sexist fail

This month in sexism: November edition

erinewunker
  • SSHRC’s mat leave policies
  • I’m collaborating with another prof (also female) on an edited collection. One of the contributors (male) continually refers to the two of us as “ladies” in his emails, but to the male contributors as “professor x” or “professor y.” It’s driving me up the wall.
  • From my friend’s teaching evaluations: “She should spend as much time on her lectures as she does on her outfits.”
  • Which is the worse form of sexism?: A female colleague tells the honours seminar, “All men are rational, scientific.” When challenged (by a student, bravo!), she responds, “Yeah? Are men ever called irrational?”
  • After showing a film clip to her class my friend is asked by a student to “complete the lecture in a sexy voice like the woman in the movie.”
  • “Be sure to put on your application that you only took a 6 month maternity leave. That makes you look more serious.”
  • The most terrible and egregious act of sexism this month was the Harper government’s decision regarding the “renewal” of funding for Sisters in Spirit, a Native Women’s Association of Canada initiative that has documented 582 missing and murdered aboriginal women and is developing policy recommendations on violence against aboriginal women. In true Harper style, the feds reduced funding by one third for the next five years and made “renewal” subject to the following conditions: that the initiative be called Evidence in Action and not Sisters in Spirit; that their well recognized Grandmother Moon logo not be used; that they cease doing “research” on the missing and murdered women (to focus on action); and that they not maintain their database.

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