Isolation does not mean I have no power
Because I work in an a very liberal and feminist friendly academic setting, it is easy to forget that not every woman I speak with will empathize with me when I talk about feminism or sexism, and that not every man I speak with will understand and sympathize. It is easy to feel like the world is a more equal place than it actually is; not only in the US, but throughout the world. However, I am reminded of inequality when I read our campus newspaper, listen to the radio, watch tv, or catch up on news online. In addition, and more pressing to me, I am reminded of inequality when I teach classes.
Anywhere from one to five times per week, I land in a classroom with undergraduates. The undergraduates where I teach tend to be politically moderate at best, with the occasional burst of liberal light and the more frequent flames of conservative fires. Each day when I teach, I walk a tightrope between making my own political ideologies clear (where I risk alienating my students) and keeping my political ideologies more - though never completely - hidden (where I risk feeling untrue to myself). At first I found myself taking the latter route more often. I want my students to like and respect me, and I certainly don't want them to feel alienated (alienating students would also negatively affect me as a teacher). However, I did always feel as though I was biting my tongue. As I teach more and more, I find that I am more likely to try and strike a balance between the two positions I outlined above, where I try hard not to alienate my students, but also accurately reflect my own political ideologies. I have found that as long as I am respectful of those with different opinions, this balance allows me great freedom to touch and open minds of students that keeping my ideologies hidden does not.
While I teach, I struggle to help my students make sense of the notion that psychology is not completely separate from struggles against sexism and feminism. It is hard for students to see that the heady research we do and talk about has any bearing on their stereotypes of feminism and the fight against sexism. Little by little they begin to understand that psychology and psychological research can weigh heavily in this fight. When I have done my job particularly well, students' minds not only open to see the connections I speak of, but open to see that sexism is real, that women do experience sexual harassment, get denied jobs or promotions, and are responded to differently than men in nearly every situation. Their slow realizations are a joy to me. My joy stems not only from their growing awareness, but in the self-validation I feel about proving my discipline's worth.
Often in academic circles, psychology is isolated from other disciplines with strong feminist presence. Feminists in other disciplines often rely on outdated conceptualizations of psychology and psychologists (although there are certainly psychologists who fit the molds they talk about), and assume that there is no place for feminism within psychology. Where other disciplines start to hear the cries of feminist psychologists for recognition, we speak languages completely foreign to each other. Psychology then becomes the annoying kid in the classroom, always wanting to be heard, but continually being shushed by those who feel the cries of "listen to me" have no merit.
I live in an isolated bubble. Granted, my bubble has many privileges associated with it, and few of the hardships faces by many of my feminist sisters in my country and beyond. So while I wish I was not in an isolated space, I recognize that I have the power to make change within my sphere. Those that I change in my bubble pass freely from sphere to sphere, and the changes wrought in my sphere will translate to other spheres. I am powerful in my isolation, as are other feminists in isolation fighting against sexism and oppression. As we each make change in our own spheres, those whom we touch will move to other spheres and create more change. Our isolation is powerful, and our isolation will bring us together.
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