Tina Fey on Feminism

During a recent road trip to El Paso, my girlfriend and I listened to Tina Fey's essay/memoir collection "Bossypants" on Audiobook. Narrated by Fey herself, I think the book provided a rare insight into Tina Fey's take on feminist issues, free of the filtering that occurs when her ideas are interpreted by whatever magazine is interviewing her. Since it's rather difficult to skim through an audiobook to find quotes, here are the issues she discussed as paraphrased by me.

On Sexism in the Workplace

The only time Fey really rears up on her feminist haunches is when she encounters men in comedy in positions of authority treating her disrespectfully. Especially the time someone from Second City told her the comedy troupes were 4 men and 2 women because otherwise there wouldn't be enough female characters to go around. Despite the fact the show was made up live so, theoretically, there's infinite female characters. Her advice however boiled down to "work harder, don't let it get under your skin, ignore the jerks, and when you surpass them, remember who were jerks and don't hire them."

On Being a Working Mother

Since having a child, Tina Fey has been frequently been held up as a role model for working mothers. That is not an honor she is very excited about. Fey actually turned down a "Working Mother of the Year" award from some magazine due to the fact that they've never seen her with her kids so they have no idea what kind of mother she is. She acknowledges that she has a nanny and that it is incredibly hard to balance working as much as she does with being a mother.

Of course, these are only two small sections of the book. Throughout the whole book, I think Fey does an exceptional job at telling her story and making the points she wants to make, including some about feminism, without pigeon holing herself to the narrow focus of that topic.