Shaking the Tree

Today’s post is Catherine B. Cretu of Anaconda Press' (bio below. By the way, the website is molto brill -- go check it out!) tremendous response to RaveGrafix’s request for thoughts and advice after she’d been turned down for a press gig specifically, incredibly for being a woman.

Hi RaveGrafix,

Allow me to climb up on my political soap box!

Echoing Sally's sentiments, welcome to the real world. While women have made some progress toward equity in the work place, there is still work to be done.

Just last night Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg was interviewed on 60 Minutes about her new book, Lean In, which is a fresh call to women to take up the battle anew for workplace equity.

The program made me reflect on women in national leadership and reminded me how in 1991, during the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, there were no women on the Senate Judiciary Committee; 29 women in the House; two women in the Senate; and the median income for working women was roughly 70% of the median income for men. Fortunately, there was an electoral backlash following the hearings: two years later, there were 48 women in the House and seven in the Senate! Today there are 78 women in the House, 20 in the Senate and women's median income is 77% of men's.

While we can't prove cause and effect, certainly the visible public exercise of power by women in government  mirrors women's advancements in the workplace. Still, 18% & 20% of the House and Senate also suggests we've got a long way to go, when women make up 51% of our population.

By the way, the situation is only slightly better on average in the European Union, although Italy has nearly closed the gender gap.

Back to printing--I agree with those who advise you to wait for the employer who appreciates you. He or she is out there, will be happy to snap you up, and will be thumbing his or her nose at the fool who passed you by. Having been in the industry for 40 years, I have experienced my share of sex discrimination, even as the owner of my own company, and I want to acknowledge you for taking on one of the last male bastions of printing--large press operation. No surprise, that's where the highest hourly wages are in the press department. I know you will continue to be a leader throughout your career, and pave the way for others to follow in your footsteps.

And please, never miss an election, always exercise your right to vote.

Shaking the Tree -- Peter Gabriel
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Catherine B. Cretu is President and a founding partner of Anaconda Press, Inc.,  a small group of print artisans who specialize in fine art reproduction, high end micro-publishing, and very complex short-run digital and offset commercial print projects. Catherine has a B.A. in History from Barnard College the women's college of Columbia University.