Asking About Sexism

[Marshalltown]

I've been fortunate enough to be put in contact with recent graduates from the program I'm entering this fall, most of whom are female. I myself am female, entering a field which continues to have problems with sexism. For my own mother who attended grad school, she has warned me about the possibility of professors or internship managers/field work directors who are creepy, discriminatory, etc.

Is it appropriate or a good idea in general to ask students about their experiences in the program or on campus with sexism? Has anyone else done this or wish that they had?

[fuzzylogician]

You can ask. Whether you'll get a straightforward answer will depend on the individuals involved and is not guaranteed.

There are some behaviors that are easy to classify as overt sexism and you might hear about one way or the other, but beyond that what you really want to know about are the micro-aggressions and implicit biases that might affect your life. This is much more difficult to put into words and is more about how students feel in the presence of a particular advisor and how they perceive their relationship with the person and department, their treatment more generally, etc. This is the kind of thing that you'll have to ask verbally, not in writing. Even if there is egregious behavior going on, it's unlikely that students will want to put it in writing and send it to someone they have never met (or only met very briefly). If you can talk to the students in person, preferably in an off-campus setting, that is your best option. Otherwise, a Skype conversation is your next best bet.

You will want to be careful with how you phrase the question and only do it after you have established some connection with the student (and even then, only if you get the sense that they might be open to talking about this issue), and you will want to watch out both for what students tell you and what they don't, their body language, etc. I do think it's worth a try, because this could be a major influence on your life, and not a happy one. but keep in mind that it may not be easy to get an answer.

[Sigaba]

On 5/17/2016 at 2:40 PM, Marshalltown said:

I've been fortunate enough to be put in contact with recent graduates from the program I'm entering this fall, most of whom are female. I myself am female, entering a field which continues to have problems with sexism. For my own mother who attended grad school, she has warned me about the possibility of professors or internship managers/field work directors who are creepy, discriminatory, etc.

Is it appropriate or a good idea in general to ask students about their experiences in the program or on campus with sexism? Has anyone else done this or wish that they had?

I agree with FL but offer a different phrasing of the guidance. Do not ask  recent graduates from the program unless you really know how to ask the right questions and listen to the answers. A relationship between graduate students and  their professors is a black box especially if the professor has exploited the power dynamic. You may not want to stir things up when there are other ways to get the information you need.

For example, what you could instead do is to raise in a very general way, the known issues regarding sexism in your field (maybe even refer to a piece that was published several years ago) and then listen very carefully to what is said. And what is not. You could also do research on the parent institution's policy on sexual harassment training. Depending upon the maturity of the policy and mechanisms of enforcement, you may get a good insight as to what is going on.

 

 

[fuzzylogician]

^ Oh, I agree with @Sigaba. In case that wasn't clear from my previous post. I think the chances of you explicitly asking something like "Is Prof X abusive/sexist/whatever" and getting a straight answer are slim to none, unless there has been a well-known publicized incident involving X to point to. This is true regardless of whether X is a wonderful person or someone to stay away from. This is not something many people would want to share with someone who is virtually a stranger, even if they know that this stranger might step into a difficult situation that they are either in or have recently extricated themselves from. Instead, the type of questions that might get useful answers are ones about the general atmosphere in the department and the university as a whole, and questions about the personality and advising style of X that are fairly generic. You listen both to what is said and what is not. What is not said will teach you just as much, if not more, than what is. 

You can also learn a lot from finding out who X's recent graduates are. Are there patterns? E.g., are they all men? Are there none in the past 5 years? Did they all leave academia? Do many of them leave with a MA even though they were originally PhD students? This doesn't tell you anything about sexist behavior, but it'd raise some obvious red flags. 

[sierra918]

You're in archaeology, right? I've been fortunate never to have experienced it in school, but sexism does occur in archaeology, at least in CRM. I've only ever experienced it when working with older men though. On the flip side, Ive worked with plenty of older men who aren't the least bit sexist. So, it does happen, but women are increasingly becoming more present in archaeology, which has made all the difference.

[knp]

Like Sigaba, I've gotten good results by floating something innocuous but with a small red flag on top about other programs like, "Oh, yeah, it's nice to see more female professors/professors of color, my undergraduate department/other department I was considering didn't have any/many..." Sometimes the fish does not bite, and the response I get is "Oh huh yeah," but sometimes you hook something interesting and you hear a bit of somebody's perspective on the department culture.