Angry Little Tree

This is a quick one while I gather up all the aftermath from the awesome Do It With Drupal conference, but copywriter and popular blogger James Chartrand just revealed he’s a woman. Why the years of deception? When s/he used her real name, clients hassled her and constantly haggled down her pay. When she used a male pseudonym and submitted the same work to the same clients, doors opened. The jury is still out on whether gender-based pay equality is improving or getting worse.

Update: Stephen Granades’ excellent post on the story makes an interesting point. Chartrand wasn’t just a pseudonym: he was another persona, complete with he-man swagger and his own set of dismissive remarks about other women. Where’s the line between ‘doing what you need to get by’ and ‘perpetuating the very system that kept you from advancing?’