Center for the Study of Women in Society

CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY

Annual Review 2009

Women of Color Project • Making Rights a Reality • Joan Acker Interview We’re excited about our new website csws.uoregon.edu drop in for a visit today

Generating, Supporting, and Disseminating research on women and gender highlights include • Our ever-changing illustrated blog, with field reports, news releases, highlights, announcements, and the most up-to-date reports on life at the center • A calendar of noon talks, videos, research interest group presentations and other special events • Book covers and abstracts from our faculty affiliates • PDFs of Research Matters, our newsletter, and special publications • Information on how to apply for grants and awards • A history of CSWS

A group of visionary scholars founded the Center for the Sociological Study of Women at the University of Oregon in 1973, on the heels of Title IX of the Education Amendments. In 1983, CSSW became the Center for the Study of Women in Society, beneficiaries of a generous bequest in honor of feminist editor and writer Jane Grant. csws.uoregon.edu Center for the Study of Women in Society 1201 University of Oregon Eugene, OR 97403-1201 (541) 346-5015 (fax) 5096 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY From the Center annual review October 2009 For the past year, CSWS staff and executive committee members have been CSWS thinking about how best to communicate with our faculty affiliates, community 1201 University of Oregon supporters, and grant recipients, past, present, and future. From the beginning, Eugene, OR 97403-1201 (541) 346-5015 we wanted to create a publication that captured some of the enthusiasm and [email protected] energy of the research of our faculty affiliates. Early on, we made the decision to csws.uoregon.edu move away from generating more paper, in order to make our work more our mission sustainable, as well as to adjust to economic circumstances. Generating, Supporting, and Disseminating Research Our resulting website will serve as the hub of communication activity— on Women and Gender featuring blog posts by researchers in the field, as well as updates about CSWS- Faculty members and graduate students affiliated with sponsored events, information about CSWS, and an historical archive about the the Center for the Study of Women in Society study women and gender from perspectives that emphasize work of CSWS that will be available to feminist scholars around the world. A the complexity of women’s lives and the intersecting limited-run print version of this Annual Review will be published each October (it nature of gender identity. Committed to sharing this research with other scholars and educators, the public, will also appear as a PDF document on our website), but we will no longer policymakers, and activists, CSWS researchers come publish a print newsletter. from a broad range of fields, including anthropology, arts We are conceptualizing our website as a dynamic work-in-progress, one that and architecture, business, education, history, journalism and communication, languages, literature, music, psy- can grow and evolve as our work here at CSWS does. Please visit us at chology, sociology, and women’s and gender studies. csws.uoregon.edu and let us know if you have any suggestions or comments. director Carol Stabile —Carol Stabile, Director Associate director for program development Lynn Stephen office & Events Coordinator Shirley Marc contents accounting AND grants Peggy McConnell Features dissemination specialist Alice Evans

Old Media . . . New Media 2 executive committee Carol Stabile Joan Acker, Professor Emerita, Sociology Louise Bishop, Professor, Clark Honors College Promoting and Diversifying Yvonne Braun, Assistant Professor, Sociology Leadership 4 Jennifer Ericksen, Ph.D. candidate, Anthropology Lynn Fujiwara Lynn Fujiwara, Associate Professor, WGS Linda Fuller, Department Head, WGS Profiles Lisa Gilman, Associate Professor, Folklore and English Lamia Karim, Associate Professor, Anthropology Being a Part of Radical Change 6 Michelle McKinley, Assistant Professor, School of Law Gabriela Martínez, Assistant Professor, School of a conversation with Joan Acker Journalism and Communication Carol Stabile, Director, CSWS A Wonderful Journey 11 Photo by Stephanie Wood— Lynn Stephen, Professor, Anthropology an interview with Scott Coltrane Silent March, Oaxaca, Mexico Lisa Wolverton, Associate Professor, History Research CSWS Annual Review is published yearly by the Center for the Study of Women in Society. While CSWS is responsible for the Making Scholarship a Productive content of the CSWS Annual Review, the viewpoints expressed Adventure 14 in this publication are not necessarily those of the organization. editors Alice Evans, Carol Stabile Feminism in Bangladesh 16 Layout & Design Alice Evans Hormone Therapy 17 copyediting & proofing CSWS staff printing UO Printing Services Social Citizenship in a Neoliberal Era 18 Additional Help UO Design and Editing Services The University of Oregon is an equal-opportunity, affirmative-action From War to Hurricane Katrina 19 institution committed to cultural diversity and compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. This publication will be made available Women’s and Gender Studies in accessible formats upon request. A Long Time Coming 20 ©2009 University of Oregon Joan Acker continues to work for Gender Continuum 23 radical change—page 6. Looking at Books 24

csws.uoregon.edu 1 Old Media . . . New Media Looking beyond “smoke and mirrors,” feminist scholar Carol Stabile researches the work of women writers blacklisted in television’s early years. She also finds a way to stay current with new media technologies—she Twitters and plays MMOs. by Carol A. Stabile, Director, CSWS suspect that I sound like a dinosaur when I talk to media world of ours has been tempered by what I know my students about typing my undergraduate honors about the history of media institutions in the United Ithesis on a Smith-Corona electric typewriter—a model States in particular. The book I’m finishing this year, for that boasted a cartridge with built-in correcto-tape. I was example, grew out of research on the dominance of the reminded of the gap between my students’ experiences nuclear family model (and the sexist and racist stereo- of media and mine last year, when I showed my students types that accompanied it) on television across the sec- an episode of the sitcom The Goldbergs from 1951, and ond half of the twentieth century. I began to think about Gertrude Berg made a sales pitch for RCA televisions who was writing the content for these very conservative based on the product’s ability to eliminate “snow.” representations of gender and family—a question that led Certainly, one of my students piped up (keep in mind me very quickly to the role of the blacklist in broadcast- that this was Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where real snow ing that began in June 1950. Because of the blacklist, is frequently on people’s minds), even back in 1951, a writers, producers, and even actors whose creative work pitchwoman couldn’t claim that televisions were capable and political views diverged from conservative under- of eliminating snow. standings of gender and family were either eliminated I have to admit that this is an exciting time to be a femi- from the industry or silenced. The first two instances of nist media scholar. My students live and breathe in wire- blacklisting involved women who were politically active less worlds with never a hint of snow on their screens— in the Civil Rights Movement (Hazel Scott and Jean Muir) worlds in which the word “digital” is fast becoming and whose views on gender, as women balancing careers redundant, where cell phones and handhelds and social and family, were quite different from those that eventu- networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are trans- ally dominated television screens. The ranks of the black- forming their work and social lives. Interactive media listed also included a significant number of feminist writ- technologies are allowing girls and women to imagine ers whose viewpoints and creative work would never see themselves as active producers of media content, and not the light of day, like composer and author Shirley Graham just consumers of content produced elsewhere. YouTube DuBois, screenwriter and novelist Vera Caspary, screen- is allowing amateur producers to distribute content not writer and actor Ruth Gordon, and television writer Joan just within fan communities, or communities defined by LaCour Scott. how far a signal can reach, but around the world. These This archival project, which seeks to recover the cre- new media appear to be novel, unprecedented, and ative work of women whose careers and contributions revolutionary; the motors that seemingly drive the many were erased from the history of television by the Red changes we experience across the course of our lifetimes. Scare, constantly reminds me how difficult it has been for Perhaps because my research has required bringing a feminists and progressives in general to influence media gender lens to the study of media and culture in order institutions and production in this country. Reading to understand how gender, race, and class have affected through the letters, papers, and unpublished scripts and media industries, access to media production, the content manuscripts of this cohort of writers, I saw parallels in of the media products we consume, and political agen- their optimism and enthusiasm about the possibilities for das around the world, my own enthusiasm for this new television in the late 1940s. They believed that television

2 October 2009 Photo, opposite page: Carol Stabile grew tors or defenders, MMOs can offer up in a Wild West theme park owned by novel and in some ways radical her parents. She is about seven in this experiences of gender for players. photo. Right: The character Nerdvana Not only do MMOs allow female rides a bat in the game World of Warcraft. players to imagine themselves as powerful agents, game-playing also could serve a positive role in fight- encourages facility and ease with ing racism, sexism, antiimmigrant the new media technologies that are sentiment, and promoting econom- becoming ever greater parts of wom- ic equality. They wrote novels and en’s everyday lives in the United scripts about the role that people States. Freed to a large degree from of color and women had played a form of spectatorship that was in U.S. history, they wrote warm based on the intrinsic passivity of representations about immigrant readers, consumers, and listeners life, they wrote about the division whose only power over content of labor in the household and envi- was the ability to interpret, MMOs ronmental degradation and animal allow players to experiment with rights. And they fatally underesti- identity, challenging the negative mated the power of the forces arrayed against these ideas. self-objectification that philosopher Iris Young (1990) understood to result in “throwing” or As I’ve been researching new media technologies, I’ve “playing like a girl.” been reminded of these writers’ now forgotten hopes and dreams for what was then the new medium of television. Part of what has been motivating research on this spe- Several years ago, I decided to begin playing massively cific game is my growing sense that the future of media multiplayer online games (MMOs). MMOs are games lies in the forms of interactivity, world-building, and played against the backdrop of a persistent virtual world, immersion that are key characteristics of MMOs. Scholars, full of maps, quests, and other characters, many of whom teachers, and institutions like NASA and the U.S. military are other players. The most popular MMO, World of are already considering the potential of games to educate Warcraft, includes over 6 million players from around and to indoctrinate. The U.S. Army created an online the world, who encounter each other against the back- game called America’s Army to teach the values of milita- ground of the game world and who play with each other rization and to identify potential recruits. The Minnesota over the course of hours, days, months, and in some cases Zoo and Eduweb have partnered to create WolfQuest, years. Sometimes, grandparents play with grandchildren an immersive game that teaches wolf behavior and con- as a way of staying connected over distances; families servation. School of Journalism and Communication create guilds in order to play the game with each other; graduate student Sonia de la Cruz is researching a game still other individuals meet each other in the game and called Against All Odds, created by the United Nations form friendships and sometimes romantic relationships. High Commissioner for Refugees to teach players about “Sappersbride” told me that she began playing in order the plight of refugees. America’s Army enables forms of to spend time with her husband, who is stationed in Iraq, identification that encourage gamers to see themselves as the game allows them to talk (using one of the voice as white, gun-wielding heroes, fighting against villains communication software packages now available or using who are clearly designed to fit the war on terror’s profile the game’s text-based chat function), and to maintain a of terrorists. In contrast, WolfQuest and Against All Odds sense of connectedness that would otherwise be difficult encourage players to consider life from standpoints not to achieve. “Shammycow,” a twenty-two-year-old college represented in mainstream media and political discourse. student, web designer, and self-identified “girl geek,” Like earlier moments of media change and develop- plays the same game with her father, an emergency room ment, ours is rife with peril and with possibilities. Even doctor, who lives thousands of miles away. those games created for commercial rather than educa- The virtual environments of MMOs offer repeatable tional purposes are turning out to have wildly unintended experiences for females and males alike that differ in sig- uses: gamers are playing on servers that use languages nificant ways from most commercial media content in the other than English in order to acquire new languages or United States. Where television (both cable and network) practice language skills; educators are thinking about how and film content still emphasize women’s vulnerability the more playful and pleasurable aspects of gaming might and continue to stress women’s need for male protec- be incorporated into classrooms; and gamers themselves tion, MMOs are beginning to allow female players to act, are developing communities that defy previous media travel, and play in a world that does not represent them limitations of geography, age, ability, race, and gender. If as potential victims. When compared to so-called “pink” these new media are in any way to be real alternatives to games like Webkinz, Barbie games, and dress-up games the old—if the kinds of creative practices that players are that are organized around shopping and relationships, or bringing to these games are to be encouraged rather than film and television content that features women primarily eliminated—feminists and their allies need to be part of as passive victims of violence rather than active protec- the conversations that are taking place about interactive media and their futures. ■

csws.uoregon.edu 3 Promoting and Diversifying Leadership The Women of Color Junior Faculty Project aims to diversify leadership at CSWS. by Lynn Fujiwara, Associate Professor, Women’s and Gender Studies

n March 2008, CSWS was awarded a Ford Foundation mately tenure. However the path to these ends is often grant from the National Council for Research on plagued with an overburden of service that falls on them IWomen (NCRW). The aim of the grant, “Diversifying as some of the very few in their areas who can speak the Leadership of Women’s Research Centers,” was to to issues of race and diversity. Additional challenges promote the leadership of women of color from his- include teaching at a predominantly white university, torically underrepresented groups in the United States concern over the value of their work, which is often inter- within NCRW and within its women’s research, policy, disciplinary or seen as alternative or experimental, and and advocacy member centers. The project specifically the need for more mentorship from the time they arrive designed for CSWS was to address the current and his- through their promotion and tenure evaluation processes. torical absence of women of color in leadership positions To address these issues we established a multitiered at the center. While women of color have played essen- set of workshops and events. Seeking direct mentorship, tial roles on the executive committee, research interest we developed numerous workshops under the rubric groups, and other committees and projects, they have yet “Academic Success/Academic Survival,” with invited to occupy central roles within the leadership structure of senior women of color scholars to talk with us about their the center. Much of this can be due to the sheer lack of associate or full professor women of “For a junior faculty member of color working in the color faculty members at the University of Oregon. legal academy, it was an invaluable experience to rely on the NCRW workshops, roundtables, and strategy With this in mind, the NCRW sessions about balancing institutional commitments with Ford Foundation project was designed to establish a space individual career objectives. I benefitted from all the ses- within CSWS that prioritizes sions that I sat in on, especially because we are all at the mentorship and leadership different points in our career (pretenure, post–third year development of junior facul- review, and some coming up this year). The institutional ty women of color. “Women support through matching grants also gave our initiative of Color, Borders, and Power: heightened visibility. And the professional development Mentoring and Leadership grants were welcome additions for acquiring scholarly Development” received the maximum award from NCRW resources.” and funds were immediately —Michelle McKinley, Assistant Professor, School of Law matched by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, the Office of the Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and own challenges and strategies. The group had a lunch Diversity, and CSWS. Associate Professor Lynn Fujiwara, workshop with Rosaura Sánchez, professor of literature newly promoted, took on the role of coordinator, and ten from University of California at San Diego (UCSD). Her junior women of color faculty members signed on to par- experience was critical as she began her position as an ticipate in the yearlong project. Minigrants were offered all-but-dissertation visiting assistant professor, went on to all participants to assist with research-related costs to get tenure as one of the few faculty members of color, during the course of the year. and later became head of the Department of Literature at The project began with an all-day retreat to establish the UCSD. She has also been a leader in national and interna- yearlong set of activities and goals. Through immediate tional associations. Sánchez shared great wisdom in how conversations, most noted is the dearth of senior women to deal with tokenism; institutional marginalization based of color faculty members at the UO, and the impact that on race, gender, and class lines; the overburden of service; has for junior women of color professors newly negotiat- and general feelings of marginalization and alienation. ing their departments and the institution. Furthermore, We were also fortunate to meet with groundbreaking the UO has been plagued with a revolving door of junior feminist of color scholar-activist Cherríe Moraga, Chicana women of color faculty members, who often find their feminist filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, and professor of experiences alienating, isolating, and often unsupported. English Paula Moya from Stanford University. All our Thus, the group decided that at the heart of leadership conversations dealt intensely with institutional barriers development for women of color junior faculty members that need to be challenged in terms of how our work is is academic success—a solid research record and ulti- valued, evaluated, and positioned within our respective departments.

4 October 2009 ure workshop with Russ Tomlin, senior vice “The Women of Color Junior provost for academic affairs. He not only Faculty: Borders and Empowerment provided a general framework and discus- Project has been one of the most sion of the tenure process, but also engaged in candid, informative, and supportive con- rewarding professionalization expe- versation addressing the participant’s ques- riences I have had at the University tions, concerns, and issues related to the of Oregon. This cohort of women tenure process. (primarily composed of junior, Our final event, designed to engage our tenure-track faculty members) hails university’s administrators in a conversa- from a diverse range of disciplines tion with invited faculty members, was and/or departmental homes; as a held May 22. Titled “Institutional Change/ result, we have been able to share Institutional Diversity,” our conversation and compare strategies for pro- featured Chancellor Nancy Cantor and gression towards tenure. Our recently tenured leader, Lynn Associate Provost Kal Alston of Syracuse University. Working in close collaboration with Russ Fujiwara, has expertly helped prepare us for this process. Tomlin, we organized this event to begin a much needed The workshops that she has organized on our behalf—such and important conversation about institutional diversity as a book proposal workshop and a promotion and tenure and institutional change at the UO. Chancellor Cantor workshop with Senior Vice Provost Russ Tomlin—have has written numerous articles about diversity and higher greatly contributed to our cohort’s development and profes- education. She has also been on the front lines of such sionalization. In one academic year, we have generated an contested terrains as Affirmative Action at the University incredibly rich learning community, and I am better prepared of Michigan and the termination of the Chief Illiniwek for the coming years as a result.” Native American Mascot of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Approximately fifty people from —Priscilla Peña Ovalle, Assistant Professor, English across campus participated in this conversation, including faculty members, faculty members of color, depart- Given that academic success is inherently tied to an ment heads, associate deans, deans, center directors, and active publication record, we established several work- the senior vice provost for academic affairs. Dialogue was shops that focused solely on research, writing, and pub- meaningful and substantive around real issues faculty lishing. We held a book proposal workshop, where one members face on this campus. Not only did the partici- of our participants, Professor Tania Triana, presented her pants benefit from such a candid and honest conversation book proposal to three well-published senior scholars with administrative leaders, all present were calling for from the UO: Lynn Stephen, Michael Hames-García, and an additional conversation, to include all administrators Amalia Gladhart. These senior scholars reviewed her (all deans, associate deans, and department heads). proposal with the participation of the entire group. This CSWS has institutionalized this project within its pro- workshop proved very helpful to Professor Triana as well gramming for the coming year. We received $10,000 from as the group participants, who are all currently working the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate on book projects. We followed up our publication work- Studies to continue projects that center the group, allow shop with a writing conversation with a professional us to expand participation, and support research. The editor and writing coach, Susan Quash-Mah. It was a opportunity to focus on such important efforts in the past much-needed space to talk openly about common dilem- year proved to be more rewarding than any of us could mas that we face in the writing process. have anticipated. We are very much looking forward to Focusing more on the institutional level of academic continuing the work of mentorship, research support, and success, we held an extremely helpful promotion and ten- community building in CSWS. ■

“In the winter 2009 term I was given the opportunity to participate in a book proposal workshop through the CSWS/NCRW Women of Color group. The workshop was organized to give the members of the WOC group knowledge about expectations for book publishing and the tenure-review process. The workshop was immensely useful to the development of my own book proposal, as I received feedback from senior faculty members on campus (Lynn Stephen, Amalia Gladhart, and Michael Hames-García) and other members of the WOC group. Lynn Fujiwara and Michael Hames-García also followed up with me to develop a timeline to submit the book proposals to publishing companies and complete writing the manuscript.” —Tania Triana, Assistant Professor, Romance Languages

csws.uoregon.edu 5 Being a Part of Radical Change… a conversation with Joan Acker Mihulka hris C Photo by A leader of the original group that established a center to study women at the UO, Joan Acker continues to serve as a member of the executive committee of CSWS.

: You grew up in Indiana— went along a year later and joined her own boat when I was ten or eleven where? and went to Hunter College. and used to race with my father. We QIndianapolis. I went to My parents were divorced when mostly sailed up at Lake Tippecanoe Shortridge High School, then to I was ten years old. My mother was in northern Indiana; we went up DePauw University in Greencastle an unusual woman for those days. I there every summer. And I was a for one year and couldn’t stand it so loved my parents, and they were both very good student; but that was not I dropped out. The war started and it good parents. My tendency is to scoff my whole life, being a student. I was was much more interesting to work. a bit about how hard divorce is on active in high school affairs, one of I worked in a radio station; I was the kids. It might have been harder on my the editors of the newspaper, and person who chose the music for the sister than it was on me. It seemed things like that. I didn’t have a clue disc jockeys. I had several hundred to me that life went on; I was pretty about what I wanted to do except dollars to spend. What I did was go much involved in my own life by the probably be a journalist. to the record stores and buy records. time that I was ten. Q: Did you follow up on that? That was the end of my career in that regard. Then I moved to New York. Q: What were your predilections at No, not really. At Hunter I was an I really did not like Indiana; I found that age? editor of the literary magazine. I was it racist, although I did not know My father had no sons, and so he also practical, and I realized that it much about racism yet. It was kind treated [my sister and me] as though would be very hard to be a foreign of uninteresting. I was involved in we were sons and taught us to do correspondent, which was what I many school things but wanted more all kinds of things. We did shooting wanted to do, and also get married adventure in my life. Fortunately my of guns and shooting of bows and and have children, which was also mother moved to New York City. I arrows and sailing boats. I had my what I wanted to do, so I became a social worker instead.

6 October 2009 Q: And did you get married and have children? Yes, I had three children. One’s in Port Angeles, Washington, one’s in Sonoma, California, and one is in Brooklyn, New York. My youngest son has a Ph.D. in biology. Now he works for the National Park Service and is the plant biology person at Olympic Peninsula Park. My other two kids are artists. Q: You didn’t become a journalist, but you did find a reason to write? I didn’t really start to write until long after I had that ambition, but I went back to school, got a master’s at the University of Chicago; and then I worked as a social worker for something like thirteen years before I went Photo by Jack Liu, circa 1993 Former CSWS directors include (left to right): the late Miriam Johnson, Cheris Kamarae, Sandra Morgen, back. I worked in Chicago initially, and Joan Acker. and then I worked in New York City, and then we moved to San Francisco very different from Stanford, they No, I was already divorced; after I and I worked there. I guess my dis- were very welcoming. They were got my degree I got a divorce. I felt sertation was the first substantial glad to have me come as a student. very alienated in the soc depart- thing I ever wrote, which I wrote in Not that I never experienced any ment. When I first came there were 1966–67. prejudice against women, or categori- some faculty members—they were all zations of any kind, I did experience men, of course—who were very sup- Q: What did your husband do? that. But they were perfectly willing portive, and some who weren’t. One to have me come in, and some of the professor said in class one day that he He was a psychologist at Stanford professors were very helpful. didn’t think the department should Medical School, and then he worked take any women as graduate students here at the UO in the College of Q: Were many women graduate stu- because they would just get married Education in counseling. dents in sociology at that time? and have children. It was outrageous. Q: You got your Ph.D. at the UO? There was a fair cohort; I can’t And there were a lot of political remember how many. I was the only fights in the department. The reign- Yes. I came here partly to get my one who finished, and I was only the ing men were pretty conservative, but Ph.D. I had decided that I was going second woman who ever got a Ph.D. that changed over the sixties. A lot of to leave social work and go into soci- in the department. the reigning men left and we got a lot ology when we were living down in of younger, more progressive men, California. Actually, we were living I finished my degree in 1967. I and they were very good, and some of in Silicon Valley, and it was a waste- had already been teaching in the them remain my friends now. land of housing tracts at the time and department. They offered me a job I couldn’t stand it. So I inquired at because I could teach things that I felt alienated because of the dis- Stanford about applying to go into nobody else could, and I grabbed it cipline of sociology. I was not totally the sociology department as a gradu- because I was married and had chil- involved. I began to understand why ate student. The head of the depart- dren. However, in 1968–69 I spent when the women’s movement started. ment told me there was no point in the year in England, and then I came We started to analyze the situation of me even filling out an application back. I had decided to leave sociol- women in academia, and the situa- because I was too old and I was a ogy, and I took a job in a big com- tion in sociology as in most other dis- woman. This was in the 1950s. munity agency in Dallas, Texas, for a ciplines was that women were invis- year, so I was in and out of Eugene. I ible, absent. So the analyses and the Q: Too old and a woman... how old took a leave from Oregon so I could theories of sociology were written as were you at that time? come back. One year of working with though women didn’t exist. So the whole thing was not relevant to me in I must have been about twenty-eight, psychiatrists and psychologists sent some ways. I couldn’t see spending twenty-nine, thirty—something like me up the wall and I came back. It the rest of my life doing something I that. I was too old. Then very soon was a mental health agency and I was wasn’t committed to. after that my husband got offered kind of an administrator. a job up here, and I applied to the But the eruption of the women’s Q: Did your husband go to Texas department up here, and they were movement and this tremendously with you?

csws.uoregon.edu 7 being a part of radical change exciting intellectual ferment that was there was no other going on gave me the opportunity to New Book on Welfare Reform department than do things that I could not have done sociology on the before. I started developing classes, Stretched Thin: Poor Families, Welfare whole campus and I had a very free hand. This was Workers, and Welfare Reform by that would have around 1970–71. Finally, I was call- Sandra Morgen, Joan Acker, and Jill anything to do ing the shots for what I was going Weigt will be published in December with it. We want- to teach. I would make up my own 2009 by Cornell University Press. The ed to establish a ideas about it, and I had a lot of stu- book, based on a three-year, multi- cross-disciplin- dents who wanted to take classes. So ary campuswide method study of welfare restructuring I became very interested in the whole center, and all thing. in Oregon, gives an “on the ground” department heads account of doing welfare reform from were queried and Q: What were some of the classes you the perspectives of clients, agency everyone turned it were teaching then? workers, and administrators. The down except for Dick Hill in sociol- I taught Women and Work; Women authors assess the outcomes and ogy. in Society, which I think was an suggest new policies to deal with pov- It was 1972–73…right in there. introductory course; I did Feminist erty and economic crisis. The study We had already started the center in Theory; Women in the Welfare State. was partially funded by CSWS and a rudimentary form, we had a room I always taught welfare state courses, housed at CSWS. on the sixth floor of PLC, which we but I modified courses over the years appropriated with the help of the as we began to understand more administrative assistant in political about welfare programs and gender. science, who was wonderful and we I was in the antiwar movement. I Those are the central courses that I had about three or four thousand dol- went to demonstrations. I remember developed. lars a year for a part-time graduate one that was terrifying, where the assistant to work in the center. Q: I see an activist thread running police on their horses came gallop- through your life—scholar, teacher, ing into the group forcing us back, Q: Were you the director? writer, activist. things like that. I remember when Yes, it was really a cooperative the Rosenbergs were killed, and a Yeah, I started my activism in col- thing—mostly me and Joyce Mitchell, big demonstration that evening while lege—Hunter College in the 1940s. I who was in political science. And they were being executed. So I was was definitely on the left. I think we a couple of people from education: somewhat active all along in dif- mostly did stuff in relationship to Jean Leppaluoto and maybe some ferent kinds of things. I remember workers. I remember going to group other people. And not long after that standing on the streets in New York meetings and going to dances held by it was Marilyn Farwell, who was in with a petition, the Stockholm Peace these organizations. This was in the English. We got a little more status Petition, which must have been in era of friendship with the Russians. in the soc department as the Center ’49 or ’50—an international petition I remember a big party where we for the Sociological Study of Women, for peace. It was a total flop, nobody invited a whole bunch of Russians and a little more money from the would sign the petition. I remember who were students at Columbia, and graduate school. campaigning for Henry Wallace for it was very great fun. president; it was pretty much the I’m up to 1975, a propitious year Then I was involved in civil rights same thing. I was involved in lots of when women’s studies was founded, activities in New York—that was after stuff. and that was the year that Ed Kemp college, after I was married—and in the library identified Jane Grant other kinds of activities supporting Q: Were you a socialist? as somebody whose papers would be interesting. By that time I had started unions and things like that. Oh, in Definitely. graduate school, in the ’40s, too, we to publish some on feminist theoreti- had a big campaign to organize the Q: Socialist and sociology professor cal questions in sociology journals, so students in the school of social ser- and social worker. I would say my writing emerged with vice administration into a union, and my dissertation, and then my first (Laughing) Everything social, right. I was the president of that chapter article was in the American Journal of Sociology. of the union . . . united office and Q: As you began teaching women’s professional workers in Chicago in studies courses on campus, were you the ’40s—must have been around Q: What was the topic of your dis- part of what became the Women’s sertation? 1947–48—we had a big campaign Studies Certificate Program? against the Taft-Hartley Act, which My dissertation was the study of the took back a lot of the labor rights won Probably . . . and then we started welfare department here in Eugene, by the Wagner Act. So we did that. CSWS, which was then called the and the connections between the And it must have been the early ’50s Center for the Sociological Study department itself and the business when the Korean War came along, of Women, and that was because community. It wasn’t a bad study,

8 October 2009 actually. I never published achieve real pay equity in this anything out of it, but there country, including in the pri- was one finding—that people vate sector, would cost huge in the business community amounts of money to employ- have little awareness of people ers. So that was our vision at who are getting public assis- the beginning. We were not tance except single mothers. just thinking of changing the Single mothers were already state of Oregon, but the whole being seen as deadbeats by employment sector, private people in the community; that and public, in the U.S. was partly because they had more contact with the com- Q: So there was federal leg- munity than others. Back in islation and it didn’t see the those days the welfare depart- light of day? ment gave assistance to dis- The pay-equity activities in abled workers, impoverished the ’80s were kind of a last elderly, etc. The AFDC exist- gasp of a real ambitious effort ed, but it was only one small to change. There were a lot program of the whole thing. of court cases that essentially But the single mothers already destroyed it. There’s a very stood out. interesting book by two soci- ologists, Bridges and Nelson, Q: You kept on writing about that recounts all the court the welfare state? cases that undermined the Well, I kept on teaching about pay-equity efforts. it. But the welfare state did not remain my main interest Q: And then there is your somehow. I had been inter- ficult to develop a gender-equal and book . . . ested in the welfare state since I was family-friendly structure of daily life, There’s my book, and there are quite a graduate student at the University at least the organization of our kind a few other books on it. of Chicago way back in the early ’40s, of capitalism in the United States. or the mid-’40s, really, so I was con- It’s to some degree different in coun- Q: But you were really one of the centrating more on other things. I’m tries like Sweden and Norway, the movers and shakers? still writing about it, but I didn’t have Scandinavian countries in particular. Well, it was a big social movement in the same “ah-ha” experience as I had Every European country has a paid the ’80s, and I was part of that. I had about questions about women and parental leave. It’s amazing how nine- a good role, a role that I appreciated. work and organizations and so forth. teenth century the U.S. still is. So I’ve I wasn’t the leader or anything in it, been very interested in why it has seems to me. I guess by that time I Q: So your “ah-ha” experience has taken so long in the U.S., and other been women’s rights, essentially? had sort of given up trying to be a places, too, for fundamental change leader of that kind. I was more of a Well, women’s rights, and I think the to occur, and a lot of my research on doer of things. And then a chronicler theme question I still have is: “Why organizations had some relevance to of it. is it that there are still so many prob- that kind of a question. lems?” We have made great advances, That’s part of doing social move- but if you look at the very big pic- Q: What kinds of organizations? ment. A lot of us were involved in it. Margaret Hallock was absolutely ture, the wage gap between women Work organizations, like the UO, Intel. and men is still substantial; in spite essential in the state of Oregon, get- I did a study of banks in Sweden; I ting things done here. of working class men’s wages fall- was on the Pay Equity Commission ing; there is still a very high level of in Oregon and was involved in that Q: Was she on the UO faculty? sex segregation of jobs; the organiza- effort to change the wage structure of tion of work has never changed to Oregon public employment. At that time she was the economist accommodate the realities of being for the SEIU, and she was the chair- a human being in our society, and Q: Which had quite an effect. person of the Pay Equity Commission, that means work organizations have really the inside operator. That was It had an effect on certain low-wage not fundamentally changed. All this before she was in the labor depart- workers; it doesn’t mean that there stuff about being family-friendly is ment of the state. are no pay inequities in the system. crap, I mean not all of it, it’s better Yes, pay-equity projects did have to have some rights than none at all; Q: What is your vision of where an effect, and I think that’s one of but the fundamental organization of CSWS could go? the reasons that they got killed. To capitalism makes it extremely dif- A great deal depends on what the

csws.uoregon.edu 9 being a part of radical change general context turns out to be. Does have more money than many places. this campus by rank, I had a hell of the society now turn toward some What’s happening here at the UO a time finding that out, to say noth- very creative kind of rethinking on and undoubtedly in other places, ing of getting a list of departments how to restructure things? What too: although women have made tre- in terms of distribution and anything would be a good way forward? And mendous gains, if I compare what about wage differences. perhaps this is something that the the University of Oregon looked like It’s all been sort of relegated to an center could find a way to contribute in 1970 with now—in 1970 we had office, I think it’s still called affir- to, in terms of encouraging research, 5 percent of the full professors who mative action, which was over in holding conversations about it. were women—we’ve made extraordi- the personnel department someplace The economic problems for women nary gains. Research on gender and when I was looking at it. And when I are so overwhelming now, particu- women is legitimate now, it’s even talked to the person in charge of data larly single mothers, and Temporary establishment almost, which under- over there, she had to go and compute Assistance to Needy Families, which mines it in a way, but okay. At the things to answer any of my questions. is what replaced Aid to Families same time, there is a lot of subtle Now those data ought to be up on with Dependent Children, has just sexism going on, and that has made the webpage of the university rather disappeared from the public agenda. it more difficult to deal with than the than hidden over in the files of the There’s no safety net anymore for very overt kinds of discriminations department someplace. Same prob- women who want to leave an abusive against women; it’s hard to study; lem we had way back in the early ’70s husband, for example, and who have it’s hard to get hold of, and yet a lot when we were studying the status of women at the University of Oregon; we had to cre- i look forward to the next ten years in the hope that csws will contribute to solutions “ ate the data ourselves out to the still tremendous problems facing women, and that the center will be a part of of the printer output of fac- radical change at the university of oregon, not just a respectable member of the ulty data, which was in the establishment.”—joan acker (CSWS Ten Years, 1983–1993). library at that time—all of it data that was in the system but not available. There was no work experience, or no experi- of women know that it is happening. much more data available on race and ence that’s recent enough. In this job And that might be another area that ethnicity than on gender. That’s pret- market it’s desperate. And, of course, we could think seriously about. The ty important. I was actually shocked. often when women get jobs, the jobs RIG study [Social Sciences Feminist And I hope you put that in. I have they get are such low pay they can’t Network, a CSWS research interest not checked the webpage at the uni- live on them anyway. group] of faculty members and how versity in the last year, at least, but I We could think about stimulating they use their time will get at that doubt that it’s changed. research on how women are actually to some degree, but there’s also the question of the fleeting interactions Q: What are some of the biggest coping with the economic downturn. issues facing women? We know it’s hard. But are there in which put-downs are implicit, or any groups out there attempting to other things. If you talk to people One issue is the extreme objectifica- take action or to support each other? from out around the country, you’ll tion of female bodies that afflicts Maybe there are new forms of orga- see great variation between depart- young women and young men alike. nization happening. I’d like to see ments and how much this goes on, That’s another thing we could look at, us brainstorming on what issues are but it’s still going on. actually, among students. What kind affecting women in the Northwest Disturbing things indicate that the of an impact is that having? now, other than issues we’re already underlying sets of male assumptions As far as my discipline goes, one dealing with, which are primarily the about the superiority of masculinity of the main things that has not been immigration issues, and what kind of are probably still there among great achieved is that we have not made research would help to understand numbers of men, and that means the kind of breakthrough within soci- the processes better and perhaps that other kinds of inequalities could ology that we envisioned back then. understand better what can be done grow again very easily depending on A tremendous amount of sociology to solve some of these problems. the circumstances. And so that’s a is still being written that could be Obviously, I’m much more inter- very hard thing to study, but I think it considering questions about gender ested in the practical side than cul- would be well worth our while. and doesn’t. So gender has kind of ture, and I certainly understand that There’s a very strange thing that become a new subdiscipline. ■ culture and consciousness are inte- gender equity has become almost —Alice Evans interviewed Joan Acker gral parts of what’s happening in the invisible at the University of Oregon. in April. material world, but I don’t want us Now, I have not investigated it in the to get out of balance in our concerns. last two years, but when I tried to There have been all kinds of prob- find out what was the proportion of lems with the budget cuts, but we men and women faculty members on

10 October 2009 A Wonderful Journey An interview with Scott Coltrane, sociologist and dean of the UO College of Arts and Sciences

Scott Coltrane as a young father, teaching son Colin “patty cake.”

: How would you characterize your research? As a sociologist I began to ask questions: Why would I studied with feminists in an era in the ’80s when men be involved in raising children? Or why would they Qfeminist scholarship was coming of age and being not be involved? I’ve used different lenses to address accepted in the academy. I was lucky to be a man interested these questions. Sometimes it has to do with politics or in gender issues when it was a relatively new thing to do. warfare, or the control and distribution of resources, or The theoretical and methodological tools were there. So it the organization of family, kinship. Those different lenses was not a hard transition, to be able to apply that lens and for looking at the world introduced me to scholarship these informed theories and methods to the examination across different disciplines. Certainly history, anthropol- of men’s lives. That was a fruitful coincidence of timing. I ogy, sociology, psychology, and, fairly centrally, women’s had worked as a city planner and a community organizer studies and family studies have informed that scholar- doing work with women’s groups and historical preserva- ship. You can’t understand with reference to one lens tion of houses. I was familiar with applied sociology. But what’s going on in the world. Cross-cultural research what happened in between doing those professional jobs played very heavily because cultures organize the raising and coming back to graduate school was I had kids. And of infants differently, and cultures change depending on I was frustrated by the fact that popular books on how to their circumstances. father were quite limited. They were either poking fun at My personal interest in having children, and feeling men for being incompetent or were very scholarly and not that there was not a cultural template and not a personal that accessible or practical for how to do it. model for me to emulate on how to be a father, all led me When I had a part-time planning job I went back to on a wonderful journey. community college and got certified to be a child devel- Q: Part of what I hear you saying is that you wanted to opment specialist in a daycare center. I already had a father your children more than the culture had taught B.A. in community studies. I took a few courses in child you, or showed you, or maybe even rewarded you? development at night and realized I knew very little about it. When I went back to graduate school I was able to put Yes, absolutely. For whatever reason, I was motivated to together that experience of some training in child devel- have a personal relationship with my kids that was more opment and family studies with a sociologist’s view of the nurturing than I’d experienced from my own father, and world in terms of power, inequality, and access. than most people my age experienced with their fathers.

csws.uoregon.edu 11 a wonderful journey

And the funny thing is, once I embarked on that, I realized that I got more credit for doing a small amount, certainly than my wife, who was expected to do it all [laughing] and who was taken for granted. That alerted me to the ways in which our cultural understandings and our expectations for men’s involvements in families have been so low. That’s probably a product of the 1950s and 1960s environment in which I was raised, where mothers were expected to do virtually all of the child care and housework and men were expected to be breadwinners and have a life and identity outside of the home. Q: What are you working on now? Are you still doing research? I am, just not as much. The dean job has expanded to fill the available space. But some of the papers that I’ve been working on in the last decade have been related somewhat to policy. So, what would policy that promotes father involvement look like? I have colleagues at various Scott with son Colin, 5; daughter Shannon, 4, and niece Lauren, 1 (1985). places who are doing research on parental leave, some of the programs for child care and flex time—many are tions that did an internal counting, interviewing people workplace centered, but some are more social-welfare separately, sometimes simultaneously. policies. Things like equal pay for equal wages, and uni- There’s a way in which my attention to the details of versal health care, have a huge impact on how children running houses kind of pushed me into a much more develop, so looking at what governments and societies thoroughly feminist investigation of the inequality of can do for the benefit of children, and how that relates to housework. And why our assumptions about housework gender equity. You have different models. Some societies were [that] only women can do it, when in fact the skills are very much committed to doing child-supported poli- required are not gendered in the least. cies, but they have a breadwinner model where women stay at home and take care of the kids. Q: What do the data show? And then you have other societies like Norwegian, I spent a good long time learning about the kind of Swedish, and Scandanavian models, with more of an research. Many of these researchers came out of a home embrace of gender equality. They have daddy days, where economic tradition. They were really good at collecting there’s a certain amount of parental leave, which is quite data about the efficiency with which you run a home, and generous by our standards. You can take multiple weeks how you do this and that. [Researchers] started tracking off at the time of a birth or adoption of a child. And if you this in the ’60s, and from then until now men have more want to use that, you have to use that for the father—it’s than doubled their contribution to housework—on aver- an extra. I’ve been looking at some policies like that to age, and regardless of their family situation. So even if see what difference it makes, and whether we should be you have a so-called traditional looking family where the doing those kinds of things. Workplaces are not particu- man has a job and the woman doesn’t, and she’s a stay- larly friendly to parents in general, whether they be men at-home mom, they’re doing twice as much housework. or women. One prospect of elevating the issues of men The child care varies more than that; there’s also been a as parents, in the public sphere, is it has the potential to doubling there. increase the value of child development and parenting and mothering at the same time by making more visible Much of my early career was spent documenting that some of those dilemmas. We have assumed as social sci- and trying to learn what are the conditions under which entists, certainly during the ’60s and ’70s and most of the men would do more . . . and it mostly has to do with ’80s and ’90s, that children need mothers and mothers are money and power. Did they have more time because good at parenting, and men need jobs and industry needs they were working less, and did their wives make more men. And somehow we haven’t put those two things money? Did their wives have less time? And so it was a together. Both are needed for both. pressed-into-service, kind of practical solution that broke down the barriers of attitudes such as, “Well, I can’t do Q: How did you work it out in your own home? that because that’s not a man’s job.” In past decades there were a lot of assumptions that maybe there are biologi- [Laughing] Well, my wife was employed, and so we had cally hard-wired dispositions that we can’t go against. In lots of meetings and lots of negotiation and lists. fact, my work has found that our assumptions about the I find in my research that most people don’t like to dispositions flow from how we organize our daily lives, make explicit who does what, particularly about the and how we organize our daily lives is largely determined housework. So one of the techniques I adopted in my by the material circumstances that we find ourselves in. studies was not to make it too explicit, but to have ques- In looking at how couples have adjusted to doing family

12 October 2009 work, we find that they do it out of necessity, and they When does it matter if fathers are involved? By and large have to adjust their attitudes to make it okay. They can it matters considerably. Particularly because mothering is have attitudes that are wildly different from their prac- usually good enough, and the bedrock upon which chil- tices and are able to somehow justify that. I think the bar dren have healthy development. So, when fathers are also is being raised. We’re expecting men to be more active involved—you could say the same thing about another parents and do more housework, but we don’t expect parent; it could be another lesbian mom, could be another them to do half of it. So what’s interesting to me is that gay dad. Some of my colleagues studying fathers think it’s things we didn’t used to expect men and women to share all about male role models. I think it’s just about having are now at least open for negotiation—cooking, shopping, two loving, involved people who care about you—the net meal preparation and meal clean up, washing the dishes worth to the child is better social development, better aca- and that sort of thing. That’s now pretty much up for demic performance. And it’s always net on what would grabs. Transportation of kids is frequently done by men have happened otherwise, because we’re all defined by these days, and shared. Certain things like laundry and our own limitations. But given what someone can accom- plish, if you have two active people loving you and setting limits and being consistent, there s a way in which parenting opens men up to the full experience of ’ it’s better for the kid. what it means to be human. One thing I’ve been studying for the last five years is different family forms—looking some of the planning, especially emotional planning, are at stepfather families, and comparing them to birth-father still primarily done by women. But even with those, there families. And the birth-father families generally look bet- are a subset of men who are doing more of it. We have an ter, because this is a couple that got married, had children, economic environment in which men’s jobs are being cut stayed together, and was on that kind of successful trajec- much more quickly than women’s jobs, and that’s been tory. Whereas about half, more than half of children don’t true now for over a decade. And so, I think we’ll have follow that simple one-family-for-their-whole-upbringing. more and more pressure for people to share more. The Then, looking at the subset where oftentimes the mother kids who are raised in those families where at least some has kids, the father is out of the picture, and another man sharing is going on expect to share in their own relation- comes in and there is a stepfather or boyfriend. Those ships. We’re in kind of a self-perpetuating cycle. We’ll families don’t look the same as each other. There are more have more of a convergence of gender roles. challenges in blended families, and it’s harder to assume Q: Could you touch a little on some of your other papers the blended role. and research? But when you ask the question—“Is the kid better off having a better relationship with his biological father In the last decade I’ve done quite a bit of research with who doesn’t live there anymore or with the stepfather working-class families. In southern California a large who does live there?”—the answer by and large is, either proportion of those families are Latino. I thought it was one. If the child has a positive relationship with either important to understand the interplay of economic and father figure, statistically it does not matter which one cultural factors, particularly because we have images of for predicting risky behaviors (not to say it doesn’t mat- men as being masculine, a masculinity defined by cul- ter—certainly it matters to the individual child). But for ture—so, looking at machismo. But in doing research with delinquency type stuff—getting in trouble with the law, those families we found that men are very involved in being dishonest, doing drugs, or having early sexuality, an emotional way, and more expressive on average than things like that that are big risk factors—having a man to Anglo families. That tended to dispel the stereotypes of relate to and feel loved by is really important. Mexican American men as being uninvolved, unemotion- al, and distancing themselves. They do on average a little And so, thirty years later after studying this stuff, I can bit less on the housework side. Certainly in the emotional answer the question and say, yes. Fathers do matter. They involvement with children they’re quite high. But some matter to the kids, and the type of fathering matters to real tensions emerge, as they do in all families, when girls them. And certainly, now as I’m getting older, I’m looking reach puberty and the father changes. So then, how to be at the literature on aging and men who retire or become an effective father in a culture that tends to stereotype less defined by their jobs, and they usually lament the fact women and women’s sexuality in certain ways? that they didn’t have stronger personal relationships with their children. It’s important to see how generalizable these different patterns are; so I’ve gone to different cultures, different There’s a way in which parenting opens men up to the historical eras, different ethnic groups, different social full experience of what it means to be human, in the way classes, or different professions in order to ask the ques- that women have experienced this traditionally. And I tion: What would make men involved? When does it help think that’s good for men, good for society, and good for children’s development, or their own personal develop- gender equality, because it balances things. ■ ment, or their relationship? I’ve done some research on —Alice Evans interviewed Scott Coltrane in June. marital-satisfaction or child-development outcomes and asked that question over and over in different contexts:

csws.uoregon.edu 13 Making Scholarship a Productive Adventure A digital ethnography website, film documentaries, and other scholarship emerge from Oaxaca research.

Visual Arts and at CSWS in an open research presentation for faculty and students. The documentary is download- able through the CSWS website (csws.uoregon.edu). In March 2009, RIG leaders Stephanie Wood and Gabriela Martínez were again in Oaxaca, in the initial stages of research and production of a documentary focusing on historic Mesoamerican manuscripts. They are working to capture the dramatic and multidimen- sional rescue of the history of indigenous women. The Professor Lynn Stephen at Jardin Etnobotanico in Oaxaca, Mexico. film will be partly an observation of the activities of hen members of the CSWS Americas research others and partly an exploration of their own research interest group (RIG) traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, activities. It will highlight obstacles and methodologies Win 2006, they knew they would be witnessing for overcoming challenges as they strive to recuperate social protest. But they did not know it would erupt into the experiences and perspectives of women from various violence—or flower into a media takeover by women. cultural groups within Mesoamerica, including Nahuas, As scholars of various academic disciplines—including Zapotecas, Mixtecas, and others. [See Fieldwork sidebar]. anthropology, history and journalism—they experienced the social uprising through different professional filters. Casa de la Mujer But for each of them, the Oaxaca social movement of 2006 Members of the RIG also continue to work with the inspired their research and motivated a response. Casa de la Mujer, a sister research center in Oaxaca. In March, Stephanie Wood led a workshop in Spanish for Their experiences in Oaxaca led to the making of a indigenous young women, holders of scholarships at the documentary film, a digital ethnography website, and Casa, on the theme of “Power and Women in Indigenous other scholarly publications. Communities of Mesoamerica, 1500–1800.” Stephanie Lynn Stephen, distinguished professor of anthropol- also met with the leadership at the Casa this year to check ogy and director of the new Center for Latino/a and Latin on the success of RIG-sponsored interns Elke Richers and American Studies, focused her response on producing the Katie Hulse, to brainstorm potential summer workshops, digital ethnography website Making Rights a Reality. The and to participate in the annual fundraising campaign for website documents the 2006 social movement of Oaxaca the scholarship program that helps indigenous girls com- and its relationship to the global discourse on human, plete high school. The interns were received very well women’s, and indigenous rights. It contains more than as a result of their serious commitment and their strong thirty-five video testimonials supplemented with text, Spanish-language skills. The fundraising campaign was photographs, and the reproduction of documents, offering successful in meeting its goals thanks in part to contribu- the public direct access to the story and history of this tions from colleagues at the UO and friends in Portland. social movement as told by those who took part in it and Oregon donations amounted to nearly $2,000. those who observed it first hand. Stephanie Wood’s research on Mesoamerican women, Gabriela Martínez, assistant professor of journalism particularly the importance of women as members of and communication, served as a technical adviser to the town-founding couples, was published as an essay in the website. This year, she completed a thirty-seven min- book Símbolos de poder en Mesoamérica, coordinated by ute documentary film, Women, Media, and Rebellion in Guilhem Olivier (Mexico City: Instituto de Investigaciones Oaxaca, which also tells the story of this media takeover Históricas, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, by Oaxacan women. The takeover, she said, dramatically Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2008). She changed the way women are perceived in Mexico as well also gave several lectures on this topic and on significant as the dynamics of political power and the role and use female figures in Mexican history at the NEH Summer of media in times of social struggle. The documentary was Institute she and Judith Musick hosted in July and August premiered in Eugene at the Downtown Initiative for the 2008 at the University of Oregon, which had as its focus Mesoamerican cultures and their histories. ■

14 October 2009 Making Rights a Reality www.mraroaxaca.uoregon.edu This website explores the 2006 Oaxaca social movement and its links to global discourses of human, women’s, and indigenous rights. Through the use of more than thirty-five video testimonials supplemented with text, photographs, and documents, this site offers students, teachers, researchers, and activists interested in media activism, human rights, indigenous rights, women’s rights, Wood participatory democracy, and Latin American social movements

direct access to the story of this movement as told by those who tephanie participated directly in it and observed it up close. The website S features video testimonials in Spanish with English subtitles that

are urgent oral accounts of bearing witness to wrongs committed Photo by against the speakers as well as descriptions and analysis of events. Gabriela Martínez interviews Juana Vásquez Vásquez. These are supplemented with background information about the histories of different social movements in Oaxaca during the past Fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico three decades as well as a video timeline of key events of the Oaxaca social movement from June through October 2006. March 21, 2009—We began work on a pilot film The testimonials include statements by teachers and others who for a larger documentary on the “triple rescue” of were illegally detained, tortured, and imprisoned for their political colonial Mexican manuscripts. They are sixteenth- activities as well as testimonials from their family members. Women through eighteenth-century indigenous-authored who participated in the takeover and reprogramming of the state’s manuscripts that have been decaying on dirt floors in public television and radio station, COR-TV, recorded testimonials municipal and provincial archives. Besides being sub- as well. Mixtec and Zapotec participants in the Asamblea Popular jected to worrisome conditions of humidity, insects, del Pueblo de Oaxaca movement in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca City, and rodents, and grime, these documents have also been Los Angeles also provided testimonials. Finally, the site includes ignored and neglected over the centuries in favor of testimonials from the “unorganized”—a young entrepreneur, a craft a Eurocentric history. The information they contain producer and merchant, and a student—whose experiences of the about the history of Mesoamerican women has suf- social movement changed their understandings of local political fered even further disparagement. These are manu- culture, citizenship, and forms of participatory democracy. scripts primarily authored by elite indigenous men Conceived of as a digital ethnography, the site lets viewers hear about their own activities over the centuries. But the voices of those who participated in and observed the move- sometimes, almost in spite of their own self-interest, ment. Ethnography is a form of documentation that strives to pro- such male authors did mention or paint women into duce understanding through richness, texture, and detail focused these manuscripts. To extract the women’s stories through the perspectives of locals who directly experienced and and patch them together is a labor of determina- witnessed events. The embedding of video testimonials allows stu- tion, as well as a huge collaborative, interdisciplinary dents and other interested viewers to interact directly with people enterprise that unites ethnohistorians, archaeolo- in the Oaxaca social movement and to reflect on their perspectives gists, linguists, restoration scientists, digital humani- in relation to wider questions of 1) contemporary processes of eth- ties experts, and now a filmmaker. nic, racial, and gendered identity formation and rights claiming; 2) Our first interview was with Juana Vásquez definitions of participatory democracy, political society, and citizen- Vásquez, a Zapotec woman from the community of ship; and 3) models for achieving cultural dialogue among different Yalálag, Oaxaca, Mexico. Juana periodically makes groups. the trek from her indigenous community to Oaxaca The flexibility of digital media permits viewers to experience to collaborate with various ethnohistorians. She is the interconnectedness of the different dimensions of the Oaxaca very involved in the deciphering and translation of movement, facilitates the juxtaposition of different oral testimo- manuscripts written in Zapotec, as well as their anal- nies, and highlights the links between individual experiences in the ysis. See more field entries from Oaxaca on the claiming of rights through testimony with the larger political, eco- CSWS website (csws.uoregon.edu/?cat=10). nomic, and cultural context within which such claiming operates. —Gabriela Martínez, Assistant Professor, School Production of this website was funded by CSWS. of Journalism and Communication, and Stephanie Wood, Director, Wired Humanities Projects

csws.ureogon.edu 15 Feminism in Bangladesh Lamia Karim, recently tenured associate professor of anthropology, received CSWS support for her work on feminist legal reform in Bangladesh. The National Science Foundation also funds her research. on Women in New York. This paper societies have to straddle a dangerous examines two emergent trends political terrain when negotiating for within middle-class Bangladeshi women’s rights and liberties. women’s movements—a secular Q: What does feminism mean in feminist movement informed by the Bangladesh? nineteenth-century Hindu Brahmo Samaj movement, and a late twenti- It is important to scale the global eth-century women’s movement that feminist discourse to the situation operates within a pietist tradition. on the ground, that is, Bangladeshi Muslim women and their encounter : What is the focus of your While feminists advocate women’s with democracy and human rights. research? education and public roles within The government of Bangladesh has a secular paradigm, women leaders QMy project examines the emphasized women’s equal citizen- belonging to the pietist movement role of feminists as reformers in the ship as a goal within an Islamic limit public roles of women with- encounter between democratic and national framework. And although in an Islamic framework and the Islamic laws. Bangladeshi feminists Bangladesh has legislated equal- subordination of women’s desires to have approached the question of ity, it is far from ensuring equal- their culturally important roles as human security through laws that ity for female citizens. Bangladesh “good” Muslim mothers. This paper protect women’s rights and legal clin- has signed the Convention for explores some of the contestations ics that assist women to access the the Elimination of All Forms of between these two polarities of mid- judicial system. Discrimination against Women with dle-classness that animate women’s reservations. Bangladeshi Islamic I examine to what extent feminists roles in contemporary Bangladesh, political parties have unsuccess- have been able to empower women and explores the conditions that fully attempted to pass a blasphe- at the grass roots to gain the rights trouble the feminist movement in my bill in parliament since 1998. In that are guaranteed to them under Bangladesh. Bangladesh, family courts dispense the constitution. I anticipate that the Q: Who are the feminists in Islamic Muslim personal laws in accordance results from this project will provide countries? with national laws. Yet in rural areas, new information related to bottle- the clergy run their own informal necks that women face in access- Feminists working within the model sharia adjudications that lie outside ing democracy and human rights in of human rights in the majority of the control of the courts. Bangladesh, and will assist feminist Islamic countries are largely drawn scholars, activists, and policymakers from elite families with political These decisions are extra-judicial to develop more culturally specific connections. While their elite status and were declared illegal in 2001 policies to increase the human secu- and Western education give them by the highest court in the country. rity of Muslim women. access to transnational networks However, the clergy commands social and global forums, their status also power and its judgments remain mor- Q: Have you published some of the circumscribes their roles as social ally binding on rural communities. results? reformers within their own coun- Q: Feminism and religion are a dan- I wrote a paper, “Democracy, Legal tries, where they are often labeled as gerous mix? Reform, and Religion in Bangladesh,” “Western” and out of touch with local that I presented at the American norms. Moreover, in the aftermath of The task of feminists is to ensure Ethnological Society meetings in the U.S. war on terror, feminists in that religion does not constrain wom- Vancouver, Canada, in May 2009. The Islamic countries face the added risk en’s legal rights. Since most societ- paper will be published in an edited of being labeled as “traitors within” ies, whether in the United States or volume on gender and class. In June, for bringing international attention Bangladesh, are informed by their I was a plenary speaker on global to gendered violence against Muslim religious beliefs, feminists face a human rights at the annual meeting women. Thus, feminists in Islamic formidable challenge. But I remain of the National Council for Research hopeful. ■

16 October 2009 Hormone Therapy Research in the Department of Human Physiology is designed to help improve women’s cardiovascular health. by Christopher Minson, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Department Head, Human Physiology illions of women use hormone therapy for treat- postmenopausal women in the Women’s Health Initiative ment of menopausal symptoms and gyneco- trials, and is prescribed without estrogen. Originally Mlogical syndromes, contraception, assisted repro- designed to be used as a contraceptive in women over ductive techniques, and combating osteoporosis. Early age thirty-five or smokers (those most at risk of develop- reports on the use of estrogen replacement therapy were ing a blood clot), Depo-Provera is currently being used very promising in terms of improving cardiovascular and by many young women who want the ease of an intra- bone health, but the results of two major clinical trials muscular injection given every twelve weeks rather than were disappointing and alarming, resulting in millions of a daily pill. Many women are staying on contraceptives women stopping hormone therapy. for decades, only stopping when they wish to become The findings suggested that estrogen replacement did pregnant. not provide a cardiovascular-protective benefit and were Clearly, the recommendation of “the lowest dose for associated with increased risk of cancer. A specific syn- the shortest amount of time” is not being followed by thetic progesterone called a progestin was actually associ- younger women. Long-term use of certain types of these ated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, even hormones may not allow women to reach the menopausal when prescribed with estrogen. transition with a healthy vascular profile, greatly increas- Regardless, the overall recommendation for women ing the risk of early cardiovascular disease. following the most recent of these clinical trials, the Women’s Health Initiative trial, suggested that women Providing Unbiased Information only take estrogen replacement therapy for treatment of Reproductive-aged women have many options for hor- menopausal symptoms, and at the lowest dose for the mone therapy. Some alternatives may be safe and confer shortest possible time. benefits for both cardiovascular and bone health while also providing contraception. But the predominance of One concern, however, was that hormone replace- studies on the safety aspects of hormone use in reproduc- ment therapy was not started early enough following tive-aged women have been funded by pharmaceutical menopause. The goal of a new clinical trial on hor- companies with a clear financial stake in the outcome. mone replacement therapy, the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), is to start estrogen replace- We also do not know whether studies in older women ment therapy within thirty-six months of the subject’s can be reliably translated to provide suggestions for tens final menstrual period. Women will receive progesterone of millions of younger women using hormone treatments. (synthetic, but identical to natural progesterone) rather We see a profound lack of studies by which to guide than a progestin (synthetic, but structurally different from younger women and their health-care providers to make progesterone) for twelve days per month with estrogen as the most informed choices. part of the hormone replacement program. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, our current studies in the Department of Human Physiology are Synthetic Hormone Use by Young Women designed to address some of these issues. Our long-term Although this is an exciting “next step,” other important goal is to provide unbiased information about the risks issues are not being addressed. Many young women are and benefits to specific hormone treatment options. now suppressing natural fluctuations in their hormones Although too early for recommendations, it is becom- that drive the menstrual cycle, known to provide cardio- ing clear that many factors can have an impact on how vascular protection, by using the exact same synthetic synthetic hormones affect the health of the cardiovascular hormones found to be associated with increased cardio- system, including the specific dose of estrogen, the route vascular risk in older women. Even more troubling, these of hormone administration, and the specific type of syn- young women are often taking synthetic hormones for thetic progesterone. In the long term, we believe the find- longer periods of time than the older women were, and ings from these studies will help lead to the development often at higher doses. of strategies for contraceptive use and hormone replace- The injectable contraceptive Depo-Provera, for exam- ment therapy that do not compromise, and may even ple, contains the same synthetic progesterone given to improve, cardiovascular health in women of all ages. ■

csws.ureogon.edu 17 Social Citizenship in a Neoliberal Era

The winner of the CSWS Jane Grant Dissertation Fellowship for 2009–10 looks at “Methods of Integration, Accommodation, and Resistance among Refugees and Social Service Providers in Fargo, North Dakota.”

by Jennifer Erickson, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology

Nile River—Jennifer Erickson was in South Sudan last summer to help organize and attend a women’s empowerment conference.

cholars show that welfare policies affect women and families, friends, the state, and/or private agencies to com- men differently due to gender-based relationships pensate for the loss or changing roles of extended family. with the state, which involve, for example, expecta- All adult refugees, regardless of gender, are encouraged to S obtain jobs, but what happens when men are traditionally tions about child rearing and shifting expectations regarding paid labor. Welfare policies negatively affect many viewed as the breadwinner? refugee and immigrant groups in the United States by My project answers these questions and explains why pushing them into the lowest paid sector of the economy. some groups of refugees are more culturally equipped to As a cultural project, neoliberal agendas have broadly succeed in some arenas than others, and hence have more succeeded in shaping public opinion toward an increased social capital and better relationships with service provid- reliance on individual merit, consumerism, volunteerism, ers. Bosnian Roma (Gypsies), for example, are categorized and distrust of government. I’ve focused my research on as some of the least-worthy citizens in Fargo as compared refugee populations in Fargo, North Dakota. In Fargo, with other refugees. Roma comprised about 10 percent mainstream culture highly values church attendance and of the population in prewar Bosnia, but in Fargo are at spirituality, volunteering, and hard work. Although refu- least half of some 3,000 Bosnians. My research shows that gee clients differ widely in terms of educational and skill Roma are overrepresented in the welfare sector in Fargo, level, gender, religion, race, ethnicity, war-related experi- and generally speaking, they have poor relationships ences, and history with social services and the state, they with social services, educational systems, and the wider are often viewed as similar in the culturally and racially community. I examine historical, economic, and cultural homogenous Fargo. reasons why Roma are deemed unworthy citizens and What happens when white, ethnically Muslim refu- compare these with factors affecting non-Romani Bosnian gees from a once-strong paternalist, socialist state like Muslims and Southern Sudanese. Bosnia-Herzegovina come to the United States, where Ultimately, my dissertation aims to show that a com- economic self-sufficiency is the ultimate goal? How do parative methodology combined with an understanding Black, Christian Southern Sudanese—many of whom of political economy, culture, and identity can help us had little experience with running water, electricity, cold better understand citizenship, belonging, and the kinds of weather, or bureaucratic government—fare in Fargo? In racialized, gendered, and class hierarchies that form and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sudan, extended kin networks become solidified in everyday practices in institutions. I play a key role in the distribution of resources and child will also provide recommendations on how to decrease care. In the United States, families are often forced to the negative impacts of these hierarchies and better serve work different employment shifts, and to rely on nuclear refugee clients. ■

18 October 2009 From War to Hurricane Katrina Supported by a CSWS Laurel Grant, this research compares two generations of Vietnamese women. raduate student Gennie Thi population of ethnically Vietnamese Nguyen’s old neighborhood people outside of Vietnam. Versailles Gwas flooded by as much as is not so much a place as a state of nine feet of water after Hurricane mind, she explained. Eighty percent Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast in Catholic, the area is “like a snapshot August 2005. For Nguyen, like other of Vietnam put in America,” she said, Vietnamese Americans of her gen- adding: “Katrina forced the young- eration who grew up in New Orleans, er members of the community to the destruction of vast areas of her think about their identities and who city became a trauma shared with they are. They live in an ‘in-between parents and their generation, and space’ that really constitutes home.” opened up new areas of communica- Her parents and their generation tion, she said. were no strangers to disaster and its A Vietnamese woman works in her garden near Nguyen was an undergraduate aftermath, having fled from North to her FEMA trailer. at Ball State University in Muncie, South Vietnam, survived their “civil After graduating from Ball State, Indiana, when Katrina struck. She war,” and evacuated Vietnam after Nguyen returned to New Orleans remembers trying to call her parents, the fall of Saigon in 1975. In October, during the summer of 2007 and “but all the cell towers were down so barely a month after the hurricane, worked for the nonprofit organization I couldn’t get through.” So she tried they began returning to their New Mary Queen of Vietnam Community calling her four older sisters to see Orleans neighborhood. Development Corporation, whose if they knew anything through their “The older generation equated it mission is “to rebuild the Vietnamese social networks—like her, they were with being back in the refugee camps, American community in New Orleans all living outside the New Orleans waiting in line for food. Being there East and to contribute to the rebuild- area. Her mom had gone to a wedding after Katrina to experience it with ing of a more equitable New Orleans.” in California, she learned. Her father, them has some kind of connection “This nonprofit organizing work is who works on oil rigs on the Gulf ‘emotionally’ as to what it means mostly a second generational action, Coast, had evacuated to Houston with to be a refugee,” Nguyen said. She which has to do with cultural com- his friends. sees previous refugee experience as petency about the American bureau- The hurricane and subsequent a factor in the rapidity and extent of cracy and having a higher education- flooding constituted the worst natu- return. The return rate of Vietnamese al status than our parents,” Nguyen ral disaster ever to hit the United Americans a year and a half after the said. “After the storm we found out States. It came almost exactly four storm was 85 percent, she said, com- the mayor had reopened a landfill years after the destruction of the twin pared to other groups whose return less than a mile from the community; towers of the World Trade Center in rate is less than 50 percent. it was unlined and wasn’t protecting New York City, but federal response “We rebuilt our community cen- the local community against toxins could not have been more different. ters faster than anyone else, opened from hurricane debris. We worked While most media and scholars our centers to other groups, brought with the Sierra Club, did testing and focused on the anti-Black racism evi- diverse groups together. But while the showed that leaching was affecting dent in the official response, Nguyen media always paints the Vietnamese the same groundwater that flowed did her fieldwork among Vietnamese people coming back as a success into the canal that the older genera- Americans, conducting interviews story, a model minority myth, in real- tion was using to water their gardens. and doing intergenerational com- ity the community is still struggling We organized the community going to parisons as a participant-observer. to rebuild basic infrastructure such as town hall. It was a way of being able She looked at how two generations health care, education, public safety, to provide social service to the com- of Vietnamese women responded to and language access. Materially, they munity. For the first time, my father social traumas, and how gendered still lost everything; they came back actually understood what I want to identities are historically produced. to the same state of a lack of electric- do with my life—being involved in A master’s student in anthropol- ity; many things still have to be gut- community organizing and cultural ogy, Nguyen grew up in the Versailles ted. Almost four years after the storm, studies.” ■ area of New Orleans East, a neigh- they haven’t rebuilt roadways and streets,” Nguyen reported. —Alice Evans interviewed Gennie Thi borhood that includes the densest Nguyen in May.

csws.ureogon.edu 19 Photo by Jack Liu WGS faculty members (left to right) Ellen Scott, director; Judith Raiskin; Lynn Fujiwara; Ernesto Martinez; and Elizabeth Reis. A Long Time Coming First approved as a certificate program in 1973, then as an academic major in 1997, Women’s and Gender Studies is now a department. omen’s and Gender Studies Pope, founder and former director of without worrying about whether they is happy to announce that it women’s studies, noted that even will adequately meet the potentially Whas finally become a depart- then WGS benefited from the activ- different standards of the disciplines ment. Benefiting from the political ism of ethnic studies: “The door- in which they were to be tenured work of ethnic studies and its strug- openers [to the major] were environ- under the old model. gle to become a department as well as mental and ethnic studies, two other Our majors will benefit from the the unconditional support of our new heirs of the sixties [student activism] perception of greater legitimacy con- dean, Scott Coltrane, in winter 2009 that had been given the go-ahead [to ferred upon an academic department, Women’s and Gender Studies was establish majors].” compared to a program. finally recognized as a fully legiti- And now, twelve years after estab- We hope that the number of our mate, autonomous, interdisciplinary lishing a major, we have been granted intellectual space. already abundant major, minor, and departmental status. What does this graduate certificate students will The first course in women’s stud- mean? We now have the right to hire increase with this transition from ies was offered in 1970 by Joan Acker, and tenure faculty members within a program to a department. Thanks founder of CSWS and now an emeri- the department rather than locate the to the students, faculty members, tus faculty member who continues tenure homes of our faculty in other and administrators who supported to be an active member of the UO departments (such as English, his- this transition and helped make it faculty. tory, or sociology). happen. ■ Approved as a certificate program We can encourage our faculty —Ellen Scott, Department Head, WGS in 1973, it was not until 1997 that the members to conduct the kind of cut- State Board of Education approved ting-edge, interdisciplinary research Editor’s Note: Linda Fuller will serve as the major in women’s studies. Barbara that is at the center of our discipline department head for 2009-10.

20 October 2009 Barbara Corrado Pope Historian Barbara Pope was the founding director of what was then called women’s studies. Now a professor emerita, retired from the double duties of teaching in WGS and the Robert D. Clark Honors College, she has turned to writing novels. Her first is a murder mystery, Cézanne‘s Quarry, published simultaneously in English and German in 2008. Pope is at work on a second novel, also a murder mystery, tentatively titled The Blood of Lorraine. “I think this is where my commitments to the issue of race come into play. The theme of this new book is the new antisemitism at the end of the nineteenth century in France,” Pope commented (CSWS Annual Review, Spring 2008). Pope was the driving force behind the 1987 UO curriculum Photo by Jack Liu, 1998 shift that required students to take a course focused on race and gender. Because of her determined efforts to win innovative curriculum reform, she was the first woman to win the Charles E. Johnson Memorial Award for “exceptional service to the university and the community” in 1991. Pope also received a Ford Foundation grant that helped her and colleagues develop a two-year seminar that contributed to women of color and multicul- tural curriculum throughout the country. A scholarship established in her name recognizes her contribution to the Clark Honors College.

Two Seniors Comment on Their Experiences with WGS Rebecca Sprinson Ultimately I found that, of all the depart- the most cutting-edge work being done Q: What is the topic of your thesis? ments I have taken classes in at the UO, in many fields, and provide me with the WGS classes consistently challenge personal and intellectual inspiration. My My thesis is titled “This Land Is Our my thinking, introduce me to some of B.A. is in women’s and gender studies, Land: The Ideological Construction of and I have an English minor. a Lesbian Feminist Utopia in Southern I plan to take one year off after Oregon, 1970–1990.” I’m examining graduating, then apply to graduate pro- the magazines and newsletters programs in women’s studies or through duced by women who lived on women- other departments such as American only farms, collectives, and communes studies, at universities that offer a grad- in southern Oregon, which was a uate certificate in women’s studies or a nexus of the lesbian-feminist back-to- focus in women’s studies. There aren’t the-land movement. very many grad programs in women’s Q: Please share a bit of your back- studies! It’s a shame. ground. What drew you to WGS, Departmental status means a and what do you plan to do with your great deal to a program. I’ve been degree? involved with and supported students and faculty members who have been I came to the UO from California, struggling to make ethnic studies an where I attended a very liberal private official department, so I have seen that school in San Francisco. I have always progression, although not for WGS. been drawn to feminist-gender issues, Departmental status not only feels like both academically and informally, but I an acknowledgement or vindication of toyed around with other programs for all the rigorous work faculty members a while before finally settling on WGS. Rebecca Sprinson continued on next page

csws.ureogon.edu 21 continued from previous page

have done in the field, but I think it sexuality, and health. also contributes immensely to the Q: Is departmental status political and intellectual climate of important? the university. It draws talented and original thinkers as professors, staff Having WGS as a department members, students, and guest lectur- will be very significant. The ers. I’m not surprised it took such a more students who take WGS long time to achieve departmental courses the better, as far as I’m status, and I know the UO is even concerned. More people need somewhat ahead of the curve. to learn to analytically recog- nize hierarchical systems in our Q: Would it have made a difference culture and around the world; in your own studies if WGS had even if they do nothing with this been a department sooner? knowledge, at least they have I think it would have meant that the the tools to see them and rec- department could have been even ognize how these systems may bigger and more diverse by the time I be harmful. arrived here, which would have been Q: Any comment you’d like to great! make about favorite teachers, Q: Any comments about favorite courses, the quality of classes teachers, courses, the quality of offered by WGS, what you’ve classes offered by WGS, what learned, how you’ll use it? you’ve learned, how you’ll use it? WGS classes have been my It is hard to pick favorite professors favorite. I love classes that help and classes, because each term has you not only learn to analyze Robyn Singleton in Ecuador, in front of the active volcano been a novel and wonderful experi- Tungurahua. the world around you, but also ence. Lizzie Reis is my thesis adviser, the way your environment has and I am so thankful to her. Her issues, and a minor in women’s and shaped you. Education can classes are truly inspiring, especially gender studies. I also am graduat- (and I think, should) be about learning because her work on intersex issues is ing from the honors college. I stud- both about the world and yourself. It’s a pushing so many academic and social ied abroad in Ecuador last year for a developmental process, and I love the envelopes. I really admire her for that. I semester, and have done internships way WGS courses promote personal loved Julie Raiskin’s Lesbian Cultures at Planned Parenthood, Sexual Assault development. Of the WGS courses I’ve course, because it balanced literature, Support Services, and CEMOPLAF (a taken, I would say I’ve most enjoyed film, pop culture, and critical theory. Lynn reproductive health NGO in Ecuador). those that have delved into feminist Fujiwara’s Gender, Race, and Ethnicity I’m interested in public health, spe- thought historically, so we can see how and Women in the Global Labor Force cifically sexual and reproductive health feminism has evolved and can further courses were amazing. Professor issues, and will probably be going to evolve. Also, I’ve loved every class I’ve Fujiwara is amazing and challenging! graduate school for that eventually. After taken from Elizabeth Reis. The way she WGS was the best thing about my graduating, I’m going into the Peace organizes her courses is awesome: she college career, and I’d love to help out or Corps and will be working in the field of facilitates discussion, promotes develop- give back in any way possible. public health. ing opinions, and doesn’t let you off the I was drawn to WGS because it basi- hook regarding difficult issues. I’m in Robyn Singleton cally covers all that I’m passionate about, her Sex and Medical Ethics course right Q: What role did WGS play in your and it’s given me a lens with which to now, and it rocks! ■ studies, and what do you plan to do view our world and the systems that —Alice Evans interviewed Rebecca with your degree? govern it. I think this will be a very valu- Sprinson and Robyn Singleton in May able asset and perspective to take with 2009. I’m a senior, graduating with a degree me into the field of public health, partic- in international studies, with focuses in ularly in the intersections among gender, Latin America and international gender

22 October 2009 Gender Continuum

/ flux.uoregon.edu Coming to Peace with the Image in the Mirror urtis

C This is the winning essay of the first-ever CSWS Diversity Initiative research interest group’s undergraduate essay con- by Kelli by Kelli test on the topic of gender. The question: “How has gender in combination with issues related to diversity and/or mental lausen C health featured in your own pathway toward academic or other personal achievement?”

Photo of Jake by Jake Clausen

une 26 1989. The time was 12:16 p.m., and into this ror, or imagine myself, I see the male characteristic that world came a screaming child, adjusting to new sur- society so heavily normalizes through media and rewards Jroundings. The doctor examined the child, confirmed through acceptable social interactions. good health and announced it to be a healthy baby girl. I grew up with immense confusion, and I routinely The parents, so excited to enter a daughter into the fam- faced rejection from my family when I tried to come out ily and a sister for their son, relished the moment. And to them. Depression and suicidal thoughts were common within that moment, with hopes of little pink clothing, throughout the initial transition—giving up my attempts painted nails, and beautiful hair, that family would soon to be the daughter my parents wanted me to be, to become get a surprise they were not expecting. Fast forward to the man I feel I am. Since entering college and embracing the summer of 1994: the little five-year-old daughter was myself fully, I have found a state of mental peace with the already disagreeing with what everyone told her. On a hot image in the mirror. summer day the daughter witnessed her father remove his shirt while working outside. The daughter followed I have learned a great deal from my experience being suit, only to be stopped halfway by her mother. When the outside the norm of society. Contrary to popular belief, confused daughter asked why her mother stopped her, gender is not a binary, fixed, one-way-or-the-other con- the mother replied, “Because you are a girl; girls cannot cept. Gender is a continuum that allows for interpretation do that.” To which the daughter answered, “No, I am not for what is means to be male and what it means to be a girl; I am like dad.” female. That is why when one walks down the street, no two males look the same. Some males are large and burly The daughter continued to grow up, and learned with longer hair and beards, and some are clean-shaven quickly not to speak out loud of the confusion as to and smaller in stature, along with everything in between. why everyone called her “she” and not “he.” And only Diversity is said to be an acceptance of all that is different. in the privacy of her bedroom could she wear her older brother’s clothes and feel at peace with the outer appear- I have experienced female gender expectations and ance, and what was felt on the inside. Finally in July am now experiencing the 2006, the girl listened intently to a presentation from the pressures of male gender Sexual Minority Youth Resource Center explaining the expectations. But no matter phrase “LGBTQ.” As the presenter explained each of the what gender I am, I know letters and what it meant, she heard “transgender,” the that I have become myself. term used to describe people whose gender identity is A resident assistant, I am not adequately described by the sex they were assigned pursuing a Ph.D. in counsel- at birth. Relief, joy, frustration, and acceptance were just ing psychology and am a a few of the emotions that swarmed through her. Finally, member of the dance com- a definition that described what had been felt since the munity on campus. My beginning. story and my experiences are what motivate my goals This was only the beginning of my story. Born into a and ambitions. Just as diver- mildly conservative family, I knew I was the oddball out. sity is expanding and being Given that I was very athletic and involved heavily in rewritten to include all new sports, I was seen as a tomboy. But I disagreed. I was not forms, so is my story. I am a tomboy, I was a boy, just like my best friend was a boy, changing and growing with and just like my brother and father are boys. I see that the new experiences that I an individual’s gender is actually which gender’s char- encounter. ■ acteristics they match up with. When I look into a mir- As a child in the Redwoods.

csws.ureogon.edu 23 Indigeneity in the Mexican Cultural Looking at Books Imagination (University of Arizona Press, For more books by current and former 2009); Analisa Taylor, 234 pages. Taylor received a 2004 CSWS Research affiliates, go to csws.uoregon.edu Support Grant for some of the research What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation used in her book. A UO associate profes- Law and the Making of Race in America sor of Spanish and a member of CSWS’s (Oxford, 2009); Peggy Pascoe, 404 Americas research interest group, she pages. has been conducting research in Mexico UO history professor and CSWS affili- City and the southern Mexican states of ate Peggy Pascoe won the Lawrence Chiapas and Oaxaca since 1998. Her book W. Levine Prize and the Ellis W. Hawley “focuses on representations of indigenous Prize from the Organization of American peoples in postrevolutionary literary and intellectual history by Historians for this book, which shows how examining key cultural texts.” She also takes a gendered look the invention of the word “miscegenation” at indigenous women “ranging from the villainized Malinche to and the claim that interracial marriage was the highly romanticized and sexualized Zapotec women of the “unnatural” were used to justify the pas- Isthmus of Tehuantepec.” sage, spread, and enforcement of laws banning inter- Bodies in Doubt: An American History racial marriage. Miscegenation laws laid the groundwork for of Intersex (Johns Hopkins University America’s post–Civil War systems of white supremacy and Press, 2009); Elizabeth Reis 224 pages. racial segregation. When they were at their height, between Bodies in Doubt 1890 and 1948, they covered thirty American states and traces the changing defini- banned marriage between Whites and Blacks, Chinese, tions, perceptions, and medical manage- Japanese, Filipinos, and American Indians. America’s obses- ment of intersex (atypical sex development) sion with preventing interracial marriage was intimately linked in America from the colonial period to the to another, even more revealing story, for the label “unnatural” present day. From the beginning, intersex held the extraordinary power that it did because ideas about bodies have been marked as “other,” as the nature of race were interwoven with ideas about the monstrous, sinister, threatening, inferior, nature of gender and sexuality. This book shows that misce- and unfortunate. Some nineteenth-century genation law was a national—and multiracial—project; that doctors viewed their intersex patients with it was a legal factory for the production of race in everything disrespect and suspicion. Later, doctors showed from public opinion to criminal prosecutions to the structuring of more empathy for their patients’ plights and tried to make cor- families, and that it was inextricably tied to gender and sexual- rect decisions regarding their care. Yet definitions of “correct” ity. Finally, What Comes Naturally raises questions about what in matters of intersex were entangled with shifting ideas and is and isn’t really natural or unnatural in order to expose the tensions about what was natural and normal, indeed about what powerfully pernicious effects these labels have had in America’s constituted personhood or humanity. Elizabeth Reis is an associ- past—and in America’s present. ate professor of women’s and gender studies. Live Through This (Houghton Mifflin The Dance of Politics: Gender, Harcourt, 2009); Debra Gwartney, Performance, and Democratization 224 pages. in Malawi (Temple University Press, Now on the nonfiction writing faculty 2009); Lisa Gilman, 264 pages. at Portland State University, Gwartney In Malawi, groups of women usually worked as dissemination specialist for dance and perform praise songs for CSWS from 2005–6. Her memoir of politicians and political parties, animated broken marriage, runaway daughters, performances that attract and energize and how she and they survived a night- potential voters. These performances mare time is honest and beautifully writ- are among the only ways women can ten, albeit painful to read at times. The participate in Malawi’s male-dominated strength and gutsiness with which she political system. Gilman looks at issues and they go on with their lives—all fight- of gender, economics, and politics and the surprising ways in ing to do so on their own terms—is instructive. Gwartney never which they collide. One reviewer described this as a “must-read absolves herself of responsibility or accountability, but shows us for anyone interested in women, gender, and power in Africa.” that the culture of runaway youth is both personal and universal. Gilman is an associate professor in the UO Department of What can we do about it? The answers from this mother may English and the UO Folklore Program, director of the Folklore surprise you. Program, and a member of the CSWS Executive Committee. ■

24 October 2009 CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WOMEN IN SOCIETY goals grants & awards • Initiate research that addresses Since 1984 CSWS has gender-related issues facing awarded more than society • $1 million in faculty • Stimulate and increase research grants knowledge about how gender, • $370,000 in Jane race, ethnicity, class, sexual Grant dissertation identity, age, ability and culture fellowships shape women’s lives • $317,000 in • Improve the dissemination and graduate student use of new scholarship on research grants women and gender • $219,000 for • Create alliances with other faculty and graduate universities and outside student travel grants organizations sharing interests for research-related in women and gender-related projects issues • $100,000 in • Create bridges between support of research, teaching, public collaborating understanding, and discussion research interest about women’s lives groups

The basic annual CSWS membership is only $35. Supporting memberships are $100 or more, and sustaining memberships are $1,000 or more. If you are a University of Oregon employee, monthly payroll deductions can be set up at csws.uoregon.edu. Call (541)346-5015 for more information. Artwork by Nikki DelRosso Console-ing Passions Conference on Television, Audio, Video, New Media, and Feminism April 22–24, 2010 University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon Founded by a group of feminist media scholars and artists, Console-ing Passions creates collegial spaces for scholarship and other creative work on culture, identity, gender, and sexuality in television and related media. Since the early 1990s, Console-ing Passions conferences have supported new research on a myriad of feminist perspectives related to the study of television, digital, and aural media. cptv.uoregon.edu