| | I had an
enlightening and frustrating experience this week that I thought I'd
share with you. Last Wednesday was Thomas Friedman's visit (three-time
Pulitzer prize winner and author of The World is Flat),
and as some of you know, I was very involved with it. Following the
President's breakfast, we had a planned photo session in the Doubletree
Hotel, when local newspapers could photograph a few students and
faculty members with Mr. Friedman. One (older female) photographer from
the Newspress mentioned that she wanted a photo with the "Westmont
faculty and president." Dr. Rogers, Dr. Penksa, Dr. Winter, Dr.
Mallampalli, Dr. Dunn, and a trustee member all lined up together. When
she saw the six of them standing there, she clarified: "Oh no, just the men, please." In the confusion of the moment, the female professors, Dr. Penksa and Dr. Dunn,
left the group and the men did nothing to defend their colleagues.
Being
in the wake of the sixties and seventies feminist movement (and trying
to swim after the boat, in my case!) is much like this, I think. Both
Dr. Dunn and Dr. Penksa are very intelligent and very socially aware
women. They moved out of the picture, but not without knowing that it
was inappropriate for the photographer to ask them to, and for their
colleagues not to have asked them to stay. Both, however, are single
women that most likely made life choices that propelled them towards
teaching at the college level at very young ages.
I sense, in
the wake of my mother's generation's feminist movement, that to be
considered valid, I am asked to give up being a mother for a dream of
success that CEOs and Newspress photographers are not willing to offer
to me. Through the lens of the Newspress, readers will assume that
professors are male, not female. Through the lens of a CEO, women do
not have the tools or the experience to be promoted in the business
world. When I hear the cliche phrase that Christians must be "in the
world, but not of the world," I think to myself that it would be easy
to not be in the world--the world already excludes me. Where is my
place in a world that leaves my role so uncertain and undefined?
I hope this is food for thought, or at least
an after-dinner mint for thought.
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| | Posted 3/5/2007 10:36 PM - 51 Views - 4 eProps - 2 comments
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