Comments on: A PF Blogger’s Glass Ceiling?

By: MerCyn

MerCyn — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:09:23 +0000

I worked in the investment field for 15 years, and those guys (as you said, most financial professionals are male) do not have a sense of humor (or do not allow it to show at work). Finance is a serious topic, but a little lightheartedness and humor can be found everywhere…I think men are more likely to separate different parts of their life, and not allow crossover. Work is work, home and private life is separate and distinct. Women have more trouble separating their lives – let’s face it, if your kid or their school needs to contact a parent during the day, it is usually Mom that gets the call. Women juggle; men categorize and build walls. Women multitask, men just get confused!

By: youngandthrifty

youngandthrifty — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:27:18 +0000

Oohh, I didn’t know you were a female blogger, FAM- just stumbled on your page from Financial Samurai’s site.

This is a very interesting topic.

I don’t feel that there is a glass ceiling for personal finance female bloggers (I do agree that we often don’t have time for consistent blogging) but I do agree that it often seems like this personal finance blogging realm is a boys club.

The topics that girls and boys blog about are completely different, but I think it’s because our brains are just wired differently. I think it’s alright to have a different blogging voice between men and women.

On Million Dollar Journey (Canadian PF blog) he often has a female guest post and their posts are quite technical too. I don’t find much of a difference between the female and male guest posts on his site (sometimes I am surprised that it wasn’t written by Frugal Trader- the main blogging guy- himself!)

I would like to add that the female blogger: The Centsible Life is a popular personal finance mom blog and seems to be doing quite well.

By: The Best of The Yakezie Challenge | The Saved Quarter

The Best of The Yakezie Challenge | The Saved Quarter — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 06:25:44 +0000

[...] Zeitgeist Funny about Money – A Personal Finance Blogger’s Glass Ceiling Girl With The Red Balloon Inexpensively Invest It [...]

By: Friday Finds June 4, 2010

Friday Finds June 4, 2010 — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:35:10 +0000

[...] On May 25th, Funny About Money included me in a post where she discussed whether gender affects blogging in A Personal Finance Blogger’s Glass Ceiling? [...]

By: iamtheworkingpoor

iamtheworkingpoor — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:31:44 +0000

What an explosive topic. You gave me much to think about.

By: Link love (Powered by peanut butter and ankle boots) « Musings of an Abstract Aucklander

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:56:40 +0000

[...] about Money wonders whether there’s a PF blogger glass ceiling. Well, the types of blogs I enjoy (and write) certainly aren’t the most marketable or [...]

By: Donna Freedman

Donna Freedman — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:44:07 +0000

Thank you for mentioning my work, Funny. I feel like I’m *really* late to the dance here, since my site has only been up a little over a month.
Learning how to promote my work feels uncomfortable because I was a print journalist for 18 years and we were told to keep ourselves OUT of the mix. Just the facts, ma’am. Self-promotion feels vaguely masturbatory to me. Social media are bewildering, too.
It’s not that I *can’t* learn these things. They just don’t come easily to me.
As for the gender thang, I hope it’s kosher to quote myself (which also feels masturbatory), from the “Turning invisibility stealth” post:
“After a lifetime of inculcation you really DO believe that guests will instantly judge the cleanliness of your carpet; that your children’s successes belong to them but that their failures are all yours; that if someone in the room needs something then it’s up to you to provide it.
“You grow up inside a body that is not your own but instead must be shaped and adorned according to media images. Your feelings don’t belong to you, either; women are trained to be attuned, always, to the desires of others. Your ability to rebel is limited: To buck the system means to risk losing social approval and thus the chance for love, family, advancement at work, the right to exist at all.
“The philosopher Michel Foucault refers to observation as an integral part of discipline, whether that’s in a boarding school, a factory or a prison. A person who can be seen at all times has two choices: to conform, thereby avoiding punishment, or to act in ways deemed unacceptable by society and thereby risk trouble and/or ostracism.
“‘The perfect disciplinary apparatus would make it possible for a single gaze to see everything constantly,’ Foucault notes.
“Women have been subjected to the constant gaze for so long that we’ve become the agents of that power as well as the objects of it. We police OURSELVES. We watch our weight. We watch what we say. We watch TV to see how we’re supposed to look, what drinks we should order, which shoes we should buy, whether our eyelashes are thick enough and our ankles thin enough (hi there, Hillary Clinton!).
“We also watch what happens to other women when they challenge the status quo.
“By contrast, we’ll never watch Rush Limbaugh checking the mirror for flaws, or watch Henry Kissinger confess to Larry King that maybe he should have had his hair straightened.”

By: funny

funny — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:56:33 +0000

@ Panda Mike: My husband does all those things, I’m sure, for his current wife, who is not me.

Neither of us, I’m sure, worked hard enough at the 20-year marriage to matter. Possibly he learned to pay more attention to a woman. I learned to value freedom.

By: Panda Mike

Panda Mike — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:30:00 +0000

@ Funny, so tell me, you do all this and your husband doesn’t do a thing?

I don’t think it’s the women responsability alone to take care of the love/sexualty in the couple.

I actually wake up at 5am 4 times a week to work out 1h30 each time. I make sure I dress well, and I take care of myselft to always be good looking. The only thing I can’t do is taking care of my hair… I’ll let you guess why

I am also trying different things in bed to make sure my wife has as much fun as I do.

I write here notes and love letters about once a month.

I have 2 kids and spend a lot of time with them. I will also coach my boy on his soccer team this summer.

But all of this, I don’t consider work, I just consider being a good husband/father.

For the record, I have been with my wife for 13 years so it’s not a new relationship.

As you can see, a man can do as much to please her woman. It’s only a matter of effort. I think we can spend almost as much time as a woman to be at our best. So this is not where I could find 11hours in a row to maintain my blogs…

By: funny

funny — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:58:54 +0000

@ Panda Mike: Well… You know, the truth is that if the erotic phase of a marriage is to stand the test of years, both partners do need to work at it. The things that happen between two people and the assaults their partnership takes from outside forces work, over time, against intimacy.

For a woman, this means she needs to work steadily at three things:

Maintenance: She must keep up her hair, her skin, her nails, her body, her clothing, her energy, her style. As she ages, this grows more important and more difficult, but from the git-go, she should be working at it daily. It can require upwards of an hour a day to keep oneself looking attractive, plus another hour of daily exercise to keep up her health and figure.

Sexuality: She needs to grow in the arts and skills of pleasing a man. This is not a static thing, for as the man changes, she must learn how and why he changes and what she can do to continue making him happy. Sometimes this is not so easy, as her own sexuality also changes over time.

Nurturing of a mutually caring relationship: This also requires daily effort. She must keep the spark of love alive through times that can be very challenging and through times that can be…well, boring. If she takes him for granted, he will take her for granted (he may, anyway), and that will allow the thing that most matters in the marriage to die.

None of these activities are easy when you’re dealing with children, extended family relationships, work, money, household maintenance, and the many challenges that come to the couple from without.

So…if it isn’t a job, I’d like to know what it is.