Average Jane

Category: Feminism

  • An Average Jane Feminist Giveaway

    Random
    UPDATE: We have a winner! I used Random.org to pick a number between one and three for the three entries in the order in which they were received and the very first entry, Erin Grace, is our winner! Erin, I'll email you to get your address. Thanks to everyone who entered!

     

     I'm attending the Bullish Conference on October 10th in New York City. Partly in preparation for the conference, partly because I love the Bullish blog and partly because it's super cool, I bought their (Wo)Manifesto Tee:

    Bullish_Wo_Manifesto_large

    It's so me, isn't it?

    Well, I thought I ordered a t-shirt. It turns out I ordered – or at least received – two of them. So I've decided to give away the extra one. For what it's worth, it's an American Apparel women's style tee in size Large.

    If you would like to have this t-shirt for your very own, just leave a comment telling me why you like it. I'll do a random drawing on, oh, let's say Tuesday, July 7th since that's my birthday.

    Good luck!

    No disclosure language necessary since everything I'm writing about in this post involves my own money.

  • Average Jane’s Open Letter to State Farm

    This has been bugging me for a couple of weeks and I needed to get it off my chest. I haven't sent it directly to the company yet, but I probably will.

    Dear State Farm,

    I have been a customer of yours for more than twenty years
    and I have been generally very satisfied. Recently I had a claim after someone
    broke into my car, which was handled by your representatives quickly and
    satisfactorily except for one thing: all correspondence and shipments from your claims services partner were sent
    in my husband’s name.

    I know that my husband’s name is on my policy (and vice
    versa) and that his last name comes before mine in the alphabet.

    However:

    • I’ve been your customer since long before I ever met
      him.
    • It’s my car.
    • I pay for the insurance from my bank account (my
      husband pays for his separately from another bank account).
    • I filed the related police report.
    • I filed the claim.
    • I made all the calls and emails related to the claim.
    • I met with the adjuster.

    My husband was not in any way involved in the process and
    yet when my replacement car stereo arrived, his name was on the box. He couldn’t
    even imagine what it was and was surprised as I was when he opened it to find
    my stereo. 

    Later I received two emails to my email address that began “Dear
    [husband’s full name],” despite the fact that I had initiated the conversations.

    As I said before, I imagine that this is a database issue
    that has more to do with the alphabet than deliberate marginalization, but it
    certainly feels like sexism. I
    recommend that you have your claims services folks review their processes to make sure they’re more 21st
    Century-friendly in the future.

    Sincerely,

    Average Jane