Gender issues

Canada Research Chair and Professor  Ayesha Chaudhry  has resigned from the University of British Columbia's Board of Governors. I imagine the decision to resign from the UBC Board of Governors was a long and difficult one for Prof. Chaudhry. She ran as a faculty representative to bring academic values and accountability to the Board and was widely elected and supported by her colleagues. If Prof. Chaudhry’s experience was anything like mine on the UBC Presidential Search Committee, she quickly realized how alienating it is to be one of only three faculty members on a 21-person corporate-controlled Board. It was likely even worse for Chaudhry as a woman of color. Combining this with the Board's shenanigans that are designed to manipulate information and process to achieve desired decisions and minimize academic voices, a sense of helpless futility can set in. These shenanigans include strategic seating arrangements, sudden breaks during meetings when conversation veers f...

I’m a researcher who studies sex-based harassment, but that doesn’t make me immune to it. To the contrary, my expertise has drawn ire and derision from some of my male colleagues over the years, who have uttered offensive jokes or comments in my presence, as if to get me back for making them feel uncomfortable. Expertise gives you the resources to recognize what is happening and to not take it too personally. But it does not shield you from the entrapping nature of the behavior -- the risk of alienating the harasser and the network of people who rely upon, like, or admire him. Harassment comes in many shapes and forms: from jokes, comments, materials, or acts that undermine one's sense of dignity and safety in the workplace to unwanted sexual attention, touching, and coercive requests. Throughout my career most of these experiences have been one-off events with men who ceased when asked or could subsequently be avoided. But as many women experience in their professional lives, I ha...

Last week's post,  The "Crazy/Bitch" Narrative About Senior Academic Women , struck a nerve. After  tweeting  it there were immediate retweets, responses, and then it went viral. In the past six days the post has been viewed 37,000 times on my blog, published in the  Georgia Straight , picked up by the Chronicle of Higher Education, and I gave an interview today on Roundhouse Radio with Minelle Mahtani . I'm glad it generated discussion and spoke to so many women (and men). Many wrote that they saw their own experiences in the post and that it helped call out a larger pattern usually attributed to individual failings. A Tier 1 Canada Research Chair wrote that she felt broken and wanted to quit, but that my blog gave her strength: "I won't let them clip my wings." It's also discouraging to learn just how widespread this pattern is. People have noted it happens in all professions, especially male-dominated ones, where it pays to disparage and dista...

When I was a graduate student there weren’t many senior women in my department. There were narratives about them that seemed unique to each woman: One was crazy – I never really understood why, but there were hushed rumours and we were warned to stay away and not work with her. She had some impressive publications, but they were informally credited to her co-authors. Another senior woman was a "bitch" – she was well known in her "narrow" area of feminist inquiry, but only because few had researched the topic and she'd landed upon low-hanging fruit. She got her job because the department wanted to hire her husband and she didn't deserve the position and knew it. The junior female faculty were seen more favorably – as up-and-comers, friendly, and good citizens. According to some senior men, though, some junior women had Achilles' heels that would stunt their success, such as the woman who had kids before tenure (her rookie "star" was sure to fade...