Jun Wu

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Oct 9 · 7 min read

As a new writer, one of the most infuriating aspects of working in the writing industry is seeing the gender disparity that still exists in the industry. I came from Wallstreet technology. I am taking shelter in the writing industry because I was under the impression that more women are writers. But, I was right and wrong. According to Data USA, women are 59.6% of the writing workforce. Our average salary is $52,499 as compared to male writers who earn an average salary of $73,328. As a female freelance writer, it is discouraging for me to see these numbers. But, I’ve dealt with much worse. So, I still feel that I’m taking shelter from gender disparity when I write on the Medium platform. Medium Partnership Program’s system of pay based on reads/fans means that at least female writers are judged on the same rating system as the male writers.

Dealing with my toddler during the day means that I have a zero-tolerance policy for workplace drama, discrimination, and trolls. This is why I’m sensitive to anyone who is out to stir the pot for their benefit. Recently, some female writers have heard misconceptions about female writers on Medium. As a member of Medium’s writing community, with the help of writers in the Medium Mastery Facebook group, I felt a responsibility to set the record straight.

Before I begin, I’d like to say that there’s no such thing as “female” topics and “male” topics on Medium. You will find an article discussing Barbie dolls written by a man. You will also find an article by a female Google Data Scientist discussing statistics and data science.

Medium has over 92+ tags available. You can choose any topic to read or write regardless of your gender.

1. Women can not write about business, technology, politics, or the world at large.

Yes, women were largely homemakers in the 1940s. But, times have changed. Even millennial women who dealt with patriarchy have found careers in business, technology, and politics. They read the news, check Bloomberg kiosks, and program AI models on their computers. On Medium, you will find strong voices in politics from Jessica Valenti who has a column with GEN. You will also find Cassie Kozyrkov from Google Data Science who is a frequent contributor to Towards Data Science. You will also find technology writers such as Aphinya Dechalert, Jessica Lynn, Jun Wu, Anne Bonner, Lenka Otap, Jill Cates who regularly publish in popular Medium technology publications. If you go to the new Medium Business Publication: Marker, You will find voices such as Amy Chan, Stephanie Clifford, Kirsty Bashforth, etc..

2. Women overshare. They write about uncomfortable topics and share private information.

Here’s a man: John Gorman, who is so successful at oversharing that we all know what happened to his last girlfriend, how they met, what happened to their relationship, and how it all fizzled. We also know the entire journey of his rise from the ashes of near homelessness to becoming one of the most successful writers on Medium.

This man does not hold back. Does this mean that this man is secretly a woman?

Medium is a social media platform. There will be oversharers. There will be undersharers. Why are we so focused on the oversharing of female writers?

3. Women exploit themselves to make easy money from personal stories and vulnerability.

I agree that vulnerability is all over the “influencer” landscape these days. If you go to Instagram, all the celebrities are sharing their traumas, illnesses, and personal battles. It is good publicity. But, look underneath. Are you inspired by people who have conquered their battles? Do you read their stories to learn from what they have gone through?

As I got older, now in my 40s, biographies are pretty much all I want to read. Why? I’m a life long learner. I want to learn from people’s battles and triumphs.

Medium supports personal essay writing. Admittedly there are more female personal essay writers than male personal essay writers. Not all of them will be published by a publication such as the Human Parts on Medium. If you go to the Human Parts, you will see that most of the articles don’t make a ton of money. Most writers have one or two stories published there at most. It’s the variety of voices that make the publication interesting for readers to read.

I write technology articles and personal essays. My technology articles make way more money than my personal essays. But, I will always write personal essays, not to make money, but to share a part of myself. I’m human. I want to share my human-ness with the world, too.

4. Women are taking over Medium.

This one elicits a two-part response from me.

1. If women are taking over Medium, then who are the top 8 guys who are the Top Writers in the Leadership tag, most with over 10K following?

• Medium’s Health and Science columnist is a man — Markham Heid.
• Medium’s popular productivity writer is a man — Darius Foroux.
• Medium’s food publication Heated is a collaboration with a man — Mark Bittman.
• Medium’s popular political columnist is a man — Umair Haque.

Checking the latest data from Top Authors. It appears that there are only 15 female writers amongst the Top 50 writers on Medium. I believe that’s a sea of blue and not pink.

2. Have you seen a female writer on Medium with over 100K following yet? I haven’t. But, we have quite a few male writers with that kind of following, don’t we?

5. Women hate men and that’s why they bash them on Medium.

If you mean that women hate men by writing about abuse, rape, incest and more, then I’m sorry but the world is a pretty dark place. There are publications on Medium dedicated to helping such women heal by giving them a place to vent, commiserate and find shelter in sharing their experiences.

These publications include: Invisible Illness, Writing Heals, Mental Gecko.

There are thousands of publications on Medium. If you don’t like female writers who write in these topics, then simply remove them from your feed by using “Show fewer stories like this” option on your Medium app.

6. Women are successful because it makes a good story.

Very few single moms on Medium are successful. Ask Shannon Ashley who is the exception beyond exception who is making a decent living writing on Medium. The rest of us single moms are scrambling just to make a few hundred dollars a month.

If you are talking about a good story, then Shannon Ashley’s story is a great one. She’s a single mom who’s overcoming mental illness to raise her daughter. Along the way she dealt with everything you can imagine due to poverty.

You are right. Her story is a brilliant one. It inspires many men and women every day.

But, many female single mom writers are in that category. She is the exception because she is a good writer. Very few writers will be able to write an article with a voice that will resonate with so many people. She does it every single time.

Take a look at the comment section of one of her articles. When you get through the trolls who are jealous of her success, you will see many men and women echoing the same sentiment: She is a good writer.

7. Women whine.

Let’s take a look at all these women who are whining in the Human Parts, shall we? A woman who dared to recount a history of a murder in her family. A woman who dared not feel inferior. A woman who dared to talk about her mother and her own mental health.

They must be all-star whiners because it seems to me that many people read and clapped on these articles. It seems to me that people found these women’s whine valuable and insightful.

Btw, have you heard all these men who are also whining? This man whined about suicide. This man whined about long-distance love. This man whined about his depression.

We all whine. It’s the quality of our whine that makes a difference. These men and women all evaluated their adversities and extracted lessons for all of us to learn. These lessons are so valuable that you can’t learn them any other way.

8. Women are not funny.

Have you read articles in the humor and satire tag on Medium? For your information, the top four humorists on Medium are female: Jessica Wildfire, Christine Stevens, Kyrie Gray, traceybyfire. Three out of five of the top writers in Satire are also female. Check out Jane Austen’s Wastebasket and tell me her stuff is not funny. Then, have a look at SlackJaw, Medium’s largest humor & satire publication and tell me you don’t see female writers there.

The beauty of Medium is that it’s a diverse workplace for writers. If you are a reader, you will encounter many kinds of writing: writing that you like, writing that you don’t like, writing that inspires you, and writing that saddens you. But, the point is that it reflects the real world because real people are writing these articles.

These real people are no more female or male than they are black or white.

They are you and me.

Next time that you read an article that bothers you, comment on the article regardless of the gender of the writer. Relate to the writer human to human as you would out in the real world.

Thanks for listening,