Claire Wasserman - Ladies Get Paid: The Ultimate Guide to Breaking Barriers, Owning Your Worth, and Taking Command of Your Career

Gallery Books

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Copyright 2021 by LADIES GET PAID, LLC

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

Some names and identifying details have been changed, whether or not so noted in the text.

First Gallery Books hardcover edition January 2021

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Interior design by Davina Mock-Maniscalco

Jacket design by Debbie Berne

Author photograph Stephanie Geddes

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Wasserman, Claire, author.

Title: Ladies get paid : the ultimate guide to breaking barriers, owning your worth, and taking command of your career / Claire Wasserman.

Description: New York : Gallery Books, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020029832 (print) | LCCN 2020029833 (ebook) | ISBN 9781982126902 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781982126926 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: WomenVocational guidance. | Career development. | Sex discrimination in employment. | Equal pay for equal work. | Success in business.

Classification: LCC HF5382.6 .W37 2021 (print) | LCC HF5382.6 (ebook) | DDC 650.1082dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029832

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020029833

ISBN 978-1-9821-2690-2

ISBN 978-1-9821-2692-6 (ebook)

To my parents, who by their example and encouragement showed me that its possible to have a career of purpose.

To Ashley, for her infinite patience and support, without which none of this would be possible.

And to the Ladies Get Paid community: thank you for being on this journey with me. This book is for you.

You may have found your way to Ladies Get Paid because youre excited about the future of your career, or maybe youre here because youre feeling stuck. Perhaps youre standing on the precipice of a big change, or perhaps youre itching to make one happen. Maybe you experienced something at work that was disappointing, frustrating, or downright infuriating. Or perhaps youre not satisfied with the status quo in your professional life or for the lives of all women. Whatever it is, youre ready to take your career into your hands. Welcome, youre in the right place.

This is a book about putting yourself in the drivers seat of your career. In it, I will ask you to declare yourself worthy of more, teach you how to set your sights on a goal, and push you to go after it.

Getting paid is about so much more than your paycheck. Its about respect and recognition. Its also about getting power, in all the ways you define it. Why Ladies? I chose the word as a nod to the image it conjures up: the well-behaved woman, the good girl. She doesnt disrupt and she's grateful for what she's given. But my question is, what happens when a lady takes up space? What happens when she is the one calling the shots? The phrase Ladies Get Paid is about pushing women to know their value and be unabashed to ask for more.

Writing about women in the workplace often invites criticism. There are those who argue that the wage gap doesnt exist or that the obstacles women (and in particular women of color) face have been overstated. I urge you to visit the References section in the back of this book. There, I believe you will find an abundance of research that shows the vast structural challenges and discrimination that persists despite some progress made in the last thirty years.

There are also those who call this corporate feminism, and say that it is performative at best and perpetuating systemic inequalities at worst. I hear you.

While I understand this criticism, helping women move up in their companies and make more money (which men have done since the beginning of time) is, on its face, not a bad thing. More money means more power. And hopefully a more balanced leadership, both in terms of gender and race, would yield a more inclusive and fairer workplace. I wont apologize for teaching women things that can improve their lives.

But does advocating for oneself address entrenched sexism and discrimination? No. That is why I include an appendix that lists a number of laws such as minimum wage, paid family leave, and universal childcare, which, if enacted, would greatly benefit women with an emphasis on low-wage workers and women of color.

And finally, there are those who will say that these are problems of our own making, that it is our lack of confidence or ambition that hold us back. I reject that. Yes, we sometimes hold ourselves back, but it is an internalization of how our gender is treated, whether its how we are socialized or how we are paid.

This book will encourage you to question everything: your assumptions, what you believe you deserve (or dont), where youre headed, and what you think youre capable of. Youll meet nine real women (some names and identifying details have been changed) whose career challengesfrom dealing with imposter syndrome to negotiating their salaries to navigating office politicsmay resonate with your own. I hope their stories will inspire you, but most important, incite you to action. Change only happens by doing. Remember, small steps lead to big rewards, and by picking up this book, you just took the first one.

Before Ladies Get Paid, the book, came Ladies Get Paid, the organization. It was born from three pivotal moments in my life. The first happened at an advertising festival. Party after party, CEOs of major brands socialized (and drank) with those who wanted their business. It was mostly men. At the time I worked for a professional platform that connected creatives with jobs, and I was there to find clients. The festival opened with an outdoor cocktail party.

Whose wife are you?

He was tall, probably around sixty years old, dressed in an expensive-looking white linen suit. It had been barely five minutes since Id walked into the party. I gritted my teeth and stretched my lips into what I hoped was a smile. Im here on business. This was going to be a long week. Around-the-clock networking is tiring.

And it was. But what was even more exhausting was the invisible (though sometimes obvious) imbalance of power between genders. Men greatly outnumbered women and their seniority dwarfed ours. I needed these men to send me their business, but so many saw me, and many of the other women there, not as valuable professional connections but as people to party with. Repeatedly, I had to wrestle the conversation back to a place that was relevant to my work or simply back to a place where I felt comfortable. It was draining, but Id done this dance before. In fact, Id been doing it my entire career.