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I used to love to watch I Love Lucy reruns with my mother—a madcap, stay-at-home mom much like the madcap, red-headed protagonist in that vintage series. While editing this issue, I stumbled upon a quote by Lucille Ball, and now I know why I always loved Lucy. “You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world,” Ball once said.
The fact that Lucy loved herself probably was a big reason why everyone loved Lucy—the show and the star. Her self-confidence shone through, and, like laughter, it was contagious. Ball certainly got a lot done in this world. She was the Oprah of her day: the first woman to own a film studio. An independent woman. A self-made multimillionaire. And she made her money doing what she loved and what she did well. (Aren’t they usually the same thing?)
Work is at the heart of most of the stories in this issue, all about women who are struggling to, or have found ways to, make money doing what they do well. Most encouraging, inspiring, and touching of all is “Oh My God, I Ate a Marc Jacobs Bag,” written by Amber Fairweather, reporting on the life lessons she learned during her first year out of college. What she discovers is that everything, from how to deal with touchy-feely bosses to how to ask for fair pay, to—most important of all—figuring out what she wants to do with her life, deep down, she really did know all along.
In “It’s the Temping Life for Me!” Laurie M. Lesser describes her battle to remain “free of the drudgery of a routine, 9-to-5 life . . . The meaning of my life was the time off in between jobs,” she says. Now, however, facing the big 5-0, she also has to face the fact that she has little money saved for retirement and may have to give up her freedom for the security that a steady paycheck can bring.
Lucy was a stay-at-home mom, who often inveigled her best friend, Ethel, into accompanying her in one money-making misadventure or another. Who can forget that run-away chocolate-factory assembly line or the Vitameatavegamin commercial? For many mothers today, working outside the home is a must; dual incomes are needed to pay the bills. But, like Lucy, some enterprising moms are finding ways to have their chocolate and eat it, too. In “The Best Business for Stay-at-Home Moms” and “Meet the Invent-Hers,” we profile a few of them.
In keeping with the work theme, in our “Female Finance” column, “Seeing Red?”, we offer advice on what you can do if you suspect wage and other types of discrimination on the job—advice that seems particularly timely, given recent remarks made by Harvard’s president, Lawrence Summers. Speaking at a seminar in January, he suggested that women might not succeed in math and science because of their DNA, and that one reason there are relatively few women in faculty positions in the math, science, and technology fields is that women choose not to devote long hours to their jobs. On our Web site, we regularly “Toast” good words and deeds and bestow “Burnt Toast” to bad. Burnt Toast hereby extended to Summers for his remarks.
How do we spend the 76 cents for every dollar men earn? “The pigeons are coming home to roost. Watch out for their droppings,” warns our “Funny Business” columnist, Jane Resnick, in a piece that will make you laugh about all those bills for credit-cards, maxed out from holiday spending, that are hitting your mailboxes about now. Save it for comic relief, after you read our Special Report on the three companies that monitor our spending and bill-paying habits, “Do the Three Credit Bureaus Have Too Much Power?”
If you’re beating up on yourself for spending too much over the holidays, take to heart one of Working Mom’s Shrink Marcia Eckerd’s “New Year’s Resolutions to Help Us Stay Sane in 2005.” “I will not beat myself up for being human, having limits and making mistakes” should do the trick. Or how about: “I will put my needs ahead of the dog’s”?
To steal a bit from last year’s movie “I Heart Huckabees,” don’t forget to “heart “ yourself a little on Valentine’s Day and every day throughout the coming year. Somewhere Lucy and Ethel will be smiling—and stuffing chocolates into their mouths. _________________________________
Gail Harlow is the Founding Editor of MAKING BREAD. Send your comments, questions and suggestions to gail@makingbreadmagazine.com. __________________________________
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