote at Saks Fifth Avenue, Shalla Azizian was ready to splurge. Instead of charging the $2,000 bag to a credit card, Ms. Azizian, a lingerie boutique owner in Manhattan, discreetly plunked down a stack of crisp bills she brought for the purchase.”

“Ms. Azizian has earned her financial independence, but to avoid the disapproval of her husband of 27 years, she adopts a low profile by using cash.” Yuck… why is she acting like the 1950s housewife? Read the rest of this entry »

I ran across this great article “Lesbian Economics” today at the LesbianFamily.org blog. Suffice it to say women are still earning less than our male counterparts with the current figure being 74.7 cents on their dollar. Doesn’t sound like much until you do the math as Liza did in the article. Hold your hats my fellow superwomen, the numbers, even in this mathematically simplified hypothetical example are staggering. You have to check out her article to get all the nuances, but here’s the bottom line in her example with Mrs. and Mrs. QQQ:

Over the course of a 40 year career, using the average annual rate of return for the stock market between 1892 - 1997, 7%, Mrs and Mrs QQQ under-earn their friends by $5,783,175.90.

OK kids, you read that right. $5 MILLION. What would you do with an extra $5 million dollars in your dual woman household over the course of a 40 year career? Read the rest of this entry »

This was the title of a recent article by MP Dunleavy, a writer over at MSN.

Her article was about heterosexual couples in which the wife earns more than the husband. But in gay couples, without a ‘wife’ or ‘husband’ (usually), one person is always going to earn more than the other. It might be a little bit more, or a LOT more. Does that matter?

Ms. Dunleavy writes that while her husband does the lion’s share of housework, and she earns the larger salary, in fact she is “a conflicted mess of gratitude, pride and steaming resentment.” I guess she, like many women, grew up with the fairy tale that she would marry a prince who would take care of her, and now it turns out that she’s the prince. Or princess. I can see why she’s confused. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you paid what you’re worth? Do you believe you deserve more money for the job you do? Are you making a job change and want the money to be as lucrative as possible in your new position?

If so, you need to ask for the money! I don’t know about you but negotiating salary and asking for money has never been my strong point. In the past I was never bold enough to really ask for what I felt I deserved. That being said, overall, the salaries I was offered were competitive so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Yet, if I were a man, perhaps I would’ve asked for more and received it which would’ve compounded my earning power over time. Read the rest of this entry »