Face value
Kaldenbach, Isabel
Isabel Kaldenbach FACE VALUE Why we still need affirmative action There is a widespread view that affirmative-action programs—if they exist—should be based on economic status rather than...
...Male counterparts have consistently earned more than I have, no matter the job, no matter the seniority, even when we occupied the same job grade, and sometimes even when I outranked and supervised them—my pay having been set upstairs by my own boss...
...I expect that the ability to provide the chance to check the right box on the EEOC form has on occasion worked in my favor and helped me get a job...
...A persuasive point—but wrong...
...Efforts to level the economic playing field should be based on economic factors...
...However, as one of the upper-thirty-year-olds dismissed in the study to "mommy tracking," I am perplexed...
...and second, many folks still harbor strong reactions based on traditional stereotypes...
...It is a compelling argument that goes something like this: A poor Caucasian boy from a rural backwater has faced just as little opportunity as an African-American boy from an urban ghetto...
...Diana Furchgott-Roth and Christine Stolba have published a study that purports to show that "mommy tracking" and personal choice are the reason for lower compensation among older women, but that the younger generation of professional women (twenty-seven to thirtythree years old) is facing a pay gap of only two cents...
...You can't attribute this difference in pay or treatment to an inability to negotiate good deals or to "stand up for myself...
...Nor can this be blamed on "mommy tracking"—choosing jobs that pay less but permit more flexibility or shorter hours in the workplace...
...Commonweal 12 September 24,1999...
...But whatever benefits have come my way are still outweighed by the prevailing economic penalties...
...Or more precisely: Yes, we all agree there is one, but is this gap due to self-selected "mommy tracking...
...People who are visibly different—because of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, or whatever physical feature—are still pigeonholed and penalized...
...I do not mean to deny that my friends and I have probably received some economic benefit because of gender...
...Isabel Kaldenbach FACE VALUE Why we still need affirmative action There is a widespread view that affirmative-action programs—if they exist—should be based on economic status rather than physiology...
...Where are the Appalachian whites represented...
...My Mexican grandmother looked Native American, her Mexican husband was blond and blueeyed, there are African-American Hispanics, and my mother has been mistaken for Asian more than once...
...I'm a brunette with Caucasian features, European last name, and no discernible accent, so that most people have no idea I am Hispanic...
...Recently, a great deal of attention has been focused on the gender gap: Is there or isn't there one...
...Granted that in terms of access to education, career options, mentors, and the ability to "network"—a critical key to job success—the Appalachian boy is severely hampered...
...Isabel Kaldenbach is CEO of Buckley & Kaldenbach, a public relations and communications firm based in Arlington, Virginia...
...In contrast, I can say that I have never noticed any different treatment based on ethnicity...
...The same goes for the majority of my friends...
...When I shop in my local Latino grocery the workers take pains to address me in English, under the mistaken impression that I don't speak Spanish...
...But he has a tremendous advantage over the African-American boy...
...The fact that women earn on average 74 percent of what male counterparts are paid, and the myriad of other statistics showing disparity in hiring, promotion, and compensation of women indicate that my individual experiences reflect the situation at large in America...
...Some day maybe we will get there, but not yet...
...My Mexican mother, whose face, accent, and name broadcast her ethnicity, has endured horrible and painful discrimination...
...Like hell they are...
...Richard Rodriguez of the Pacific News Service summed up the argument last year: "The language of affirmative action is...that poor white males...are somehow represented in the public society...
...Colleagues are surprised, and once one of my bosses did a double take when canvassing for annual Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports...
...I hope they are right about the younger crowd...
...I am one of those Latinas who defy immediate definition...
...I have endured offhand evaluation of job performance based on "that time of the month...
...Until economic disparity based on physical traits is eliminated, affirmative-action programs and preferences based on those traits are needed...
...I am single, have no children, and have never shrunk from twelve-hour days or heavy travel...
...In other words, poor whites are just as lacking in opportunity and representation as minorities...
...Whether you call it racism, whether you call it discomfort, whether you call it "fitting in," the stereotyping of physical attributes is alive and well in America...
...Moreover, racial and ethnic definitions are woefully arbitrary...
...My female colleagues and I are paid less and are treated differently from our male counterparts, yet very few of us are mommies, and fewer still have chosen mommy-tracked flexible jobs...
...Being a visible woman and an invisible Hispanic has enlightened me Commonweal 11 September 24,1999 to some basic facts: First, people do judge you on what they can see...
...In more than one professional job, I have been singled out from my male counterparts who occupied the same exact job and been asked to type documents, run errands, and do other administrative tasks...
...In interviews, conversations, face-to-face encounters, the Appalachian boy will always be white...
...Given the reality of economic poverty and the illusory definitions of race and ethnicity, it does make sense to tailor affirmative action to economic need...
...When I was employed by a migrant-worker program, colleagues in sister organizations assumed I was a gringa helping "others...
...I am at least as educated as every man who has ever outearned me at comparable or subordinate jobs: I have a Georgetown J.D., a Harvard M.A., and an undergraduate degree from Princeton...
...We can't yet look to people's wallets because, right now, we still can't get past their faces...
...Every one of my female friends has a similar list of anecdotes, regardless of background, personality, race, or ethnicity...
...I wish this weren't so...
...Ask any darkerskinned American, any woman, or any person with a visible disability...
...However, I do look and sound like a woman, and that has hampered me economically...
Vol. 126 • September 1999 • No. 16
