AAC&U Report on Women on Campus
The Association of American College & Universities has been inpired to reflect on the origins of its interest in women. You can read the newsletter about women's issues here (http://www.aacu.org/ocww/volume39_3/?utm_source=news&utm_medium=blast&utm_campaign=ocwwvol39no3).
Kathryn Pletier Campbell wrote the overview essay. Their investment in women's issues started in 1971, when in DC, Dr. Bunny Sandler worked towards the passage of Title IX. She brought this work to the attention of the AAC, and they agreed to establish the first women's office within a national association of higher education institutions. Their Program on the Status and Education of Women (PSEW) has now completed 40 years of advocacy for women students, faculty, and staff.
The two directors in the beginning were Bunny Sandler and Caryn McTigh Musil. They are interviewed in the newsletter, as are those involved later on. A particularly interesting section focuses on the status of women of color, and includes writing by Yolanda Moses, Shirley Hune, and Caroline Sotello Viernes Turner. For us who care especially about women in science, there is an article from Cathy Middlecamp about how women's studies has contributed to her work in Chemistry. Many more articles are included, do go and explore them.
I was really taken with Middlecamp's essay. Evidently her male PhD advisor claimed to be a feminist because he believed that women were people too. She agreed, so she began to think of herself as a feminist. At first she didn't know any women in science but she read Sue Rosser, Evelyn Fox-Keller, and Sandra Harding. To her, feminist science is science in its human context. One day she photographed the illustrations in over twenty text books. There were no photographs of women or people of color. Her slide show on the subject opened people's eyes! She slowly realized that, although the curriculum was jam packed, it lacked any teaching about how to ask good questions, how to weigh evidence, or how scientific knowledge could lead to civic engagement. Her questions about who and what were missing turned out to be very fruitful.
The newsletter suggests we still need to ask the age-old questions, Who is missing? and From where? But they suggest adding "What can we do to make the next four decades better than the last?"
What do you think?
Who is still missing? From where? What is still missing in science education? From where?
Dear Elsa,
Yes, I had the pleasure of hearing Barbara Whitten at a women in science workshop in Claremont in January, and found her course description was outstanding. I have no trouble imagining that women are attracted to this approach to physics, one that helps people instead of designing missiles and tracking bullets (what my physics course had for a lot of its examples).
cheers,
Laura
Yes, SENCER is really great. I got some very good ideas from the models on their web site when I wanted to use more community outreach in my ecology class.
I also want to recommend Barbara Whitten, a physicist from Colorado College. Physics is rarely relevant to people's needs, as taught, but Whitten's classes are. Her students evaluate the green nature of houses from low income people, design new insulation, etc, for them, and raise the money needed and do the work, then evaluate the energy budget of the newly renovated buildings. Kudos to her and her students! And guess what? More women are interested in this physics with a heart.
Dear Chia Bio,
I got on one of my favorite hobby horses instead of telling you about SENCER, which is what I meant to do. It's a group of people who teach courses that lead to civic engagement. They list courses with syllabi so others can emulate them, and they hold a conference every summer. If you know professors, encourage them to look into and join SENCER so they can add this element to their courses. There are a lot of science courses on their lists.
cheers,
Laura
Dear Chia Bio,
I agree. In fact, I was doing some research on a woman called Nettie Stevens a few years ago, and found that she discovered sex chromosomes, not Thomas Hunt Morgan as most texts say now. Back in the 1960s, Srb Owen and Edgar's book told about Stevens, but that has been dropped now and we only hear about Morgan, who ironically pooh-poohed Stevens' conclusions about sex chromosomes when she first published.
cheers,
Laura
All that reminds me of the way people like to delude themselves into thinking everyone is like them. In old-style medicine, being a woman was 'wrong' and had to be treated. Doctors called menstruation and menopause "diseases" or abnormalities...hysteria! But of course we now admit they are perfectly normal, for women, who are people too. In the same way, needing great, inexpensive child care is for women, who are people too.
OK Scifeminista is saying something important, though. It is Ceci and Williams' point that women CHOOSE not to stay in science. But if they are leaving because their childcare needs get no support (not to mention a general lack of caring and friendship), then how much of a real choice is it? Not much.
Dear Caryn and others,
I apologize. I did overstate my case, and I know very well there is no comparison. All I wanted to say is women are undervalued and underpaid, not that they are treated as the African Americans were.
Scifeminista
Dear Scifeminsta,
I hope you're not comparing women in science with how African Americans were treated in this country, because really there is NO comparison. Not that I'm saying women are treated OK in science. But watch out for overstating things here. It makes those of us with black heritage feel disconnected from where you're going.
I can just imagine an old white chem guy, with his dry sense of humor, giving that definition of feminism: women are people too.
There's a sense in which that is the counterargument to Ceci and Williams. If women are people too, why are the institutions not meeting their needs with childcare and flex time? Because they aren't "quite" people, just able to do the work, rather like mules or sl***ves....uh oh!
Hi Laura,
I love the idea of her pulling down 20 textbooks (you know they were not small!) and photographing all the old white male scientists' black and white unsmiling bearded pictures on Powerpoint. Very cool. I wonder does she still have that Powerpoint? I'd love to see it!
SP
I think showing how science can benefit humanity is missing in almost all courses. The professors say they have too much material to cover, but connecting the science topics with third world needs or ways to help poor people would be so much more motivating than another equation or reaction!
Women are missing still from CS and Engineering, for one thing. People of color are missing from pretty much all of science except Psych, if that's considered a science at your university. '
And, I still don't see any pictures of women or people of color in a lot of the textbooks. And a lot of my colleagues have only white male grad assistants/TAs. Hmm, a lost opportunity?
FBP
