Feministe Feedback: Seeking a feminist career

27 thoughts on Feministe Feedback: Seeking a feminist career

1. The most helpful kind of lawyer is the one who actually likes their field. Law school is expensive (which you know) so don’t go if you’re not invested. But in terms of changing things? Public defense, policy, family law, environmental law, teaching law, politics, government work. You can be an accountant and donate a portion of your time to helping poeple understand taxes. Hell, you can get a degree in statistics and work at the census and make a difference! Obviously if you work for Exxon/Mobile fighting punitive damages you will be on the wrong side (IMO), but there are a lot of ways to make a positive, progressive difference, some of which are not immediately obvious.

   If you’re not sure what you want to do enough to invest several years and take on huge debt just now, maybe you could look into more volunteer opportunities. There are a few organizations in your area that do work with and for assualt and abuse survivors, there are likely public interest law offices that need volunteer or part-time office support, there may be groups that need volunteer web design! You could check out idealist.org if you want to get an idea of what’s nearby and looking for volunteers or employees with your skill set.

   Also, you may be, like many 26 year olds I know, feeling like you need to get going or it’ll be too late. My folks have been telling me that for several years. I’m 26 and actually starting law school a year earlier than I thought I would be — don’t pressure yourself into going back to school if you feel like you need another year. On the other hand, if you really want to go into law, you might research programs that are in or near cities you’d like to work in, and that have good clinical training. If you haven’t, take a free LSAT test and see where you’re at — companies like Kaplan have a few every couple months. One of the things law school is for is figuring out what kind of law you might want to do.

   I should say here that I work at a law firm and am going to law school in the fall, so I’m a little biased. But these are a few of the things I did when I was trying to decide whether I wanted to go to law school, and I also was considering medicine, before I decided to go for the three years of training over the approximately 10 I would need because I haven’t taken a science class in nine years. If you’re doing clinical research, you may be somewhat better positioned to do that work than I was.

2. I’m also 26 and a web developer, as well as a general tech support person and a technology trainer. I know you said that you’re not attached to your job, but if you enjoy it and aren’t definitely looking for a move, there are many ways to make web design and other tech type stuff into a feminist career.

   I work primarily for non-profit, progressive community organizations, and it’s a great way for me to use my skills, pursue my interests, AND support organizing and activism all at once. I think that understanding community organizations and their particular needs and limitations is a skill set unto itself and one that’s unfortunately rare – lots of orgs find it hard to get quality, affordable web and tech support from someone who actually gets them and their work.

   I also do web and tech trainings for activists, organizers, and members of different community organizations. It’s a great way to share knowledge. Many of the people I train are women, low-income, and/or people of color, groups who are often most affected by the digital divide, so I design my trainings with breaking down those barriers in mind. I myself appreciate when I get to go to tech workshops lead by women, especially women of color, since we’re kinda few and far between in the tech world.

   Have you tried getting work specifically with feminist organizations? Or do you already do that and are you finding it’s not enough or not what you really want to be doing?

3. As you’re figuring things out, I’d suggest you connect with some organizations you think have great woman-empowering missions. You could work part- or full-time at one and volunteer your time at others. Doing that is helping me out a lot, especially because I get to help make change while still figuring out which route to take (it’s looking like a PhD is best for me so I can teach and grow little feminist armies haha).

   It’s often best to find an organization that lets you use the talents you already have or want to develop, but who are flexible enough to let you create your own schedule. For this, the smaller, more grassroots organizations are sometimes better than the larger ones. Plus, they really need the help!

   Like Butch Fatale said, you don’t want to waste time and money going down a route you’re not even 100% sure of and passionate about.

   Last, it sounds cheesy, but trust your gut!

4. Hey northern Virginia! That’s where I’m from! However, I’m at school and living in Massachusetts right now so I can’t help you with specifics, but I do have an idea.

   Volunteer at a women’s/domestic violence shelter! They always need more people. I volunteer at one up here, and there are opportunities to help directly with the women and their children in the shelter, and also in the office working on outreach/the hotline/legal issues/etc. I’m sure if you could find something like this, they’d love to use your web design abilities. Working at a shelter doesn’t require going to school, and it has a significant impact on the lives of women everywhere.

   There’s also an amazing organization in DC called the Polaris Project which probably needs volunteers. It’s a anti int’l human trafficking organization, and they do a lot of hands-on work to help women in the city. If that interests you, you might want to also get in touch with HIPS- helping individual prostitutes survive. I’m sure they need people to help (even with web design!).

5. How about assisting a 34 year old woman within the DC metro area in starting up a Non profit grassroots organization that assists the ordinary citizen in EFFECTIVELY contacting their representative or senator. I have an entire business plan, but I need people. People willing to work on the side in starting this up. What I would like to do is use the internet to identify action issues and try and get a more localized response. I would assist people in organizing locally then having them coe to Washington to lobby their effort in person. Essentially, I’d be the catalyst Lobbyist to help the ordinary person gain their voice back.

   BTW, I used to work in a Lobbying firm in DC, so I have an insiders view and I want to change it, big time.

6. Public Health!

   I’m 28, and just began studying for an MPH (Master’s of Public Health) in epidemiology, and I keep hearing that there’s a shortage of public health professionals in the US. There would likely be a lot of jobs in the DC area, because there’s offices for the CDC, and a bunch of Federal organizations.

   I currently work in a clinical/basic science university laboratory, as lab manager/ technician/ researcher, I’m moving towards Public Health because I feel I’d be able to make more of a difference on the issues that matter to me (women’s health, womens’ rights, health care access for all…you know, the little stuff). I chose the Epidemiology focus because I’m good at maths and statistics, but it is also possible to focus on Health Promotion, Environmental Health (taking on the EPA anyone?), and Health Service Administration. Right now I’m doing an internship at the local County Office Of Violence Prevention, assisting in the final stages of putting together a database of cases of Domestic Violence where there was a fatality. So even though I’m a “hard science” person, focusing my studies on statistics and study design principles, I’m already finding opportunities to be helpful in projects relating to core issues.

7. I live in DC also, and have gone back and forth on the whole law school thing since I graduated from college a few years ago. I actually applied this past cycle and got into some really good schools, but decided to hold off and pursue a dream job before I make that huge investment. Alot of people view law school as the end all be all solution for their careers, but considering the cost, sometimes it may be better to just do something you are passionate about.

   In addition to the amazing organizations that Lydia mentioned, you may want to consider becoming a volunteer at the DC Rape Crisis Center. It has a pretty intense training program, but it is a great way to meet other feminists in the city and to help survivors in need.

   Good luck!

8. If you have the ability, you should get into a career where you can have influence. Be careful when considering professional schools or graduate school, because this is an experience that is less about education and more about socialization. Many women, for instance, go to law school thinking they will change the world, but soon learn that they have to make too many compromises. You can get a professional or graduate education without losing your sanity, but choose carefully or you can become frustrated and alienated. Good luck!

9. This is a great question!

   As a currently practicing lawyer, my answer will be a bit biased towards the legal and public policy arena. I echo what people about say about critiques of law school – it wasn’t at all what I expected it to be and certainly wasn’t anything of a feminist experience.

   But, it gave me the tools and skills I needed to a) understand massively complex policy schemes, b) figure out what changes could be made to help my clients, and c) work with administrations and policy makers to make those changes. I currently work at legal aid doing poverty and welfare law. I consider welfare law to be a feminist area, as 95% of our clients are single mothers. I see the consequences on these women for not having the information or medical access to control their reproductive health, the consequences of a failed education system locking them into jobs below a living wage and with no career ladder, and the sexist assumptions and attitudes embodied by our current policies.

   During law school, I hated it so much that I dropped out and worked at a women’s law center for a period of time. That convinced me that to truly make effective social change, I needed the JD behind my name — not because I accomplish change primarily through litigation (in fact I rarely litigate) — but because it gets me access to current clients so I can find out what problems are most affecting them and it gets me respect and attention from agencies so I can negotiate to fix things.

   That said, there’s a lot of ways to participate in the policy arena without being a JD. I’m really into masters of public policy right now – using data analysis and GIS mapping to organize information to highlight problems and advocate for change. That kind of work might fit more closely with being a current web designer? I’m not sure.

   I also agree with above commenters that you could incorporate your tech skills into a feminist career. Working at legal aid, I am often appalled at the lack of technological savvy for people working in this field. A majority of my staff are unfamiliar with Google, much less how to use it to find the policy documents from the state website that aren’t indexed. This means their research takes longer, their communication with the public is less effective, and there are tons of tools and data sets they are not using. Training feminist organizations or such on how to incorporate technology into their work is a HUGE need, and one that is becoming even more prevalent as younger workers come into the organizations.

   It’s also important to consider your ability to work directly with clients – by volunteering with rape crisis, doing direct legal services in clinics, etc. I went towards policy analysis because having direct contact with low-income DV victims in crisis situations was too emotionally difficult for me as a long term proposition. Other people, however, would much rather be directly connected to the client community instead of doing dry policy work.

   So to sum up this rather rambling comment – figure out what skills you most want to use. Client interaction? Web programming? Policy analysis? Data analysis? When you figure that out, talk to feminist organizations about their need for these skills. Being in the DC area you’re lucky that there are TONS around. Somebody is bound to be approaching the issues in the same direction you are.

   I’d be happy to email more about specifics, recount my law school experience, talk more about legal services work as feminist work, etc. Just go to my website and leave a comment and I’ll respond.

   Good luck!

10. OMG that was long. Sorry. Guess I have a lot to say on this. 🙂

11. I second the volunteering suggestion. One good way to get involved in medicine is by volunteering with a good free clinic – get basic first aid training, work your way in practically first. Some street medic organizations and crews are good for this too (some are not, you have to go with your gut on the vibe you get for them). Decentralizing medical knowledge is important, I think not just concentrating it all on yourself, since many of the most common medical problems are based in simple things.Also, many of those simple things are essentially political and economic (lack of access to fresh fruit & veggies because there are no farmstands in poor neighborhoods, environmental pollution)

    hey that’s another cool one – community gardens!

12. Several things about law school (which I just finished). It gives you skills to do some amazing advocacy work that can make a real difference in people’s lives. Even in law school, you have the opportunity to do clinic work and help clients in really concrete ways. It also sucks beyond words some days, and a significant proportion of the people around you will be evil unhappy douchebags. In fact, some days you’re likely to be an evil unhappy douchebag yourself, so make sure you chose not to be (post “I will not be an evil unhappy douchebag today” on your mirror if you have to.) Really think about how much debt you will take on and what that will mean. I’m working in Biglaw to pay down debt, but have a financial plan, am keeping in touch with my friends in public interest law and keeping exit strategies open, and I’m doing pro bono work when I can. And you don’t have to specialise in law school, so you can explore areas from immigration to reproductive rights to criminal law and find out what you like doing and are good at.

    The suggestions from other readers about volunteering are great – not only will they help you figure out what you’re good at, but it will help you keep perspective and be less evil if you do go to law school.

13. D’oh – comment in moderation. I’ll just add that I swear a lot more than I did before law school, too. 🙂

14. Psychology might be a good field if you’re thinking about graduate degrees that will allow you to help society. Once you hit the PsyD/PhD level there are a lot of opportunites, there exists a ton of social service agencies that need people, rural and southern parts of the country don’t often have enough licensed providers to meet demand, and psychology tends to be particularly friendly on an institutional level to feminist thought. Just do yourself a favor: read as much theory as you can and do some volunteering before you commit to the expense, theres a huge washout/attrition rate in a lot of programs.

15. I am a lawyer, too. My advice: if you have any interest in it, become a paralegal and do that for one/two years. That way, you don’t have to pile a volunteer job on top of work that you are already doing. And you will get a better idea of what it’s like to be a lawyer by working full-time as a paralegal than by working part-time as a volunteer.

    Some paralegal jobs require certificates, some don’t. I didn’t have a certificate, and worked at a Wall Street firm as a paralegal for a year before going to law school. It can be easier to get hired as a paralegal at a private firm than with a non-profit agency or government office, because the firm can be more flexible with hiring criteria.

    Law school is 3 years out of your life, and lots of money. It’s not as financially remunerative as people think, for most people. Also, law school is not much like law practice. You could hate school & love practice. Or, you could love school & hate practice. That’s why some real-life experience before school is so valuable: helps you hang in there if you don’t like school.

    Go back to your college placement office, take some aptitude tests, and talk to the counselors. Also, get your recommendations up to date. And take the LSAT: studying for & taking it will tell you something about whether you find the mode of thought congenial or not.

    I liked law school, and love my work. But it’s definitely not for everyone, for lots of reasons. So, dip your toes in before you make the plunge.

16. I’ll join the list of lawyers here, although I’m not currently practicing but am a partner in a small search firm.

    I think the answer needs to start with your priorities.

    For one thing, any career you care about and that allows you the opportunity to do some good, whether it’s in the context of that career or as an offshoot, is a feminist career. Women are underrepresented in many careers and getting in there, carving a path and helping other women is a very feminist activity. While the objective of starting out in a helping or pro bono bode is great, the fact that many more women than men have this objective, and then (sometimes) wind up giving up our career b/c it’s lower paying than that of our partner, creates some dynamics that are most definitely not feminist. Of course, opting out isn’t inevitable and it’s important that we have feminists positioned at both grass roots and top down levels IMO.

    But the bottom line is what motivates you the most.

    If you are someone for whom money and stature aren’t very important, and/or you don’t have immediate heavy expenses, and you feel it’s critical to have the bread-and-butter of your job be focused around something that will be directly philanthropic, then you will be well served by a number of comments above. If law is the mechanism by which you’d like to do this, you should look into how to keep costs down so that you can afford to go the public interest route upon graduation. You could also go to business school and join an organization such as Children Int’l or the Grameen Foundation, or go the medical route (if there’s a way to manage costs so that you can translate your public interest objectives seamlessly upon graduation). Or you could start a public interest organization with a specific objective (which is my personal goal upon early retirement, ironically the objective being to focus around career counseling for low-income women).

    If you are someone who would like to attain a certain stature in law/business/medicine/whatever and like the idea of the money and power (which doesn’t have to be a no-no for women) that comes along with that, and/or have family pressures for which you need some additional income, but you’d still like to do public interest work on the side, then it’s a different calculus. Some lawyers use their podiums as partners to do worthwhile public interest, poverty rights and gender rights work.

17. Hm…

    If you are a people person with some aptitude for business, perhaps nonprofit management? One of the colleges here in Calgary offers a nonprofit management program. Look into some community colleges and see if they might have something similar. Most nonprofits have a paid manager that doesn’t make much money, but they are amazing, hard working people that always are on the ground teaching, helping the message out, and devoting thier life to a worthy cause that they beleive in. I volunteer at Ten Thousand Villages and our store managers are just amazing women.

    I also beleive that any profession where every day you prove any stereotype about women wrong is just peachy. If you can challenge the views of one coworker, boss, or customer, you’ve done your part to help women.

18. I want to echo those that have said don’t jump in to grad school if you’re unsure of what you want out of it. I am halfway through my public health program right now, but I worked in public health for 3-4 years before deciding to go for my master’s degree. I am so, so grateful that I did – it has helped me keep a professional focus while I’m in school, and made me very aware of what I need to learn, why I am there, etc. My decision to do public health was very much driven by my feminism. In undergrad, I thought I would end up as a freelance writer, or working for a social justice-oriented publication. That could still happen, but I don’t think it will be my main gig, and working for a few years helped me see that.

    As far as law school goes, a good friend of mine went into law school as a feminist, her heart set on using her powers for good and changing the world. Law school was brutal, and now that she’s 3 years out, she’s had a series of disillusionments and challenges, and sometimes talks about going back to school to get a PhD and teach something more humanities/women’s studies-oriented. This is not to say that no one should go to law school – just that you should be really aware of what you’re signing up for. By the time law school was over, she was saddled with a lot of debt, and went to work for a corporate law firm in their “environmental” department. It helped her pay her bills, sure – but the trade-offs were huge. She regularly worked 60-80 hour weeks, and the “enviromental law” she was doing was not exactly saving us from global warming. She got so burnt out that she felt she couldn’t do the important stuff that she was driven to do – like volunteer to do pro bono work for women who had been rounded up and were awaiting deportation in an immigration raid.

    I can’t say whether her story is typical or not, and I think she wavers on whether going to law school was the right decision for her – personally and as a feminist. Some days, I think she is really happy with her choice, because when she has the time, she can do some pretty powerful work. A law degree is a powerful tool. But, other days, I think she may have a few regrets.

    I started grad school at 27, and before I started I thought was really late in the game. But when I arrived, I realized that I’m about the median age in my department. Other departments have a much younger cohort – people who are fresh out of undergrad, starting MPH/PhD programs. (Personally, I think this is crazy – but I’m biased by the fact that I didn’t figure out what I wanted to do until I was 25-26, after working for a while.)

    If you are unsure of what direction you want to go, definitely do some more exploring before you sign up for grad school and invest so much money alongside your blood, sweat, and tears. Think about what makes you excited. Feminist work is a pretty broad category – while I am interested in so many facets of feminist work, I know that what gets me really excited is reproductive rights, reproductive health, sex education, abortion access, HIV/AIDS, etc., so that’s where I’ve decided to focus my energy. Take some time – a year, two, three… volunteer, talk to people working in the fields you’re interested in about why they are doing it, etc. and maybe you’ll have some clarity.

    And, now that I’ve said all that, I’ll close by saying that life is very malleable – things can always be changed again down the road. 🙂

19. You are a web designer! And you do this in your free time plus paid time! I think if I had to pick just one technical skill many many NGOs and organizations need desperately is web design. Website maintenance.

    There are many many resources, organizations, groups and networks in DC. I’d say contact my favorite feminist space in DC—> HIPS. They are wonderful. They are also connected to this great community-organized radio that runs out of North east (atleast they did a few years ago). They are connected to all kinds of great networks of queer, women of color, trans, activist communities that do solid work. Such good people, I miss them. Anyway.

    Also, I’d second whoever said Public Health. It rocks. Such a versatile and powerful degree. HIPS is also a public health organization, by the way. And it’s a great way to use your clinical research background too.

20. oh and there’s also of course the Feminist Majority Foundation headquarters in DC. (there are many of these huge important feminist organizations in DC). But FMF has these weekly volunteer nights where people just show up and do boring mailings for them. They feed you free pizza. This sounds boring and there is potential for that. But the upside is you almost always have interesting conversations, and you don’t have to sign up for anything or go to any trainings. No commitments. You can just show up and dip your finger in the pool of corporatized feminism.

21. Law is overrated. Have you considered teaching?

    With a background in computers I’d guess you’d be a natural math/science teacher – schools always need more and there are so few well qualified, well educated science teachers available. The pay’s not great, but it’s a way to change the world. You could try a year or 2 of teach for america to see if you have the aptitude.

    Alternatively, community college/adult education programs are a great way to get involved in teaching people who are actively trying to learn and improve their skill sets. My aunt was at Baltimore county community college teaching sciencey stuff and her students were overwhelmingly young, undereducated women – many of whom had had children before they finished high school – who were back at school training to improve their chances for good jobs and better lives for their children. With your webby background, you could be teaching women (and men) essential skills that could help them find jobs and opportunities they’d never be able to access otherwise.

22. I’ve gotta run to work in a minute, but I just wanted to throw this out there: while the suggestions that folks have made sound solid, might there also be the possibility of rejecting the idea of a career, even temporarily?

    As a neonate in the working world (21, just graduated), I’m realizing that the satisfaction I get from busting my ass in the name of financial independence, while real and important, also comes at significant costs. These years of relative social freedom and mobility might be the only period in my life when I can experience for myself what it might look like to live in radically anti-capitalist communities that rely as little as possible on the exchange of money. To bring my mode of living more closely in accordance with my beliefs. I don’t know if a self-sufficient cooperative society like that sounds appealing at all to other folks, but it’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately. Anyone else resonate?

    And I know that a major gripe of some feminists is that we young’uns will take any random topic (e.g. anti-capitalism) and claim it as a feminist issue simply because it affects women. But given the long history of Marxist/socialist/materialist feminism, and the ways that paid and unpaid labor are clearly gendered, to me the question of feminist anti-capitalism is a no-brainer. Doesn’t mean I’ve got answers about it: just a lot of questions that feel real timely and important.

    Good luck! I feel you on the life crisis thing. 😉

23. Katie Loncke: A self-sufficient cooperative society tends to run into problems when its members get old. Whatever you do for the next few year, make sure that you earn enough cash to put away the max in an IRA. Parents can help with this.

    Aging Baby Boomers are going to put huge pressure on Social Security and even more so on Medicare. You shouldn’t count on either being available for you at current levels. Money put away today is worth more to you than money put away later, because of the compounding effect.

    So, live at subsistence level now, or even forever, if you like. But don’t forget to plan for your future. It’s not exactly feminist to end up having to marry some guy (or gal!) for his/her health insurance and pension.

24. I just wanted to add something about going into corporate law to pay back student loans: some states and schools have loan forgiveness programs in which you commit to a certain number of years working for nonprofit and/or state organizations and your loans are “forgiven” (ie paid for you). A friend of mine had to commit five years to working for the state of NY and she helps poor people a lot — things like voting rights, housing rights, etc. She loves her job, she feels like she’s making a real difference (she is a strong feminist), and she is having her loans paid for her because she’s willing to take a lower salary and work for people who can’t afford lawyers. So if you’re truly interested in law you might research similar programs.

    Aside from that, I second teaching. I speak from experience that it’s awesome to be one of those university liberals that conservatives are always complaining about. I love to warp the minds of unsuspecting students.

25. Law is way overrated. Teaching is good, because it will leave you time to fulfill those other vocations that most women take up . . .you know, wife and mother.

26. …and I’m officially tired of enlightened.

    Enlightened: Not every woman is your ex wife. Seriously. Sorry things didn’t work out, but your experience is not universal. Good luck with the divorce, and I hope to God you never date another woman again (for the woman’s sake). Seek some help, and then consider getting a life that doesn’t involve projecting your personal shit all over feminist blogs. Buh-bye.

27. Hey Nitpicker, sounds like you might have a story in mind, or wisdom gleaned from experience. Care to share? 🙂 Elder tales are the best. And thanks much for the practical advice on collab with the ‘rents.

    The problem you mention is something I’ve been struggling with: how to live deliberately and differently right now, working toward a vision of a radically transformed/transformative society (one, incidentally, that cares for its older and/or ailing folks in significantly better ways than we do currently), without completely screwing myself over if I decide to change course later on. Can someone like me really have it both ways? Or is the decision to plan for one’s financial future just as deterministic and limiting as the choice to forsake it?

    I’m trying to avoid an all-or-nothing mental trap here. Like, just because I vote Democrat doesn’t mean I’m necessarily dooming the country to a two-party system for all eternity, though it might seem so in the moment. But there are just so many damn forces (um…debt, anyone?) demanding that people my age plunge straight into super-capitalist existences (yes, even — or especially — in the non-profit world), that it’s hard to envision alternatives, let alone find and explore them.

    I know this is supposed to be a thread about career advice, and I don’t want to hijack too much, but my thinking about careers right now is inextricably linked with concerns about life choices, their political implications, and what kinds of communities make those choices available and possible. Any advice from folks who know more would be much appreciated!

    Also, enlightened: …ew.

Comments are currently closed.