James Chartrand is a professional and successful copywriter. But all is not as it seems. That’s because James is a woman. “Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants” is a fascinating insight into one of the great stigmas of the modern world. That is, despite decades and centuries of social development, feminism, voting right, equal working rights, and so on, women are still widely discriminated against when it comes to the world of work. This could not be more true in the relatively unregulated world of freelancing. Corporations have policies and legal audits to contend with to help keep things closer to the straight and narrow than they otherwise would be. But as a freelancer, it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. ‘James’ tells us her story, about how she found herself working 4 hours a week at minimum wage despite college education and previous office job experience. She turned to the internet, scouring for gigs she could do from home, such as writing. Initially she was treated like crap, and paid very little, but ‘James’ grew moderately more successful, but there was always a plateau that she couldn’t seem to get past. Then she decided to create a pen-name that she could market separately to her current business. But she made a decision that was to transform her life virtually overnight. She decided to become a man. No, she didn’t become a transvestite or transexual, her gender change was in name only. Right away, she started to earn more jobs, better paid jobs. Clients treated her with more respect, and asked for fewer corrections/modifications, or none at all. “James Chartrand” is a copywriter, but her insights could apply to any woman freelancers finding themselves hitting the glass ceiling. In this internet age, where it is perfectly possible and acceptable that a designer and client might never physically meet, nor even have a telephone conversation, might more and more women find themselves turning to this tactic? Of course there are many clients and businesses that treat equality as a core value of their business, and they will reap the rewards of that, but many more ignorant clients remain. It remains to be seen whether more women will turn to this approach, as society continues its painfully slow march towards true equality.