A colleague submitted the following for discussion:
Girlfriend, Mother, Professor?
By Carol Hay, New York Times, January 25, 2016
She writes:
It’s a thoughtful piece about the ways in which women academics are expected to shoulder more (invisible) work on campus and are punished for not fitting into gender stereotypes as professors. This has certainly been my experience for 20+ yrs in higher ed, and at my previous institution a group of us began an informal support group to help each other resist, or better navigate, the unstoppable expectation to “nurture” rather than teach. As the NYT op-ed points out:
“Because women are thought to be naturally caring and empathetic they’re expected not only to have their own emotional ducks in a row, they’re also expected to take on the task of helping others manage their emotions — calming tempers, mending wounded egos, boosting confidence, mediating frictions, ensuring harmony. This work is essentially invisible and uncompensated.”