Virtues of Vulnerability: Humility, Autonomy, and Citizen-Subjectivity

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As questions about marital status, as well as the number and ages of children, are frequently used to discriminate against women, they can violate Title VII. Even asking about a spouse’s name or employment status and child-care arrangements during an interview could be presented in court as evidence of intent to discriminate. Rushing says there are about 20 kids in the children’s program, while the church itself sees between 120 and 150 attending on Sunday mornings. Butler, Judith. 2012. Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism. New York: Columbia University Press. McNay, Lois. 2000. Gender and Agency: Reconfiguring the Subject in Feminist and Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. Lilly J. Goren is professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics

Academia doesn’t have a common set of guidelines or training on hiring best practices and how to avoid biased or discriminatory questions. People came from Florida just to see Zach performing on the stage. Moreover, he is also famous for making controversial statements that open a way for fans to talk with him. Butler, Judith. 1995. “Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of ‘Postmodernism’.” In Feminist Contentions: A philosophical Exchange, edited by Seyla Benhabib, Judith Butler, Drucilla Cornell, and Nancy Fraser, 35–58. New York: Routledge. Biases and discriminatory moves aren’t limited to the campus interviews. (See box on “Five don’t’s for introducing a female speaker (and why this matters).”) Biases and discrimination can pervade the entire hiring process. One tactic that people at the University of Michigan’s ADVANCE program have found to work is to build an understanding among faculty members of what a candidate thinks and feels when posed with a supposedly innocuous personal question.Don’t call her “Miss.”If she does not have an academic title, the go-to alternative is obviously “Ms.” For pertinence of information given the context, her marital status is in a category with her shoe size and her favorite Muppet. The other extreme isn’t helpful either. “We’ve had job candidates say things like, ‘My partner is a doctor, so is there a good hospital in town?’ And people go, ‘I can’t answer that!’” says Rushing. “You have to explain that, no, you actually can answer that question if a candidate brings it up.”

We know men who have families are valued” for having families, says political scientist Sara Rushing at Montana State University, who is a co-director of the university’s ADVANCE program. “For women who have families, people worry that their attention will be divided.” Elizabeth Mery, Mathematical Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award for Teaching Approaches That Enhance Diversity, Equity You have to make your decisions based on facts. That’s a really important thing,” says Allen. “When someone on my committee says, ‘This guy is great!’ I ask, ‘Can you please explain why he is great? What makes him great? Is it the number of publications? Is it the proposal? Is it the area that he is suggesting working in?’” It’s not all casual In the next set of four lines, the speaker redirects her words to her intended listener. She wants to make sure this person understands what she has to say. The speaker begins by making sure her listener knows that she understands their feelings. This person loves her, but that fact doesn’t make her emotions irrelevant. She needs more than love. Butler, Judith. 2004a. Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence. London and New York: Verso.I challenge the kids to be the hands and feet of Jesus, not just asking for money, but to work for their BGMC money,” Rushing says. “Among other things, kids dug flower beds, made hand-stamped metal and string bracelets, raised support through archery scores, ran a lemonade stand, and we even had a kindergartner make and sell paper airplanes for BGMC.” Derrida, Jacques. 1988. “Signature, Event, Context.” In Limited, Inc, edited by Gerald Graff. Trans. Samuel Weber and Jeffrey Mehlman, 1–24. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Deborah says objecting to illegal questions was not feasible for her. “It’s such a competitive job market,” she says. “In my head, I wanted to tell them I wasn’t comfortable talking about something personal, but I ran the risk of sounding cold, unapproachable or not willing to play ball.” Departmental culture and due diligence There’s a lot of flexibility in how the whole (hiring) process gets structured from department to department and from institution to institution,” says Heather Metcalf, director of research and analysis at the Association for Women in Science. “I’ve seen departments that have really great written policies and guidance documents… I’ve seen the ‘we have no written policy at all, no kind of guidance, it just happens’ (approach).”

The final image of this section has been added in as one final simile to help to define the speaker’s desires. She needs to be part of something which consumes her, but also allows her to feel free. Often, it’s the head of a department who decides how much effort a department will put into learning about recruiting best practices. The department head might, at minimum, require members of the search committee to attend a training session. However, not placing more attention carries the risk that the department isn’t fully aware of how discriminatory questions and biases can crop up during recruitment. Marcuse, Herbert. 2002. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. 1964. London and New York: Routledge.

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Without fail, everyone who was interviewed for this story brought up the issue of a candidate’s spouse. Figuring out if a candidate has a spouse who also requires a job at the institution is one of the biggest hurdles faced during hiring. After all, “83 percent of women in STEM have partners who are academic scientists,” notes Rushing.

Zach Rushing, a rich and famous Comedian, Motivational Comic, is well known as a Real dude who is Honest with No Bullshit. The YouTuberhas become famous for Philanthropy, Cooking, BBB, and Podcast.

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This incident drives home the point that women as much as men can be part of the problem. “I find a lot of times that women automatically think they cannot be sexist, that they can do no wrong when interacting with other women,” says Jennifer Ross, a biophysicist at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who writes the blog Woman of Science. “That’s absolutely not true.” And, yet, the more casual moments of an interview are critical. After all, faculty hiring is different from most other types of hiring in that a department is hiring a person potentially for life. So, Fierke says, the more casual parts of an interview are important for gauging if a long-term partnership might be possible. This is also why having a conversation with all of the faculty members about “the questions that derail the recruitment process” is an important one, she says. However, a candidate can voluntarily bring up the need for a job for a spouse during the first interview. Heads of departments interviewed for this story say they appreciate being told early in the process if they need to find a position for a spouse. “By waiting to reveal that information, it makes it harder for the chair to actually try to do something,” says Serio. “A lot of people are hesitant to mention their spouse because they think they won’t get the offer because their situation is more complicated. I always tell people if that’s the case then it’s better for you as well to know that early on.” More aware A decade ago, Fierke, Stewart and others, funded on an ADVANCE grant to the University of Michigan, began to raise awareness of how personal questions or even casual conversations about personal lives affect female candidates. For example, a female candidate might interpret questions about her family life as a surreptitious investigation into her true dedication to the job.