education - jobs - $$$

PATSY EVANS (PATSY@AAA.MHS.COMPUSERVE.COM)
Fri, 11 Oct 1996 12:16:27 EDT

My cohort at an unnamed university has two full time teachers- one on a
tenure track, several part time/ itinerant slave-wage ( in my estimation
-- its criminal!!) workers, two who exited the field entirely even prior
to taking a MA, one museum worker, & me (who's working for less money
than before I entered graduate school 13 years ago - although this is my
second phase of my career... I didn't expect the shape of the overall
economy to be what it is) (BTW my colleagues from pre anthro days who
earned similar incomes to mine way back then, now are almost totally in
the six figure category).

But the issue is larger than anthropology. "Business" is the frame for
contemporary society and if you ain't entrepreneurial, you are not going
to earn a lot of money/ The sad thing is that people who do make the
big $ (small business owners, management consultants, lawyers, service
providers, etc.), don't realize how little other sectors of the society
earn.

A friend of mine doing a market plan was talking about targeting working
women -- she started talking about CEOs or General Counsels. I
commented that the modal working college educated professional woman --
in a high paid town like DC, were in the 25 to 35K, 38 to 48K, and also
in the 50 to 65K range. She said "No -- middle income is $70,000.!" I
laughed and told her she'd been listening to too much republican rhetoric
and that I knew even government lawyers who were making about half that
amount, even after a few years. The shape of bureaucracies is such
that there are a lot of working professional folks who work 12 months a
year, 3 weeks off, for 35 to 45K. One of my favorite full professorial
types, age about 50, told me that he had been raised to $60+K but that
he'd still have to teach summer school to make ends meet. In a much
cheaper place than I live!! I chuckled and told him my heart was
bleeding for him.

Patsy Evans
Minority Affairs, American Anthropological Association
4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640
Arlington, VA 22203-1620
703/528-1902/ext.3024;FAX: 703/528-3546
e-mail: patsy@AAA.MHS.compuserve.com
"There is no sea as restless as my mind." Derek Walcott
nota bene: (mis_)anthropological, theoretical or political opinions
expressed are my own and do not represent my employer.