Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j3FDxxG17613; Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:59:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2005 09:59:59 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <4125A142.4DFCD23B.0A349A3F@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AWilder106@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:3224] Power X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 1768 Lines: 14 Colleagues, I just sent an email on the issue of women in academe topic that surfaced last winter, under an incorrect subject line. Sorry. I think advocacy is a hard job when we are so aware of the discrepancies between people at the top of the academic world, and those at the bottom of the ladder. The article I mentioned from the Washington Post describes what Nancy Hopkins went through to get her work known. This is tangential to the lives of women served by adult literacy classes, but it is worth knowing, I think, that women who achieve much are routinely passed over, diminished in a workplace that Larry Summers noted "was designed by men for men." The issue for me to understand is how literacy teachers and literacy leaders work on this issue in their professional lives. I do think it is an issue that has to be undertaken primarily by women, certainly with male support once they understand the issue. David Rosen reminded me a while ago that many men care about this issue, too, and I know that is so. An example: Maybe about 15 years ago I worked for a summer in an international consulting firm near where I live. The international consultants were mostly men, and they dressed down--wore kind of a Ļuniform of "neat but casual." They were modest, shared their knowledge, worked overseas in public service in fields like literacy, health and small business development. I remember an anecdote about one of them, now passed away, of how he would go out into the countryside of his work place in Ethiopia to write readers for school children and their parents. I heard him comment once about women in math and science--said that it had to do with the quality of teaching and expectation in the individual culture. Andrea
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