Sometime last year I discovered skirt! books, an imprint dedicated to Women’s Nonfiction, and so far I’ve liked everything they’ve published (see also, for instance, Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips).
Which means that, yes, I have become a total library dweeb. You know it’s bad when you develop a fondness for particular publisher imprints.
skirt! Rules for the Workplace: An Irreverent Guide to Advancing Your Career is about as palatable as self-help books get. I typically shy away from self-help; too often the books degenerate into bland generalizations (“You should like yourself!”). But there is nothing bland about Johnson’s writing. Hip, edgy, witty, and brassy, this is Third Wave feminism at its finest:
There are women out there who have so few options that they take jobs that require them to perform the same tasks as their male counterparts, plus fetching coffee, stocking the office fridge, wiping the counters, and wearing pantyhose so no one has to be offended by a bare knee, along with earning less money.
There’s still a wage gap, folks: “In 2004 median annual earnings for women working full-time year-round were $31,223. Men with similar work effort earned $40,798.” Want to do something about it? Turn to Johnson’s book for no-nonsense advice on making sure that you earn everything you’re worth, that sex and gender differences aren’t holding you back. The rules are crystal clear, i.e., Never Bake for the Office (“you’re not the den mother”) and Never Blame Bad Behavior on Hormones or PMS (“There’s enough of that coming from the men in corporate America”).
So yes, it’s a how-to guide, but the writing is excellent and the subject is relevant to any woman with a job. I read it from cover to cover in one sitting. Even if you’re perfectly happy with your salary (in which case, you may send your surplus earnings to my attention, care of the Williamsburg Regional Library), you’ll still get plenty of good advice on avoiding gender mistakes without needing to act like a man.
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