May 17, 2007 10:12
Yesterday, the latest issue of SWE magazine arrived. Lo and behold, it's mostly a summary of research on women in STEM fields. Guess who's armed with a pile of references that show what's going on here?
Anyway, a short section of the literature review discussed internalizing sexism and identifying (or not) as a feminist. Powell, Bagilhole & Dainty found that women in engineering ACCEPT gender discrimination and have internalized sexism, basically acting like Kanter's queen bees. So women help maintain the sexist status quo. Saunders & Kashubeck-West found that identifying as a feminist is stigmatized (Yeah, like I hadn't already noticed) and that those who do tend to adopt a liberal feminist position, instead of something more subversive like me. And my poor advisor has no clue, no inkling, no ideas whatsoever why it is that he's never had a student like me. Clearly, he hasn't done his literature review properly. If he had, the answer would be staring him in the face: I am likely the only female student that he's had who is willing to break the taboo and not only identify as a more radical feminist than a liberal feminist, but also act on it. And I'm also likely the female student that had seen the least gender discrimination thus far in her life and therefore got the maddest. Oh, how much trouble that f-word causes. It would be so much easier and calmer if it didn't exist. No wonder it's best not to talk about it - old, white male professors could get heart palpitations. Best not upset the old white male professors, that wouldn't be nice to them.
Powell, A., B. Bagilhole, et al. (2004). "Does the Engineering Culture in UK Higher Education Advance Women's Careers?" Equal Opportunities International 23 (7/8): 21-39.
Saunders, K. and S. Kashubeck-West (2006). "The relations between feminist identity development, gender-role orientation, and psychological well-being in women." Psychology of Women Quarterly 30: 199-211.