An excellent post at Tenure, She Wrote:
https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2018/07/02/why-is-it-always-my-job-to-fix-men/
Go read!
An excellent post at Tenure, She Wrote:
https://tenureshewrote.wordpress.com/2018/07/02/why-is-it-always-my-job-to-fix-men/
Go read!
Sadly, I think it’s human nature that not only is it always the job of women to fix men,it’s the job of people of color to fix white persons, the job of persons with disabilities to fix the able-bodied, etc. From time immemorial it’s been the job of all persons from marginalized groups to fix the non-marginalized.
The one thing I take issue with is the implication that if you’re not out at a protest or march you don’t care about an issue and aren’t doing your own part to make a difference. Some of us are too introverted, have family, eldercare, or our own health/disability or other issues etc. which preclude this.
I don’t know about human nature. I was bemused to see that TSW included men in their 50s in the “old guard.” I’m in my 50s now and my male contemporaries have absolutely no excuse for being oblivious (or hostile) to the issues marginalized people face. ALL of these issues have been widely discussed since I was a student, since before there were hashtags. If my contemporaries could grow up to be jackasses, your 30 yo woke colleague can as well. No one should have the obligation to spend energy fixing their colleagues, but if you don’t do it, who will? Because they don’t fix themselves.
This makes me feel fortunate to be in a department where there actually are some white guys trying to fix things (well, one of them was my postdoc whose last day was Friday, but there are 1-2 others as well, which is really not bad for a department of 5 faculty including me). I am still the heavy lifter in the department on the equity/inclusion front, but not only am I not the only one, but those same colleagues are actually quite sensitive to *avoiding* asking me to fix things and instead trying to do it themselves. I cannot tell you how refreshing this is… and how good for retention of junior women like me.
(Lest I make it sound like my life is roses, during my last week as a postdoc before starting my current position as a liberal arts college prof, the faculty at my top-tier R1 did the annual department “roast” of the postdocs and grad students. How did they roast me? They called me a “suffragette” and said, “Oh, Lyra? You don’t have to worry about her. She’s off to tutor rich kids and never be heard from professionally again.” Really, really classy stuff, especially coming from faculty in a department that had 1/3 the national average of female postdocs over the previous 10 years, and which the following year would be in the national news for harboring one of my field’s most notorious sexual harassers. These experiences make me appreciate my current department all the more.)