By finding that young women deny these violences, we move toward
better understandings of the extent to which women's mistreatment
becomes normalized in our society.
While investigating how engineering students acquire and share
knowledge as they work in teams on real-world engineering projects,
undercurrents of violence became evident. For instance, one engineering
professor repeatedly used violent metaphors to describe engineering
work. When discussing how students should brainstorm ideas about
their project and select the most salient issues, he advised the
students to "make five or six blind stabs with a bayonet"
into the pool of ideas. In addition, some of the men students used
confrontational techniques in the guise of communicating. Yet women
students rarely made remarks about their professors' or peers' actions.
In two semesters of classroom research, I heard only one such remark
spoken in the presence of other students - a young woman noted that
"she hated to wear a dress to class, because everyone hassled
her when she wore a dress." I was puzzled about the inconsistency
between my observations of the classroom and the silences of the
students. However, when I later saw myself in a similar silenced
role as a student in an engineering doctoral seminar, I moved from
perplexed to particularly frustrated at warp speed.
In this paper, I begin to explore some of the ways that violences
structure women and women's lives. (This is a work in progress
and I anticipate that these ideas will continue to grow as I complete
my dissertation research in the next two years.) Using primarily
ethnographic methods of participant observations and interviews,
I gathered data on this campus in two classrooms: a sophomore
class in the Spring of 1993 and a freshman class in the Spring
of 1995. Currently, there is little in the "women in engineering"
research literature about developing engineering identities and
the friction between women's vision of themselves as engineers
and visions of "woman engineer" held by men engineers.
I suspect that some of the violences present in engineering and
engineering education serve to constrain the identities available
to women engineers and to maintain an engineering culture centered
around prototypically masculine "features." Using one
experience I had as a doctoral student in education, I suggest
that engineering is by no means unique (though it may well be
an extreme example) and that violences deserve more research to
adequately account for their impact in our society.
Conceptual Framework
My current research grows out of a desire to develop more comprehensive
pictures of women's embeddedness in social and cultural systems.
I remain disappointed with much of the research into gender issues
(e. g., AAUW, 1992; Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, & Tarule,
1986; Benbow, 1988; Benbow & Stanley, 1980; Chodorow, 1978;
Fennema, 1990; Fennema & Carpenter, 1981; Fennema & Peterson,
1987; Fennema & Sherman, 1978; Lynn Friedman, 1989; Gilligan,
1982; Hall & Sandler, 1982, 1984; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974;
Sadker & Sadker, 1994; Sandler & Hall, 1986; Sandler,
1993; Tannen, 1990), because this earlier research overlooked
contributions that larger societal structures impose on women.
In fact, much of this research provided "cures" centered
on changes women must make, without systematic critiques of social
institutions. I feared that these "cures" placed an
unfair burden on women and created the potential for blaming women
for the situation if women were unable to change it. It seemed
to me that these solutions overlooked the complexities of women's
situatedness and gave them little credit for navigating difficult
social systems.
For me, anthropological and sociological research perspectives
appeared to offer ways of researching women's embeddedness (e.
g., Holland & Eisenhart, 1990; Hewitt & Seymour, 1994).
In particular, Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning theory
provided a starting point for my research. In this theory, being
a member of a community - developing an identity within a community
- implies a shared sense of cultural knowledge that gives meaning
to who participants are and what they do within the community.
Rather than knowledge being held in the minds of individuals and
separable from social interactions, anthropologists posit that
knowledge is held in the culture and spread over and among the
persons, artifacts, and structure. Knowledge is neither separable
from context, nor independent of it, but a way of being in the
world, where "agent, activity, and world mutually constitute
each other" (Lave & Wenger, 1991, p. 33). Learning, then,
is the process of becoming a full participant in sociocultural
practices. Knowledge comes from participating over time in the
everyday, practical activities of the community. Thus, knowledge
resides in historically developed systems of meaning. In engineering,
these systems of meaning encompass technical language, tools of
the engineering trade, interactional routines, and accepted practices
for doing engineering work. As student engineers become engineers,
they become proficient practitioners in these systems of meaning;
they enact these systems of meaning.
Situated learning theory provides a lens to investigate the ways
that individuals shape, and are shaped by context (not only the
here-and-now of social interactions, but also students' embeddedness
in a system with historical, social, and cultural underpinnings).
However, situated learning theory alone does not meet all of my
research goals. In particular:
- Situated learning theory fails to account for prior identities
(prior knowledge) among novices - how memberships in other communities,
or identities from previous experiences, influence becoming
a mature practitioner in a new community.
- Situated learning theory assumes that one identifiable outcome
identity, or kind of mature practitioner, exists and that this
identity (and associated traditional practices) is acceptable,
tending to promote the status quo.
- Situated learning theory contains no mechanism for critiquing
communities of practice.
Prior Identity
Lave and Wenger's theory developed from their studies of traditional
apprenticeships, where participants came from similar backgrounds
(or their backgrounds were ignored as if they were irrelevant).
This is not the case for student engineers. In fact, because increasing
numbers of today's students come from communities historically
underrepresented among engineers, diversity of student engineers
is increasing. Situated learning theory fails to account for wide-ranging
differences among novice engineers. By thinking about prior knowledge
as identities that students bring to their college studies, I
am developing a way to incorporate differences that result from
a wide variety of sources: gender socialization and ethnicity,
as well as variations in cultural capital, lived experiences,
and academic preparation. I focus on the ways these differences
tend to privilege certain groups of student engineers and disadvantage
others, particularly when campus-wide policies and classroom organizational
practices do little either to identify differences in students
or to provide opportunities that serve all students.
Outcome Identity
According to Lave and Wenger's theory, apprentices strive toward
an outcome identity, such as becoming a tailor. Following Kondo,
I suspect that "engineer" cannot be reduced to one identifiable
set of mature practices.
"...[I]dentity is not a static object, but a creative
process....[H]uman beings create, construct, work on, and
enact their identities, sometimes creatively challenging the limits
of the cultural constraints which constitute both what we call
selves and the ways those selves can be crafted....[W]e should
not speak of 'the self' as a global entity, but of selves in
the plural. Perhaps then we can come to appreciate both the
insistent rhythms of common cultural idioms, and the many ways
they reverberate through people's lives" (Kondo, 1990, p.
48, emphasis in the original).
Kondo posits that identities are plural, not only that there are
varieties of engineering identities, but also that an individual
can exhibit contextual variety.
Communities of Practice
Finally, situated learning theory contains no mechanism for critiquing
communities of practice. Friedman (1991) cautions us to examine
critically, not merely accept, these traditions and their impact
on women. She points out that "communities have harbored
social roles and structures which have been highly oppressive
for women" (p. 305) and have operated with "a kind of
morally normative legitimacy" (p. 307). Kondo (1990), discussing
how Japanese employees developed "worker" identities,
described the ways employees redefined certain aspects of "ideal"
worker identities. Her suggestion that cultural identities are
actively shaped by participants provides a model for considering
how women student engineers might reshape engineering identities.
In addition, I seek a standard against which to "measure"
(characterize and hold up to scrutiny) communities of practice.
I believe that Gutmann's (1987, citing Dworkin) equality provides
that standard. She argues that all students must be treated
as equals; that is, relevant differences must be understood
and considered. This is very different from an equality standard
where all students are treated the same, regardless of
relevant differences. Gutmann reiterates Dworkin's example illustrating
how sameness of treatment differs from treatment as equals. In
a classroom with blind and sighted students, using the same lessons
to teach both kinds of students would guarantee that one or the
other would be ill-served, depending on the pedagogy employed.
That one can see and another cannot profoundly influences how
one teaches. I argue that these kinds of differences must be allowed
for legitimate participation.
Howe (1993) calls this sort of equality "participatory,"
suggesting that in a democratic society participation is
the more important standard when making judgments about equality.
When linked to Lave and Wenger's situated learning theory, legitimate
participation is the process that guarantees equality. (Though
Lave and Wenger seem to imply this, they do not appear to guarantee
it. Here, I strengthen their notions of participation in a community
of practice, privileging participation and cultural change over
traditions that promote the status quo.) In this participatory
equality, different persons with different perspectives, different
goals, and different motivations not only have access to education,
but also contribute via their participation to develop what a
good education might be. That is, participatory equality requires
that all persons can openly advocate their own positions without
the fear of retaliation. Taking this democratic stance that values
participation, I argue that violence is done when participation
is constrained.
In looking at the narrow issue of violence in my research site
and my life, I seek a fuller sense of what counts as violence
and wonder: What is violence? How is it construed in the experiences
of my research participants and in my own academic life? How does
it become normalized in our society? How might we contribute to
expanding what counts as violence? How might we expose violence
while we enact our research goals?
Violences and Silences
I start with the dictionary meanings of violence (Webster's
New Twentieth Century Dictionary, 1979):
1) physical force used so as to injure or damage; roughness in
action.
2) a use of force so as to injure or damage; a rough, injurious
act.
3) natural or physical energy or force in action; intensity; severity;
as the violence of the storm.
4) unjust use of force or power, as in deprivation of rights.
5) great force or strength of feeling, conduct, or language; passion;
fury.
6) distortion of meaning, phrasing, etc.; as to do violence
to a text.
7) desecration; profanation.
Synonyms: vehemence, impetuosity, force, outrage, rage, profanation,
injustice, fury, infringement, fierceness, oppression.
Unfortunately, violence comes in several forms for women. At the
recent Fourth World Conference on Women assembled in Beijing,
considerable discourse revolved around issues of physical violence
against women. Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke against the systemic
violence that pervades the women of the world - rape as a tactic
of war, killing of girl babies, burning of women whose dowries
are too small, capture into prostitution and slavery, domestic
violence, genital mutilation, coercive abortion and sterilization.
Rodham Clinton went on to note that "violence against women
thrives when there is a 'crisis of silence and acquiescence'"
(Tyler, 1995). Even in the United States - a democratic, industrial
nation, violences against women persist, though (we hope) not
at the same horrific levels reported in Third World countries.
Yet, even in the United States - a country that pioneered free
speech and open dialogue, women's silence and acquiescence endure.
Of particular interest to me as a former engineer currently studying
gender issues in engineering education, is the extent to which
silence and acquiescence become normalized in our everyday lives.
In fact, the ways in which silence and acquiescence become a survival
technique.
Another variety of violence recently surfaced in discussions of
Shannon Faulkner's experiences at The Citadel. This violence is
more along the lines of definition seven above - violence as desecration
and profanation of women's everyday activities, and in synonyms
for violence - infringement and oppression. When Faulkner decided
to leave in August, 1995, after only a few days on campus, Royko
(1995), the Chicago editorial newspaper writer, wrote a touching
and insightful commentary. In his column, he told of similar horrors
and degradation faced years before by a (now) gray-haired, Chicago
man, previously a working class lad attending a military high
school with the sons of privilege. Royko provided a litany of
hazing, taunting, and insults that preceded the man's becoming
shunned by his classmates for speaking about and resisting his
mistreatment. This man ultimately left the military school. In
closing, Royko offered to Shannon Faulkner this gray-haired man's
consoling thoughts: "If she had endured the abuse of her
freshman year, something even worse would have happened to her.
She would have become one of them." (Emphasis added)
Royko illuminates an unspoken violence - the violence of having
to deny one's existence and values to become "one of them."
When I entered engineering over 25 years ago, becoming an engineer
seemed to imply that I could go out into the world and assume
male duties. That presumption comes from an earlier day and age.
Times have changed and we must now understand that being forced
to adopt, in an unexamined way, these culturally and historically
taken-for-granted ways of construing professional identity is
a violence against women that not only denies our existence, but
also denigrates the importance and honor of women's work. To expect
that women "check their identities at the door" constrains
our participation - makes us silent and invisible.
First, I will tell you the stories of young women student engineers
and relate how their men colleagues talked about women students
to me. What I hope to make most striking is that the women students
rarely spoke of their campus lives in terms that express their
mistreatment, while their men student colleagues reveal the disadvantages
of being women on the campus. Then, I will talk about the extent
to which I caught myself in an identical silent-and-acquiescing
mode during one of my doctoral classes in education. From these
sets of experiences, I will suggest that we, as researchers, embed
ourselves in our women participants' experiences and use what
we see to fill the silences that cultural norms perpetuate.
Franci and the Issue of Professional Dress
As part of a larger research project, I observed two teams of
college engineering sophomores - 3 women and 2 men, 1 woman and
4 men. Though I met with these teams over 25 times during the
semester and interviewed all students - two of them on two occasions,
the students never explicitly referred to any "gender bias"
or violence during their college experiences. However, I observed
both in every class. Students' lack of awareness was astounding.
Franci (a woman student on the team with 3 women and 2 men) commented
in her team meeting about being hassled when she wore "professional"
dress to another class. Because of the almost total silence related
to gender bias and violence, her comments really stood out. This
is what happened:
As the student teams prepared for their first client meeting
(week two), they were told to wear "professional dress,"
but the professors' advice referred only to men's dress clothing
- slacks, jacket, and tie. Further advice about keeping one's
jacket on if the client kept his on was given. However, this
directive was entirely too vague for the students, and considerable
team time was spent negotiating the women's professional dress
for all occasions and the men's professional dress for "working"
site visits.
When one of the male students suggested that they "look
nice, but not a suit and tie," one of the female students
added "or a jacket and skirt." ...
Although the professors implied that all client meetings and
site visits required the same professional dress, the students
decided to modify their attire to fit different situations.
For all indoor presentations and on-site tours (requiring only
walking through town and talking to their client or to business
owners), the students decided to wear their "best"
clothing. For the men, this meant a suit, tie, and dress shoes
and, for the women, either a skirt and jacket or dress, nylons,
and low-to-medium heels. However, for on-site "work trips,"
especially the building-by-building survey, the students decided
on more casual clothing, such as jeans and t-shirts. For these
occasions, the students decided that a suit and tie or skirt
and heels were inappropriate when an engineer was measuring
the dimensions of doorways and toilet stalls, among other things....
There was another facet to the dress-code discussions beyond the
simple "what to wear" issues. During the team's discussions
about the attire for their first field visit, Franci wanted the
team to leave for the town at 10:15, instead of immediately after
her 9:00-9:50 class. By leaving later, Franci would be able to
go to class, then return to her dormitory and change into a dress,
instead of wearing a dress to class. She remarked that "everybody
hassles you" when you wear a dress to class. She was adamant
about this, saying, "I hate for them to notice that I am
wearing a dress." Doug disagreed with her. He thought that
"it's not a big deal. Everybody knows you're in [this class]
or have an interview." For these two students, professional
dress seemed to serve different purposes. For Doug, being in a
suit and tie signaled that he was part of a collective--students
in a required class or students looking for work, but for Franci,
wearing a dress only emphasized that she was an outsider and set
up her being hassled by men students in her other class.
When I told this story to my writing group, most of my peers found
it interesting, but not earth-shattering. Only when one of our
education professors remarked forcefully (especially for this
professor), "You can't even wear a dress for crying out loud!,"
did it become clear to us just how circumscribed women's presence
on this engineering campus had become. In fact, students took
it for granted that this was just part of being an engineering
student and not worthy of notice or comment. That Franci in a
dress was out of the ordinary provides evidence of the extent
to which these young women are expected to be, in some very real
ways, invisible. This is oppressive1.
Becoming "Engineer" - A Glimpse at Gender
While gathering data for a classroom ethnography of first-year
engineering students, I observed three teams closely (3 women
and 2 men, 2 women and 1 man, and 2 women and 2 men - a total
of 7 women and 5 men). In one-on-one interviews, I asked what
it was like to be the interviewee's gender and then asked if it
would be different if they were the other gender. Women students
rarely mentioned - and often denied - gender bias. Yet, young
men spoke openly about men's fit with engineering, even as they
denied gender bias. For me, the young men's ability to enact gender
bias, yet deny its existence, speaks volumes about how gender
bias becomes normalized. According to men, being a man on this
campus meant:
Given the fact that I am a man, I think I would much rather
be a man going to a campus like this. That's what I've been
prepared for. I've been prepared to be a male in society (W-M1,
1:212)
For me, it's about as conducive a situation as you'd hope for.
This is still a somewhat old-fashioned [place]. By that I mean
retaining the white males' approach, you know; you're welcomed
with open arms....As far as I'm concerned it's a real natural
environment for me. (F-M1, 1:10)
Well, a lot of it is just being one of the other guys. Because
there's so many guys on this campus....I don't know what it
was, but I mean I don't really know any differences between
guys....It's not really any different it's about like high school
anyway. (M-M1, 1:11)
There's still a lot of macho things, the macho ideas about engineering.
Not that it's a macho thing to do, but just that males have
always done it. (F-M2, 1:16)
But being a woman meant:
I have yet to meet a woman that has that same approach, that
"hand me the wrench and I'll take care of this" [approach]....I
think it might be a little bit harder for some of the women
to be taken seriously by their classmates. (W-M1, 1:14, 21)
I have a feeling that a nontraditional woman student [a student
who returned to college some years after graduating from high
school] would not be received with the same amount of, they
would not be viewed as having the same commitment....I would
think it would be very, very hard for a woman, especially one
that did not already have a degree in a science, to enter into
an engineering program....[Women students] are learning a new
language that has been developed by males, [a language] that
almost is a second language to women. They think about things
differently and when I think about that I think that those women
... are actually smarter than a good deal of the men, because
they're not only thinking of things in their own language, but
they're learning them in a male language, because mathematics
and everything from way back has been developed by a male. (F-M1,
1:10)
There's definitely more attention paid to you by the guys. If
you're a woman on this campus, you'd definitely get more attention
than most places.....Guys are like "there goes one of them."
It's different because there's so many guys and it's not like
rare or anything to see a woman walking down the street, [but]
you notice the women. It's just like [and he gawks wide-eyed]....But
as far as school goes, I don't know if there's really any difference.
I don't see any difference. I don't see like professors treat
them differently or TA's treat them differently or anything.
Pretty much, I see everyone is treated the same. (M-M1, 1:12)
When you go to a school where most of the people are guys, all
the girls automatically get like bumped up into a higher social
class...and [with so many guys] wanting to date them, it makes
a lot of girls stuck up.... [If you were a woman,] you'd always
get hit on, you'd always have a date on Friday night if you
wanted it. I mean it would be basically [the] opposite of what
I'm feeling3. (F-M2, 1:9,18)
For these men, participating on this campus was consistent with
male-socialization patterns and women could be expected to have
problems becoming engineers and fitting in. These men students
viewed women's difficulties as springing not only from an implicit
assumption that women must "learn new languages developed
by men" and accommodate to (or assimilate into) the prototypically
masculine mold, but also from social pressures placed on women
because of their scarcity.
Though some of the women students commented on how the imbalance
between the numbers of women and men contributed to men having
fewer dates and women having more, none spoke of it in terms of
shifting up in social class. Most women students spoke about how
they were treated the same as their men counterparts by professors
and most did not comment on the peer social relations, outside
of dating. Only one woman student offered a different perspective
on women students' relationships with faculty:
I think it's a lot like prejudice, I'm not kidding, I mean,
guys don't notice it. There is a lot of sexism on this campus
and it's from the professors more than anybody else, it really
is. I don't think it's the fact that the professors think you're
a woman you know. All I think is that they look at you and they
say this is a woman and I don't know if it's that they feel
their career is threatened or that they feel that you just don't
belong in this field or that they want to make sure that you
want to be here, so they make it extra hard on you. I don't
know what it is. There's a lot of sexism....I'm looking at [it]
as this is a challenge. This is not something that I'm going
to sit here and go, I mean it upsets me that there's a lot of
sexism, but I'm also looking at it as the reason that they're
probably sexist toward me is the fact that I'm a woman. Well
of course it is....And [they] can just deal with that, because
I'm a woman, I'm going to be an engineer. I'm going to come
out of [this school] and, you know, it's another one of those
prove-you're-wrong, show-you-up type things. (W-M2, 1:16)
She never provided specific examples of sexism. She was willing
to talk with me about these issues in private, but never mentioned
them when I observed in her class and during her team's meetings.
Not one woman student noted that engineering encouraged prototypically
masculine endeavors.
I argue that the underlying assumptions about engineering being
a prototypically masculine activity result in women facing a choice
between being an engineer and adopting engineering's prototypically
masculine ways, or not becoming an engineer. That is, women carry
the burden of fitting in and must, in real ways, deny who women
are and what women have done in order to fit in. This does violence
to women. What concerned me in the experiences of the women student
engineers was their silences about these traditions that set up
and maintain a "stacked deck." When I was an engineering
student over 25 years ago, I probably shared this adoration for
engineering. But I honestly thought I had developed a voice and
no longer participated in the silence(s) and acquiescence. As
with most pious statements of this sort, it simply did not play
out that way in situ.
I Sit Mute and Acquiesce in a Doctoral Seminar
During my doctoral coursework in education, I took a doctoral
seminar devoted to reducing bias in educational settings4.
In addition to eight or ten doctoral students, almost as many
master's degree students registered for the course. The readings
challenged even the most proficient doctoral students and seemed,
at times, to overwhelm the master's students. Part of the appeal
of the course came from the professor's desire that each student
focus on those kinds of bias of most interest to the student.
During the semester, we were expected to write two papers: the
first the beginnings of a literature review in our own area of
specialty, the second a more thorough examination of the class
readings and an integration of these readings with our particular
work. Success in the course depended on not only a clear understanding
of this semester's readings, but a well-formulated understanding
of an area of specialty to which to apply the readings. Most doctoral
students already possessed substantial knowledge in our areas
of specialty, derived largely from our own master's courses and
ongoing doctoral studies. But for some master's degree students,
this was clearly a push.
On at least four occasions during the semester, we began class
by going around the table and talking about our progress in the
specialty areas. Not too surprisingly, I focused on gender issues
in math and science education. On each occasion when it became
my turn to summarize my progress, one of my men doctoral student
colleagues remarked "Oh, let me guess, Karen. You're going
to do gender." To which I answered, "Yes, and I guess
you'll be doing [his specialty]." Though I quietly seethed,
I wrote his remarks off as so much ribbing among doctoral students.
I felt that he adequately displayed his own immaturity and petty
jealousies, which were beneath comment. I only knew him from a
course we took together the previous semester - along with almost
30 other students, hardly an opportunity to become acquainted.
During the tenth or eleventh week of the class, we repeated our
exchange for the fourth time. As the class continued that day,
the professor was, as usual, late with our break. When we finally
took a break, I was out the door like a shot and down the hall
to the restroom. Four or five of the women master's students entered
the restroom after I closed my stall door:
Student 1: I can't believe you're going to do gender after the
way [the man doctoral student's name] treated Karen.
Student 2: Yeah, I thought about doing a paper on gender, then
decided not to. I'm going to write about [another topic], something
the prof doesn't know much about.
Student 3: Well, I probably shouldn't be doing gender, but it's
what I'm interested in, so I don't have much choice.
Student 4: It's still not too late to do it on something else.
Just take an incomplete and finish it up next semester. We could
both do [my area].
Student 3: Well, I'll probably not do a paper anyway and just
take a W [withdraw without a grade]. That means I'll have to
take three more hours next semester to get my degree.
I came out of the stall and commented that her solution seemed
unfair. I encouraged her to think about it more before she decided,
offering to set aside time on a regular basis to chat about her
progress or to support her in any way that seemed meaningful to
her. She ultimately took a "W" for the course. This
meant that the seminar would eventually disappear from her transcript,
but that she must pay for another three-hour course in the next
semester.
Deep in my heart I believed that my silence had contributed to
her dilemma. I had my reasons for not confronting this man: his
status as the confidante of two senior professors, my existing
reputation as someone who was "too extreme," and my
desire not to add to his considerable self-importance by acknowledging
him further. But these are lame excuses. I did not confront him,
the professor gave no comment, and these women master's students
determined that studying gender issues was somehow unsafe based
on the way I was treated by the other doctoral student. In private,
I asked other doctoral students what they thought his comments
meant. To a student, his comments were "just kidding around."
I went to the professor and told this tale. S/he expressed only
mild interest; it was "just kidding around." Nonetheless,
the comments worked to reduce the number of qualified people studying
gender issues, limited academic discourse, and made outcast those
who studied gender, constraining participation in clear ways.
In this classroom context, that doctoral student's hassling of
me for studying gender represented the norm - violence against
"my kind" was an accepted practice. I argue that these
kinds of everyday infringement and oppression are the very air
we breathe and must be documented and resisted by those of us
for whom resistance is a safe endeavor.
Summary
In ways that only became clear after catching myself deciding
not to speak, I was unfair to my women student engineers when
I blithely expected them to notice their own mistreatment and
speak out against it. There I was in a classroom composed of almost
equal numbers of women and men graduate students - something women
student engineers will never experience - and a professor who
is an outspoken advocate for reducing bias - another benefit women
student engineers will probably never have - and I weighed the
alternatives and decided not to confront the man graduate student.
My expectations of the young women student engineers failed to
take into account their embeddedness in a system and the consequences
of resistance within that system. There seems to be an endless
recursive loop embedded in societal venues - violence happens,
speak against it, become a target for more violence. For me this
is distressing and the crux of my dilemma about how to reduce
violences. What can we do when we see and document these oppressions?
How can we do our research to see these oppressions better? How
can we create a forum to discuss these issues? How can we guarantee
that our actions do not further endanger our research participants?
Though I am aware of overt acts of physical violence against women,
there are other subtle and pernicious violences that women contend
with daily. By making explicit how these undocumented violences
work to limit women's opportunities and constrain both who women
can become and who can be valued in our society, we contribute
to naming violences and taking a stand against all varieties.
My research data indicate that young women are often silent about
the particular, subtle violences that play out in their lives.
Though we must continue to incorporate these young women's perceptions
of the world in our findings, we must also give our own observations
of these women status in our work. By finding that young women
deny these violences, we move toward better understandings of
the extent to which women's mistreatment becomes normalized in
our society. That violences exist is an interesting finding, but
it seems to me that of more concern is documenting how well- meaning
folks manage to create precisely the circumstances that they claim
to abhor. I am routinely astonished at the contradictory statements
my research participants make. The normalization of violences
in our society is not the blindness of selected individuals, nor
the workings of some demonic sect, but evidence of the ways that
social and cultural systems structure women and women's lives.
1 In this second-year class, the an engineering professor
created, with the assistance of his men students, a particularly
chilly climate for women. Because my earlier paper presentationsfocused
on that classroom climate, I refer readers to those papers for additional
detail.
2 These descriptors refer to participants and their team
affiliation - W-M1 is the Wednesday team's male student #1. The
other numbers refer to first interview page 21.
3 This young man had spoken at length about having no dates
during his first year at college. Since he dated during high school
and desired to date in college, this was a problem for him.
4 I am vague to protect the identities of the professor and
other graduate students. This professor is noted for his/her contributions
to reducing bias. These students are typical of our doctoral program
and represent a wide variety of perspectives. In fact, most of these
students give high priority in their academic work to issues of
reducing biases in educational settings.
Editors' Note: APA style is followed as closely
as possible under the html format. Indentions, spacing, andfootnoting
may vary.
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Karen Tonso is an engineer and educator. She is currently pursuing
her doctorate in engineering education at the University of Colorado
at Boulder. E-mail: tonso@acsu.Colorado.EDU
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