‘Gender in the Workplace’ panel discusses still-present issues
A panel entitled “Gender in the Workplace” will take place Feb. 4 at 8 p.m. in Jones 210. The panel will be sponsored by the Feminist Majority Alliance group on campus.
Junior Briana Conrad, student leader of the FMA, said the organization wanted to hold an event before mid-semester break because she figured people would be less busy with classes then. The idea for this panel discussion was Hilda Koster’s, FMA adviser. Conrad said they wanted a panel with diverse backgrounds and interests, so they tried to choose people in various departments such as science, math, humanities and languages.
“Because the panel focuses on faculty members’ individual career experiences as well as the role gender and feminism has played in those experiences, we thought it was important for our panelists to identify with feminism,” she said. “At least three of the faculty [members] on the panel teaches various classes that count for the women’s studies minor.”
Lisa Sethre-Hofstad, a psychology professor who teaches “Psychology of Gender,” is one of the professors who was invited to participate in this panel.
“I think it’s a good opportunity for students to explore the kinds of issues that they’ll face in their upcoming years,” she said.
Sethre-Hofstad said she thinks progress has been made in terms of gender issues in the work place, but there’s still quite a ways to go. Some progress has been made in obvious areas, such as the fact that it’s illegal to discriminate against women who are pregnant, but more progress still needs to be made.
“I don’t think people understand how many of those issues have just moved underground,” she said. “These issues are very relevant, but they’re harder to uncover because they are less obvious.”
Gay Rawson, a French professor, also has interests within the women’s studies program, and she said she was glad to have a forum on this topic on campus.
“Whoever comes, men or women, it’s a time to educate on how some women faculties perceive their experiences,” she said. “There’s still a taboo about talking about these things, so this conversation is vital.”
One big issue she has noticed within the workplace for women also involves family.
“It seems to me that women have made gains in the workplace, and men are doing more at home,” she said. “Women have a bigger weight; that’s a responsibility I can’t just let go of.”
Rawson mentioned that she keeps in mind the doctor’s appointments, times for medication, etc, while balancing work responsibilities.
“I don’t want it to be about gender,” she said, “but my husband can go to bed and sleep without hearing our kids cry, but I do. It’s a different sort of weight or connection that I feel for the kids that I can’t or don’t want to let go.”
Heidi Manning, a physics professor, hopes that an openness of discussion between men and women concerning this issue will come about.
“Having the opportunity to talk about this issue is a strength,” she said.
“Eventually [the issues] will change, but it’ll probably take a generation to change the attitudes against women.”
Manning said she has felt very accepted by men in the physics field and department here on campus, and one way she did this was by avoiding faculty members she had heard were difficult to deal with due to their sexism.
“I’ve had more issues from students than faculty colleagues,” she said. “They had a hard time accepting me as a person of authority because there’s a different standard or expectation for women than for men.”
One important mantra Sethre-Hofstad keeps in mind involves balancing her work life and home life.
“I’ve found ways to carve out the boundaries and I really honor those,” she said. “I need to strike that balance between the best I can do here but doing the best I can do as a human being, mother, wife, human being, helps me be more sane.”
Sethre-Hofstad said she’s very clear with her students about her boundaries concerning the balance between work and home life, and this helps her maintain balance and parameters for herself.
“I think that it’s my perception that women students are thinking about that more than men,” she said. “Men just don’t think they’re going to have to juggle and struggle with family as much as women, but it’s just as relevant for men.”
One suggestion Sethre-Hofstad has for bettering the gender issue in the workplace would be to have more resilient and flexible structures.
“I think that we have to have some individual control over our lives and we force the institution to make changes and say the barriers are present,” she said. “I think I’m hopeful that things are going to change. I really hope that [the current] generation of students take these issues seriously and they take demands to employees.”
She mentioned that people have been trying to do that exact thing for the past 30 years, but this involves baby steps being taken in the right direction.
“The more [students] can intentionally think about that now, hopefully that’s helpful to them as they move forward in their education,” Sethre-Hofstad said.
Conrad hopes students who attend this event will get a helpful perspective on how important gender is in a person’s career experiences, as well as what it is like to be a woman in the academic world.
“I hope the faculty panelists benefit for this discussion as well,” she said. “That hearing each others’ reflections as well as preparing their own will give them new insight and possibly a new perspective to use in their own careers.”
Despite the fact that women have made strides in the past with earning the right to vote and such, Rawson still thinks there is still more progress to be made.
Manning said she’d like there to be more females in the science fields, and she’d like to be able to see this change in the near future.
“I hope students are right when they talk about the changing gender roles,” she said. “Students report things are changing for them, but when they get into the world as it is now, sometimes what they think they have now is redefined.”
Susan Larson, a psychology professor, was also invited to participate in the panel due to her interest in women’s studies. She used to teach the “Women in Psychology” course but she has not done so for a few years.
“There are still a great number of gender issues in the workplace we need to try to talk about,” she said. “I feel like from having that course, I have things to say beyond just my [personal] experiences.”
One ongoing challenge for her has been the question of finding a voice and being heard within the sea of other faculty members.
“I feel that I’ve been fortunate, having been listened to by peers and higher-ups,” she said. “That’s an ongoing issue: how do you be heard and get listened to, which is harder for women to deal with than men.”
Larson said she likes to have an optimistic perspective about the future of gender roles in the workplace, but she also thinks that it results in complacency.
“Some people will start to think ‘time will make it disappear,’” she said. “Progress is made but it’s not continual, and people need to understand that it is an act of progress to create workspaces that express gender equality.”
