What It’s Like Being Hit On at Conferences (Being a Woman in Philosophy)

What It’s Like Being Hit On at Conferences

Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Faculty Women of Color in the Academy

We are excited to bring you the inaugural Faculty Women of Color in the Academy (FWCA) Conference, April 3-5, 2013, hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This year’s conference will focus on Issues of Politics and Scholarship, featuring prominent keynotes and panelists.

The conference will feature keynotes by Professor bell hooks; Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise; President María Hernández Ferrier; and Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall. In addition, moderated panels featuring Vice President and Chancellor Phyllis M. Wise, President Nancy “Rusty” Barceló, and President Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet, along with women faculty of color panelists from national institutions of higher education. Conference topics include Research on Women of Color in the Academy; Women of Color and Promotions: Strategies for Success; Interdisciplinary Medicine and Health; and the Economics of Being a Faculty Woman of Color: Being Prepared and Planning Ahead. The conference will launch with poster sessions and featured presentations, as well as an evening Welcome Reception. All three conference days will include social events, such as networking receptions, an Exhibitors Hall, and musical performances.

We look forward to seeing you at the FWCA Conference April 3-5, 2013, as we explore the experiences and achievements of Faculty Women of Color in the Academy!

“Any way you fucking well please”: Meeting Gloria Steinem

We’re happy to announce that we’ll be posting contributions from guest writers, from UNM and elsewhere. First up is Megan Herceg, a member of the Women’s Resource Center’s Impact Project, on Gloria Steinem’s recent visit to UNM to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Women’s Resource Center and the Women Studies Program. Incidentally, 2012 also marks 40 years of Ms. Magazine. The WRC graciously allowed WITA to host a student leader meet-and-greet with Ms. Steinem, which Megan attended.

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I’d like to thank the Academy… Or rather, Women in the Academy for the incredibly inspiring experience of meeting Gloria Steinem. I’ve never seen such a captive audience as the one I sat in during the meet and greet. Gloria not only allowed the audience to ask questions, but also asked us to tell her what she needed to know. It was apparent from the strong, eloquent way she answered questions that she was a leader, but it was her desire to hear the knowledge of the crowd that made her stand out to me; It was very special that she considered us equals. Gloria answered many questions, particularly about how we can continue to fight for gender equality (“Any way you fucking well please,” if you were curious), and I think we were all expecting a grand solution, but instead, what I think Gloria Steinem did for the attendees of the meet and greet was re-inspiring the passion that we’d forgotten we had.

It’s not that we weren’t passionate before, or that we didn’t work hard toward the goal of gender equality, or even that we hadn’t been tirelessly planning events to get out the word about current violations of human rights, it’s that there’s a difference between the passion when you first fall in love with an idea, in this case feminism, and the passion of the years after that. I believe that the excitement of meeting Gloria Steinem carried through the entire experience; through loving her and loving her ideas, we began to re-love the ideas that got us started down this path.

What I’d really like to say is thank you to Gloria Steinem and those who participated for re-inspiring me. It’s this love for the ideals of feminism and my rekindled passion for them that motivates me to ask you to personally connect with us at the Women’s Resource Center and through Women in the Academy. Gloria Steinem reminded me that one of the most important things we can do here at UNM while we get our education is support and connect with one another. Here’s the official invitation to continue what Gloria started. Let’s begin a legacy of passion and equality at our school, as a guide for future students and the community at UNM.

Panel/Roundtable: Women in Leadership

And for our next trick:

Women in (Student) Leadership
Tuesday, November 27
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Ortega Reading Room (#335)

Do it.

 

Heard of Self Serve yet? Well, they are THIS cool.

Perspective

Thanks to the Sewall-Belmont House and Museum for this one.

“Philosophy and Minivans” via What Is It Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?

“Philosophy and Minivans” via What Is It Like to Be a Woman in Philosophy?

The truth is that I find it harder and harder to muster that “fuck you” spirit every time I feel like an outsider. I have never felt so alienated from the profession of philosophy as I do now that I am pregnant – and I didn’t exactly feel like “one of the gang” prior to being pregnant, either. I have formed close friendships with other grad students in my program, but almost all of them are men whose attitudes toward family life range from indifferent to downright hostile. Most are not in committed long term relationships, and none have children or have even expressed an interest in having children. From what I have seen of the faculty in my program, these demographics do not change very much at the professor level, either. I guess some of the indifferent male grad students go on to find partners and have children as faculty, but they certainly aren’t driving the minivan themselves.

 

. . . I don’t know whether I will stay or go – or even if I will have the option to stay, given that I don’t have a job. But there is one thing that I want to say to all of the women philosophers out there who are reading this: let your students know about the activities you do that go against the philosopher stereotype. Mention your gardening, taking your kid to swim lessons, painting your fingernails, redecorating your kitchen, your recommendation for the best laundry stain remover. Yes, these comments might seem off-topic when the student is there to talk to you about Hume or incompatibilism or whatever. But find ways to drop in little clues and hints now and then. I can only speak for myself, but tiny comments like these have played a huge role in getting me to me to stay in the professional philosophy pipeline as long as I have. The impact can be enormous.