Okay, so I have a really funny story for you. (Maybe I shouldn't preface a blog post with that statement, in case you don't think it's funny. Oh well.) So, if you type in the url for my blog, but replace the 'c' with a 'k' (so it's khris), you get this blog with a really funny title called "The I Wasn't Born so Much as I Fell Out Journal." My friend and I figured this out tonight when I told her my blog address and then she got momentarily confused as to how I spell my name. (I understand the confusion. Some people spell my name with a 'c,' even my relatives, which is why I sometimes get mail addressed to Chris.) Are you amused? Good story, Kris.
Anyway, I have no idea what grad school was like for the previous generations of women (and sometimes I wonder if I would have been tough enough to survive it), but sometimes I have rough days. And I feel very fortunate that my days don't include gender discrimination, on top of all the other stuff I have to do. I'm grateful that I don't worry that I'm not being taken seriously because I'm a woman, or that my adviser or the department invests more time and resources in the male students than me, or that my students think I don't know anything because I'm a woman, or that I may not get a job because I'm a woman. I imagine that the list could go on and on. These things never cross my mind, and I am convinced that I have the women who came before me to thank.
Like I said, I knew that I always had this silent appreciation for women in academia. I think about it when I'm taking a class taught by a female professor, when I meet other women at conferences, and I thought about it when I went to this business meeting last year for the Midwest Political Science Association Women's Caucus (I think that's what it's called, but I'm not going to look it up right now). I became fully aware of this habit last week, when one of the speakers for the CSD dinner was this super accomplished political scientist who is also an African American woman. I was pretty excited to meet her, not only because she researches race and gender politics, but also because she is a woman of color. I don't think about the fact that I'm Asian a whole lot, but I am aware that there are few women of color in academia (but it's getting better- hey, I'm a glass half full kind of girl). So, it was pretty cool to meet this professor, and I remember silently thanking her for blazing a trail for people like me.
And speaking of trailblazers, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery for pancreatic cancer. I hope she's okay. I don't want her to retire. Prior to being on the SC, Ginsburg founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and she has always fought hard for women's rights. She just might be my favorite SC Justice, but I just can't decide between her and Justice Harry Blackmun. (Also, I suppose that picking a favorite isn't an entirely fair process, considering I haven't reviewed the careers of all 110 justices.) Of course, nobody really cares if I have a favorite justice, except for me.
In the past year, I have noticed that I am uncomfortable talking about anything serious. Thus, I feel the need to bookend this blog post with something random and amusing. I watched the new episode of Grey's Anatomy last night. I think that if there were a television character most like me, Dr. Christina Yang would be it. I don't think that I'm as tough and badass as her, but I can see a resemblance. However, she has begun to lose her edge since starting this quasi "are-they-or-aren't-they?" relationship with Dr. Owen Hunt. Boo. I expected more from her, but she's still probably my all time favorite television character.
All right, here's a serious story now. So I'm going to share a practice that has recently become apparent to me. It's something that I've always done since I've started grad school, but I wasn't consciously aware of it until last week. Whenever I meet women in academia who came before me (this is my nice way of saying "women who are of previous academic generations"), I silently thank them for blazing a trail and making grad school easier for me. I'm a female, I study gender, and I am aware of gender discrimination and the hurdles that these women must have had to overcome, both in academia and just in life. I've been reading a lot about the feminist movement in the 1970s, and I think a lot about how these activists fought the battles to make things better for me. So, I think about women in academia the same way; I'm glad that they have carved a path for me and my female peers. (sure, not everything is completely perfect and equal in the 21st century, but my uh, race and gender incidents, have been few and far between.)
Anyway, I have no idea what grad school was like for the previous generations of women (and sometimes I wonder if I would have been tough enough to survive it), but sometimes I have rough days. And I feel very fortunate that my days don't include gender discrimination, on top of all the other stuff I have to do. I'm grateful that I don't worry that I'm not being taken seriously because I'm a woman, or that my adviser or the department invests more time and resources in the male students than me, or that my students think I don't know anything because I'm a woman, or that I may not get a job because I'm a woman. I imagine that the list could go on and on. These things never cross my mind, and I am convinced that I have the women who came before me to thank.
Like I said, I knew that I always had this silent appreciation for women in academia. I think about it when I'm taking a class taught by a female professor, when I meet other women at conferences, and I thought about it when I went to this business meeting last year for the Midwest Political Science Association Women's Caucus (I think that's what it's called, but I'm not going to look it up right now). I became fully aware of this habit last week, when one of the speakers for the CSD dinner was this super accomplished political scientist who is also an African American woman. I was pretty excited to meet her, not only because she researches race and gender politics, but also because she is a woman of color. I don't think about the fact that I'm Asian a whole lot, but I am aware that there are few women of color in academia (but it's getting better- hey, I'm a glass half full kind of girl). So, it was pretty cool to meet this professor, and I remember silently thanking her for blazing a trail for people like me.
And speaking of trailblazers, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had surgery for pancreatic cancer. I hope she's okay. I don't want her to retire. Prior to being on the SC, Ginsburg founded the Women's Rights Project at the ACLU, and she has always fought hard for women's rights. She just might be my favorite SC Justice, but I just can't decide between her and Justice Harry Blackmun. (Also, I suppose that picking a favorite isn't an entirely fair process, considering I haven't reviewed the careers of all 110 justices.) Of course, nobody really cares if I have a favorite justice, except for me.
In the past year, I have noticed that I am uncomfortable talking about anything serious. Thus, I feel the need to bookend this blog post with something random and amusing. I watched the new episode of Grey's Anatomy last night. I think that if there were a television character most like me, Dr. Christina Yang would be it. I don't think that I'm as tough and badass as her, but I can see a resemblance. However, she has begun to lose her edge since starting this quasi "are-they-or-aren't-they?" relationship with Dr. Owen Hunt. Boo. I expected more from her, but she's still probably my all time favorite television character.
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