From a Mother Jones interview with Barbara Ehrenreich

[firecat]

I'm incredibly fortunate never to have been laid off or fired, but many people close to me have, and this quote really speaks to me:

http://www.motherjones.org/interview/2006/06/ehrenreich.html

BE: There's a huge stigma attached to unemployment. People who have been laid off are very ashamed and depressed. There's a need to come together and overcome that shame. In those early meetings in the feminist movement of the seventies, people were ashamed to talk about having been raped. They were ashamed to talk about having been molested as a child. To be able to say that has happened to other people proved transforming. So let's bring it out, let's see what the problem is here.

TE: Isn't this the problem without a name again?

BE: Exactly. So I see the need for something at the same level of emotional involvement as in the early women's movement.

Comments

[raphaela.livejournal.com]

My mother, who has always been a stellar worker, was a high ranking officer at a three branch bank in the mid-80s. She was laid off in a semi-hostile takeover, and was so shamed by "losing her job" that she went into a deep, deep depression that lasted for over a year.

Actually, she hasn't been quite right since then. Since then she has questioned and doubted herself and her abilities. She never got over being "fired" and the stigma attached to it.