Women & Gender Studies

Peace on Our Terms

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 17:54:32 +0000

Peace on Our Terms Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/10/2020 - 10:54

by Mona Siegel (Fren, IntlAf'90)
(Columbia University Press, 344 pages; 2020)

Peace on Our Terms follows dozens of remarkable women from Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia as they crossed oceans and continents; commanded meeting halls in Paris, Zurich, and Washington; and marched in the streets of Cairo and Beijing. Mona L. Siegel’s sweeping global account of international organizing highlights how Egyptian and Chinese nationalists, Western and Japanese labor feminists, white Western suffragists, and African American civil rights advocates worked in tandem to advance women’s rights. Despite significant resistance, these pathbreaking women left their mark on emerging democratic constitutions and new institutions of global governance. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Peace on Our Terms is the first book to demonstrate the centrality of women’s activism to the Paris Peace Conference and the critical diplomatic events of 1919. Siegel tells the timely story of how female activists transformed women’s rights into a global rallying cry, laying a foundation for generations to come.

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Then and Now: Gates Woodruff Women's Studies Cottage

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 21:59:54 +0000

Then and Now: Gates Woodruff Women's Studies Cottage Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/30/2018 - 15:59

Name: Gates Woodruff Women’s Studies Cottage (originally Cottage #1)

Year built: 1884

Today: Women's Studies Program

Once Upon a Time: When the cottage was first built, it provided dining facilities for 100, sleeping rooms for 12, a bath and an office for the house chaperone. As sororities began to grow on campus around the turn of the 20th century, the cottage gradually changed from a dormitory into the women’s center and eventually was known as the Women’s Building. The Boulder YWCA was founded there and, later, the cottage became the office for the Dean of Women and was home to CU’s former Department of Home Economics.

Did you know: For many years the cottage was on the demolition list, but in 1993 a private fundraising effort was launched to complete a $1 million restoration project. A local women-owned architectural firm, Andrews & Andrews, P.C., was chosen to lead the historical renovation.

Have a Memory to Share? Email editor@colorado.edu.

Check out our other building posts here.

Information and historic photos courtesy of CU Heritage Center; Colored photos by Patrick Campbell and Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado

When the cottage was first built, it provided dining facilities for 100, sleeping rooms for 12, a bath and an office for the house chaperone.

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Push Back, Move Forward

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2018 15:03:59 +0000

Push Back, Move Forward Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 10/25/2018 - 09:03

The National Council of Women’s Organizations and Coalition Advocacy

By Laura R. Woliver (PolSci’75; MS’77)
(Temple University Press, 234 pages; 2018)

Buy the Book

The coalition known as the National Council of Women’s Organizations no longer exists today, but the history and the lessons learned from the NCWO’s activism remain as important as ever—perhaps even more so in this age of Trump. Laura Woliver spent 15 years doing fieldwork and conducting research and interviews to understand how the NCWO coalition group functioned. The result is her impressive study, Push Back, Move Forward.

Woliver explores the foundational work of the NCWO and member groups to promote women’s economic security, citizen status, and political rights. She investigates women’s access to previously “male only” organizations, such as private clubs; the increase in voter participation generated by measures such as early voting; advocacy campaigns for such benefit programs as Social Security and the Affordable Care Act; and global human and women’s rights activism. In addition, she examines the accomplishments of women of color, both alongside and within the NCWO, who orient their politics toward achieving justice and attaining rights.

Push Back, Move Forward artfully documents this important group’s activities while also gleaning larger lessons about coalition organizations. Woliver is a Professor of Political Science and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of South Carolina. She is the author of From Outrage to Action: The Politics of Grass-Roots Dissent and The Political Geographies of Pregnancy.

The coalition known as the National Council of Women’s Organizations no longer exists today, but the history and the lessons learned from the NCWO’s activism remain as important as ever—perhaps even more so in this age of Trump.

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Workplace Bias

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Workplace Bias Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 09/17/2018 - 00:00

Christie Sounart

Stefanie Johnson, an associate professor of management in CU’s Leeds School of Business, studies unconscious bias in leadership. Here she discusses strategies for mitigating bias, her White House appearance and a joint project with her biologist husband.

How did the subject of bias first draw your interest?

In my Ph.D. program, I wanted to study a mainstream business topic, leadership. One of my first studies showed gender bias. I found some things that predicted leadership success for men predicted the opposite for women. I wanted to figure out what was causing this difference. I found the demands for a successful woman leader are greater than for a man. A woman has to demonstrate all the same levels of confidence, strength and assertiveness as a man while simultaneously maintaining her feminine gender role. So, she still has to be sensitive, caring and empathetic.

Who’s an example of a female leader who deals with criticisms?

Hillary Clinton. People say she’s too masculine with her pantsuits, for example. Hillary is super smart, but she’s just not very likeable. That’s what I found in my study — women have to be both likeable and effective in order to be successful. If people don’t like you, you’re never going to make it to the top.

What classes are you teaching?

I teach “Critical Leadership Skills” and a class called “Women in Business.”

How do students respond when they learn about unconscious bias?

My students for the most part are open to hearing about bias; they just don’t want to believe it’s true. In fact, when you tell women and minorities there is bias against them, it actually hurts their self-esteem. It’s worse to admit you’re being discriminated against because of your race or gender, because you can never change that. But after the #MeToo movement, people’s consciousness is raised. Clearly there’s not equality if sexual harassment is so rampant in organizations.

How does unconscious bias affect our leadership in a workplace?

Our leaders still look a lot like prototype leaders. Ninety percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are white men. There’s more CEOs named John and David than there are women in the S&P 500. It’s going to take purposeful effort to change the way things are.

Is there a way to combat bias when hiring?

I advocate for blinding, which is taking names off résumés. If you do that, you’re more likely to have more women and minorities appear in your hiring pool. I recommend setting targets for diversity and measuring your progress. If you’re not benchmarking against what the best companies are doing, you’re falling behind.

What advice do you give minorities seeking leadership positions?

Following on Sheryl Sandberg’s advice, you have to apply. No one is going to force you to do it, and women and minorities only tend to apply if they think they have 100 percent of the qualifications. You just have to put yourself out there.

You spoke in the White House in 2016 at a diversity summit. What was that like?

It was awesome. People were there primarily from Fortune 500 companies. One of the things I talked about is the idea of two in the pool: If you interview one woman or one minority, they’re never going to be hired. You shouldn’t bother interviewing just one woman or minority. You might as well do zero or include at least two.

Your husband, Pieter Johnson, also works at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ, as a biology professor. Talk about the project you worked on together.

We published a paper on the toxoplasma gondii parasite and its relation to entrepreneurship. Toxoplasma is the cat parasite that causes mice to act riskier if they get it. Humans carry it — 20 percent of the U.S. population — but people don’t often study the effects on humans. We collected data from 2,000 students and found business students were significantly more likely to have toxoplasma, particularly entrepreneurship students. Then we went to entrepreneur events and swabbed their saliva along with others who were in the same place but weren’t entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs were significantly more likely to have toxoplasma. We’ve decided that toxoplasma makes you more likely to be an entrepreneur!

Condensed and edited.

Photo by Glenn Asakawa

Stefanie Johnson discusses strategies for mitigating bias, her White House appearance and a joint project with her biologist husband.

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Breadwinners Roles Still Unequally Sliced

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:00:00 +0000

Breadwinners Roles Still Unequally Sliced Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/01/2010 - 00:00

Even as more women slip into suits and head to the office every morning, they face the same piles of unfinished laundry, hungry mouths to feed and stacks of bills when they arrive home at night.

Why are women’s domestic workloads often more than men’s even as women succeed in historically male-dominated fields? CU professor Bernadette Park of psychology and neuroscience and her team have found that while men and women may see their work and home lives as equally shared, their expectations often are rooted in traditional gender roles.

One study surveyed 631 people at CU, of which 254 completed a subjective questionnaire that identified individual “traits” of two hypothetical people. They were a man and woman described as biomedical researchers with advanced degrees, married with two children and each working between 20 and 60 hours weekly.

Participants rated each spouse’s traits regarding warmth, ability to nurture, good-naturedness or sincerity. Participants also rated each on competence-related traits including being capable, skillful and efficient. Regardless of gender, hypothetical people who worked four 10-hour days a week and cared for children three days a week were seen as most competent while those who worked more were seen as less “warm.”

However, the participants’ perceptions of the “warmth” of men and women differed dramatically from what they expected each gender to do, researchers found. In the case of a hypothetical wife who worked 60 hours a week, survey participants thought she should still perform an average amount of child care, while a husband working the same amount was expected to do far less.

Why are women’s domestic workloads often more than men’s even as women succeed in historically male-dominated fields?

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Women & Gender Studies

Peace on Our Terms

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Then and Now: Gates Woodruff Women's Studies Cottage

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