inl r o b a
adjective: 1 having an ample distance from side to side; wide | 2 covering a large number and wide scope of subjects or areas: a broad range of experience | 3 having or incorporating a wide range of meanings | 4 including or coming from many people of many kinds | 5 general without detail | 6 (of a regional accent) very noticeable and strong | 7 full, complete, clear, bright; she was attacked in broad daylight noun: (informal) woman. slang: a promiscuous woman phrases: broad in the beam: with wide hips or large buttocks | in broad daylight: during the day, when it is light, and surprising for this reason | have broad shoulders: ability to cope with unpleasant responsibilities or to accept criticism | City of broad shoulders: Chicago synonyms: see: wide, extensive, ample, vast, liberal, open, all-embracing antonyms: see: narrow, constricted, limited, subtle, slight, closed see also: broadside (n.) historical: a common form of printed material, especially for poetry
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“My mama always used to tell me: ‘If you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for’.” ~Tupac Shakur “Occupational segregation may result in health risks for women and men by increasing monotony and repetition.” ~Nikki van der Gaag
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Welcome to the third installment of BROAD’s work and career issue. In these page syou will find intersections of social justice with tops such as pay, benefits, education, resources, employment, training, and more. We hope that you find empowerment and utility in the published expressions. Broad’s mission is to connect the WSGS program with communities of students, faculty, and staff at Loyola and beyond, continuing and extending the program’s mission. We provide space and support for a variety of voices while bridging communities of scholars, artists, and activists. Our editorial mission is to provoke thought and debate in an open forum characterized by respect and civility. Founded in 1979, Loyola’s Women’s Studies Program is the first women’s studies program at a Jesuit institution and has served as a model for women’s studies programs at other Jesuit and Catholic universities. Our mission is to introduce students to feminist scholarship across the disciplines and the professional schools; to provide innovative, challenging, and thoughtful approaches to learning; and to promote social justice.
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Call Home to the Heart
words are useless
Industrial Scene No. 4 Paul Mitchell Woman at Work Novi K Sujono-Paforopi Under the Moon Amanda Greavette Expecting Calef Brown This Is Not Farming Carrie Elizabeth Working Woman #1 Jeff Habenicht Rice Worker Jeff Habenicht Working Hands Alexander Hallett-Sattva Photo Homeless Gabriel Cruz BURNING POTS borromeo photography Working Class HeroesFast Food Sue Blanchard
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Cesar Chavez Rupert Everett Muhammad Yunis Rita Levi-Montalcini A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
(not) buying it Egg Freezing Male Nurses
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Don’t Just Follow Your Passion So we leaned in...Now what? Joe vs Jose: Who Gets a Job?
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The Fight for 15: Solidarity against Anti-Union Corporations Erin DeFrancesco On the Adjunctification of College Education Jessica B. Burstrem
ALL ABOUT WONDER WOMAN: Women and Stakhanovism Dominique Millette Changes in Education and Work Life in the 60’s and 70’s...rlene Burgio Burstrem Class/Power Issue Ad BROAD 2015-16 Team App Annual Theme Schedule Theme, Mission, & Team Letter from BROAD: Jessica Contributor Guidelines
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Hidden Disabilities in the Workforce...Lora Mitchell What a Single Mother Needs to Get through Graduate SchoolJessica B. Burstrem
CONTENTS Sanity Optional
On Getting Paid in Experience Peach Stephan
EaRt
Always X Cathexis
Punctuation Marks Commas in a List C.M.
cles
The Moving Goalposts of DiscriminationDominique Millette
In Labor on the L & D FLoor of a Hospital Maureen Murphy Erickson
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The Problem With Retail Erin DeFrancesco The Decriminalization of Sex Work Erin DeFrancesco Is There Still Sexism in Scientific Research Labs? Jessica B. Burstrem Women as the Opiate of Man
Dominique Millette
HomeSchooling
How I Got to Graduate School, or, a Single Mom with Privilege Jessica Burstrem
microaggresSHUNS work / labor
WLA (Re)animated Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women, 1985-6
Liberation Leaders Dorothy Day Kshama Sawant
Letter from BROAD State of the Magazine, June 2015 Jessica Burstrem, Website Director & Assessment Editor
Personal, Political, Private, Professional We know that the personal is political, and that may not be more true in any aspect of life than In Labor. Who works; how much; for how much; what counts as work; what kind of work can we do, should we do, do we want to do; and how are we treated in the process? These are crucial questions that shape attitudes, experiences, opportunities, and resources – educational, legal, professional, and financial – throughout the largest part of most people’s lives. We have learned to define who we are by what we do, but sometimes, who we are also affects what we do. Race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, family status, religion, nationality, age, ability, socioeconomic class, military service, and other categories can have an impact on our work lives. Our “personal” lives and our “professional” lives are not, in fact, separate – and perhaps it is a fallacy to think that they should be. The title of this issue, In Labor, erases a little of that distinction as well, by referring both to childbirth – something that is very personal, all too political, and certainly hard work, although rarely
professional – and to employment, whether paid or unpaid. As always, the definition of labor itself – of what counts as work – is central to the political issues surrounding it. Some recent and perennial debates on the subject: Are student-athletes workers? (Last year, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that they are employees and have the right to unionize.) Are graduate student-teachers workers? Are stay-at-home mothers workers? Who is entitled to work? What are workers entitled to? Are some workers entitled to more than others? Are we worth as much as we are paid? Even our language – worth, value, treasure – cannot seem to find a non-monetary way to express how highly we may regard someone. The issue of labor is one that means many things to me, as I am sure that it also does to you. My parents both worked throughout my childhood, as most parents must, today more than ever. I got my first paying
The issue of labor is one that means many things to me, as I am sure that it also does to you. My parents both worked throughout my childhood, as most parents must, today more than ever. job at age 14 and have worked for pay every year since – thus, for twenty years in a row now. I got my annual Social Security statement recently, though, and for some years, it shows no reportable income for Social Security purposes. Sometimes, my work as a graduate student-teacher has not counted as work; rather, it has been classified as part of my education, so I did not get Social Security credit for those years, just as unpaid caretakers (such as parents, grandparents, children, and/or other relatives taking care of family members) don’t get Social Security credit for their work either. But it is work all the same. No one denies that.
Who in my generation can count on Social Security for our retirement anyway? Will I ever even be able to afford to retire? Should I even be thinking about retirement when I have a child of my own at home now who will be old enough for college himself in five years? Should I insist that he work full-time before/instead of attending college? Will he even be able to get a good-paying job for himself then, since I can’t get one for myself now? Questions of labor, you see, are often in my thoughts. What about yours? In the following pages, we have considered some of these questions. We hope that you appreciate our work and that it inspires yours.
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Visiting Editor Join BROAD’s team for Your Issue Jessica Burstrem
Jessica B. Burstrem holds a B.A. in English Language & Literature from University of Michigan and an M.A. in English and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from University of Florida. She is a PhD Candidate in the Literature Program in the English department at University of Arizona, specializing in twentieth and twenty-first century American literature, the novel, film, gender and ethnic studies, mothering, and temporality. Her dissertation considers what we can learn from studying queer time -- that is, nonlinear time -- in selected recent works of film, literature, and art. She teaches hybrid and online writing courses for University of Maryland University College and LSAT preparation courses for a well-known national corporation. She and her 13-year-old son and their two cats live in Severn, Maryland, which is about halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
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In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Dominique Millette
A LL A B OU T W O NDER W O M AN: Wo me n an d S ta kh a no vi sm Napoleon the work horse is a character in Animal Farm: the perfect worker. He tries twice as hard as anyone else, never complains, and waits for paradise (a.k.a. Sugar Candy Mountain). Napoleon is George Orwell’s interpretation of Stakhanov, the model worker of Stalinist economies. The system depended on Stakhanov-type workers to survive. Of course, there weren’t enough Stakhanovs. As fellow workers did less and got the same benefits, Napoleon worked himself to death and ended up as dog food. This does not provide a good incentive for potential imitators, however much they are inundated with propaganda. Stalinist repression did limp along for 70 years, through intimidation, prison, denial of access to services, moral condemnation and ostracism. Fearful workers avoided the “wrong people” and denounced colleagues. Without the carrot of rewards, the system applied the stick of punishment. Women today, and particularly single mothers, are the Stakhanovs of the largely unpaid and underground economic sector known as care-giving. This economic sector is going bankrupt, for the same reason Stakhanovism did. There are no real incentives for women to continue doing more than men. It is a statistically established fact that women are overworked and underpaid. On an average day, 19 percent of men did housework–such as cleaning or
doing laundry–compared with 49 percent of women. Women still earn, on average, 78% of men’s wages. Because household work and emotional support tend to be performed in the private, or social, sphere, they are often not measured in our GNP. Yet we recognize their monetary value through services such as psychiatry, day care, and cleaning firms. These services have now effectively replaced friends, family and neighbours. They have also, thankfully, replaced traditional slavery. By only measuring that which has financial value, however, we are minimizing the blatant market failure occurring in our social structures. This surfaces in tired, depressed women who need psychiatric help, and in children who need social workers. Men, meanwhile, seethe at the loss of the voluntary free labour they have traditionally appropriated. Some become hostile, making the situation worse. Women aren’t getting any carrots, but they sure are getting the stick. When they don’t “cooperate,” they get insulted, condemned, fired or abandoned. In the worst cases, they are beaten, raped and murdered. Meanwhile, the traditional family is no longer an option. Most couples need two incomes, husbands can lose their jobs, and half of all marriages end in divorce. Even when the wife will do anything to stay married, her husband may still leave her. Of those failed marriages with children, women have custody in 95% of cases. The amount of child support women
get is often inadequate. Because women earn lower wages, 75 % of such single-parent families live in poverty. Single mothers who wish to break the cycle of poverty find little support at work, college or university. Married men in middle management generally rely on their wives to do most housework and child care, coordinate social activities, and even balance the family budget. Single mothers at similar career levels can’t compete. Even married women can’t compete, as clearly shown in the legal profession in Canada. These factors combined explain the persistence of “pink-collar ghettos.” The question is why women have taken it for so long. I believe the answer is that no one likes bad news. Most women want to believe all those disturbing trends only happen to someone else. They are encouraged to think the “someone elses” end up alone because they are “too demanding”. Moreover, when women do choose to be alone, they are often stalked on the street, shunned and ridiculed, so they will see how “awful” it is. Meanwhile, women’s magazines proffer upbeat and deceptively simple remedies to women’s malaise: changing yourself sounds so much easier than marching on Parliament or changing male attitudes. That takes real time and effort, and it doesn’t seem to work. None of those articles women read bluntly state that children are an awesome responsibility that they will have to live with for 20 years. That doesn’t sound ro-
Romance and the “10 steps to a better you” have become the opiates of modern womanhood.... Sugar Candy Mountain is just a Stairmaster step away.
mantic. It especially doesn’t sell baby food, diapers, or the items that women “need” to attract that essential man. To top it all off, if women break under the strain, it’s all their fault and they’re hurting the children, too. Romance and the “10 steps to a better you” have become the opiates of modern womanhood. Many women pursue the right diet or wardrobe, which will get them the right man, who will then make them happy. If problems arise, the right advice will give them the right attitude. Sugar Candy Mountain is just a Stairmaster step away. No wonder men complain about being “suffocated”. They’ve created a social Frankenstein. However, there are limits to Stakhanovism. It’s tough to be Wonder Woman, and the younger generation isn’t buying it. No amount of makeovers or pop psychology can address this problem. We need genuine awareness on the part of everyone, to lead to genuine policy changes.
Punctuation Marks to finish a conversation you have to start one C.M.
Commas in a List A comma is a punctuation mark used to mark off items in a list, to differentiate one idea from the next.
Scan, copy, and file this important paperwork, walk to the printer’s and order new business cards, upload this video footage to the computer, make phone calls to these places, write down what they tell you, follow up tomorrow, train the new intern, pick up this document, send out this notice, make a log of your hours, punch out at five. Any job comes with such a list of comma-separated tasks to be completed per day. Be courteous, be kind, be helpful, be flexible, be a team player, be happy, be ready, be punctual, be excited, be passionate, be experienced, be outspoken, be professional, be organized, be creative, be friendly, be intelligent, be easy to work with, be useful, be good. Any job application comes with such a list of qualities and expectations an employer has for an employee. Every list comes with commas galore, no end to the requirements that must be met. It’s not always reasonable, though, to expect every worker to put on a happy face, every day, and meet every requirement on every list. It seems most workplaces in Western society place such importance and value on this long list of qualities that amount to: be extroverted. Have the right look. Fit in. If you do, you
might make another list- the list of New Hires. However, there are any number of reasons a worker might not be able to meet such expectations every day. The simplest one is just that people honestly can’t be happy and cheerful every minute of every day. People whose personalities are more introverted might find it difficult to fit in at the workplace when the emphasis is placed on working together, working with others, being outgoing. Instead of allowing introverts to explore their potential and attack their work from a solitary perspective, the modern workplace tries to box them into the extroverted office culture we’re saturated with. Job applications are filled with strange personality-test questions that further look to pigeonhole us and weed out anyone who’s anything less than obedient and cheerful about work at all times. People with mental illnesses have a list of daily tasks even longer than a simple work schedule, having to deal with an obstacle they can’t control, sometimes struggling just to get up and go about their days. People with physical disabilities face their own challenges as well. People of color and LGBTQIA+ individuals face discrimination based on their identities, which can make it that much harder for them to make a spot on that list of applications that merit a call back. Classism enters into the equation, eliminating certain people from a chance at being hired,
All we can do, it seems, is tell our stories, criticize what isn’t working about our workplaces, and work within the system to make it better. who never had access to the levels of education and experience that are often required for advancement in any field. Often these people fall into other marginalized groups, so the odds are stacked against them even further. The list of qualities for an acceptable hire shut out so many people, who apply and apply for jobs and never receive even a call to tell them they’ve been turned down. Work culture is often geared towards the benefit of the corporations who make these lists, and not the people who labor every day. All we can do, it seems, is tell our stories, criticize what isn’t working about our workplaces, and work within the system to make it better. With every step, we add another comma to our experience list, and hope to be the reason for the next comma on the New Hires list, and life, like a list, goes on.
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just words? just speeches? Muhammad Yunus
In my experience, poor people are the world’s greatest entrepreneurs. Every day, they must innovate in order to survive. They remain poor because they do not have the opportunities to turn their creativity into sustainable income.
I began my career as an economics professor but became frustrated because the economic theories I taught in the classroom didn’t have any meaning in the lives of poor people I saw all around me. I decided to turn away from the textbooks and discover the real-life economics of a poor person’s existence.
Human beings are much bigger than just making money.
Good economic theory must give the people the chance to use their talents to build their own lives. We must get away from the traditional route where the rich will do the business and the poor will depend on private or public charity.
There is the expression of selfishness and there is the expression of selflessness - but economists or theoreticians never touched that part. They said: ‘Go and become a philanthropist.’ I said, ‘No, I can do that in the business world, create a different kind of business - a business based on selflessness.’
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In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Jessica B. Bustream
On the Adjunctification of College Education I am an adjunct. Most likely you have taken classes from someone like me. Most college teachers, these days, are contingent laborers, which means they are working without benefits or job security. Most adjuncts are female. And most female college teachers are adjuncts. In the front of the classroom, an adjunct probably won’t seem any different to you from a professor, except she doesn’t have that elusive title. But she probably has a lot of education and a lot of experience and cares deeply about teaching. She is also probably disgustingly underpaid. Typically, adjuncts are paid $2200 per course, when they are lucky enough to get one. Each course should require about 160 hours of work. (That’s less than $14 per hour, by the way.)
She is also probably disgrustingly underpaid.
Where I live, in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, I would have to earn about $40,000 per year, in addition to what I receive in child support from my ex-husband, to be able to achieve an adequate standard of living, or what is called a living wage. (Find out yours here: http://livingwage.mit.edu/) That would require me to teach 18 courses per year. To do that, I would have to teach for at least three colleges or universities – probably more. It would also amount to an average of 55 hours per week, year-round: 8 hours per day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, without vacations, without health insurance, without sick leave, without the possibility for a pension or any retirement pay, without any guarantees of continued employment – and Heaven forbid if any of my students are unhappy with their grades and complain to the administration, or give me poor course evaluations. Then I might find myself out of work. And due to typical college/university course schedules, I would work a lot more hours than that at certain times of year, and none at all on others. There’s still no chance for quality of life there. And certainly I couldn’t be a very good teacher either. But, worse – when would I take care of my child? When would I have time to write and present at conferences and submit papers for publication and apply for jobs and serve as an editor of a social justice magazine and do all of the other things that I need to do to have any chance at getting a tenure-track position? That is the prize that I am working for because it is really my only way out of this tenuous situation. It’s what I was trained for. It’s also what the hundreds
of thousands of other adjuncts in this country are competing for too. Odds are, I won’t ever get such a job. So what do I do? I moonlight. I work for test preparation companies, which pay more per hour but rarely get to full-time, instead requiring mostly evening and weekend work – also not ideal for a single parent with a school-age child at home. When I get the chance, I work as a tutor privately on the side. Sometimes I do mystery shops. I sign up for medical research. Occasionally I fill out surveys for money online. And I receive food stamps. My son and I are on Medicaid. And to pay my bills and fulfill our basic needs, I have to run up balances on credit cards that I can’t afford to pay off. I have started borrowing money from my parents, who are retired and living on a fixed income. I apply for other jobs.
I have even tried to get a job as a bank teller – which is minimum-wage work that I did fourteen years ago, before I finished college, while I was pregnant with my son – but they have expressed no interest in hiring me. They probably see that I am overqualified and think that I would not be likely to stay in that job for very long. They’re probably right. On the other hand, for a better work-life balance – for reliable income – for health insurance and paid vacation and a 401K plan with contribution matching – I would probably stay in any job. Oh, excuse me – I have papers to grade.
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In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Lora Mitchell
Hi d d e n Disa b ilities in t h e Work force : Are w e foc u sin g in all t h e righ t place s on d i sa b i l i t i es a n d emp loy me nt ? In 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act passed, the hope was that the perception of employers in hiring people with differing levels of abilities would be heightened and that opportunities for all job seekers would increase, regardless of level of ability. However, 25 years later, while some progress has been made, it seems that employees with disabilities are still struggling to reach a level of inclusion that would be necessary for a workforce that is in need of skills and producers. According to the most recent statistics available from BLS (2013), people with disabilities are still disproportionately struggling with unemployment; the working age disabled of 16 to 64 year olds have an unemployment rate of 14.7%, more than twice the 7.2% of the non-disabled of the same age range. In looking at the data being compiled by the government statisticians, and many of the other private researchers, though, something interesting becomes apparent- how disabilities, and disabled workers, are being defined and counted. Under the ADA, a disability is defined as having a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities, having a history of such impairment, or being perceived as having an impairment. Specifically, it addresses those life activities to “include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating,
thinking, communicating, and working.“ This is much broader than the questions being asked during the BLS Labor Characteristic news, which asked people specifically about deafness, blindness, the ability to climb stairs, difficulty in decision-making, or assistance needed for shopping. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act additionally places a great deal of emphasis on job training and placement for persons with severe physical and mental impairments. When seeking employees and evaluating a current workforce, many people needing accommodations fall well outside those narrow lines, and people with hidden disabilities are frequently left out of the picture. To a large extent, research on reasons why employers are reluctant to hire employees with disabilities is inconclusive and inconsistent. When encouraging employers to hire skilled employees who are disabled, there continues to be a large drive to emphasize the high level of skill, dedication, and loyalty of disabled employees, along with the reminder of a moral obligation in an inclusive society. While these are important elements, they also don’t tell the whole story of employment barriers and accommodations. We may be ignoring the reality that many more people who are successfully in the workplace already have needs for accommodations and may not be getting them. While the numbers vary, estimates are that perhaps as many as 75% of current and potential employees who have hidden disabilities never disclose them to employers. This is likely a result of a
fear of being perceived differently, and as less competent than coworkers without disabilities. However, it may in the end be harmful to both employers and employees. By not disclosing a need for an accommodation, employees may find themselves in situation where they receive poorer performance evaluations, attendance counseling, and perhaps even lower merit pay increases. Employers can also find themselves in situations where a simple accommodation could maximize an employee’s success and productivity. No employer wishes to settle for less, because
...as many as 75% of current and potential employees who have hidden disabilities never disclose them to employers.
they are unaware of the need, but the conversations may not be happening until we find a workplace that moves away from preconceived notions about what it means to be disabled and successfully employed. Both sides need to be comfortable with the fact that asking for adaptations in work environments is not asking for employers to give more for less. On the side of employer liability, hidden disabilities actually become a greater risk when they aren’t part of the discussion. Out of the 133 lawsuits filed by the EEOC in 2014, 49 were ADA claims. The largest percentage of those included conditions that are generally viewed as “hidden disabilities” such as epilepsy, immune system dysfunctions, and psychiatric disorders. When paired with the high number of retaliation claims, this suggests a disconnect with the needs of both employers and employees. As the emphasis continues to be given for more obvious disabilities, employers sometimes find themselves at a loss for deciding what is a true accommodation, and what is merely a request for a policy exception, without realizing that the two may actually be the same. This becomes particularly true with hidden disabilities. In a cynical workforce, supervisors and coworkers may automatically be suspicious of a need to leave early for appointments, without weighing in that the employee may be more likely to stay
S
As the emphasis continues to be given for more obvious disabilities, employers sometimes find themselves at a loss for deciding what is a true accommodation, and what is merely a request for a policy exception, without realizing that the two may actually be the same. late and work extra when they are able to work at their maximum health level. Common accommodations for hidden disabilities may include telecommuting, flexible work hours, environmental adjustments, and use of FMLA for medical appointments. These are not usually burdensome within the workplace, and no longer uncommon in general practice, but frequently not offered as a practice unless an actual need is identified. The Job Accommodation Network has expanded its database to conditions such as epilepsy, immune system dysfunctions, diabetes, and fibromyalgia to give employers guidance, but most will not seek it out until they are aware that there is a specific request. Front line supervisors need to be given a better level of awareness that when an accommodation is requested, it needs to be given serious consideration, and not just dismissed out of hand as an employee
wanting something special or different. Due to a fear of stigma, it is common for employees to ask for these changes without fully disclosing a disability status. A workplace’s sophistication at recognizing the request for accommodation, without the employee specifically identifying it as an ADA issue, is crucial to the ability to adapt and support with good outcomes for all. However, even when employers are dedicated to working with the employee, and the employee is similarly comfortable with discussing their needs, the modification of the workplace may bring undesired attention and violate the need for privacy. The practical reasons for low employment, and under-employment, of those who live with obvious or severe disability must continue to be addressed. Regardless of the reasons themselves, though, the emphasis of policymakers may inadvertently be excluding one of the largest populations of disabled employees. Perhaps they themselves aren’t seeing what are hidden- yet common- disabilities,and not asking how to make the research itself more inclusive. By starting with people who have a need for small changes, but are less easily identified, we may be able to begin to also change biases that affect all people with disabilities, regardless of severity or visibility. Ultimately, by re-framing the dialogue to be more inclusive, the benefit is likely to be felt by employers,employees, and society as a whole.
SSpS
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Carrie Elizabeth
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HEaRt The beating, beating, beating of this cerebral, female heart X. Cathexis
screw it : ALways I’ve been thinking about careers a lot lately. I mean, I’m in college. Of course I am. What worries me is not trying to figure out what I am good at – I know I’ll succeed eventually at whatever I try. What worries me is finding somewhere I belong. Where can I go to escape dissatisfaction that breeds anxiety that in turn breeds depression? Where can I find people who will appreciate me and who I will
appreciate? Is the answer simply a matter of time, of continuing to grow up and surround myself with people also becoming more comfortable and sure of who they are? Should physical location make a difference? Is the job most important, or the people at the job? Is it both? The fact that I can even ask these questions is a privilege. The fact that I have opportunity to develop my
identity within the intellectual and creative frameworks of a career is a privilege. The fact that I can use “career” – a word which assumes moving forward, up the ladder, to new statuses – is a privilege. With every part time job, I become more and more grateful that my parents are spending a fortune on my college education – because I honestly don’t know how I could live if I knew I would never escape a customer service position. The fact is I want to serve myself. I don’t want to serve others. I’m so concerned about my own happiness and survival – there’s no way I would ever possibly be able to work that hard just to take care of a family that will, most likely, be doomed to the same fate and “career” (stagnation) as myself. I have been privileged enough to develop an appetite for something more: for noteworthiness, for fulfillment, for change. This is the point where I should start to talk about how guilty I feel. I should feel bad for complaining about the ‘stress’ of figuring out my future which is full of promise. But honestly I can’t hold any more psychological tension so I’m going to say screw it. Screw being born into privilege. Screw feelings that are a result of things out of my control. That’s not productive. Feeling guilt doesn’t help anybody. Acknowledge it and move on. People say “follow your passions” “do what makes you happy” “don’t let fear hold you back” when talking about careers. Those things are all true, but to add a layer of depth – make yourself happy first, always. If you’re not happy, there’s no way you can better other people’s lives or make them happy (you might even have a negative effect on their life) – at least those are the things we’re told to do to ‘be good people’ but which everyone should just do because it’s common sense. So of course I don’t have any answers after writing this besides the firm resolve the screw it & put my happiness first always. So what if privilege and circumstance have destined my identity to be intertwined with my career. If I truly put my happiness first, I won’t let fear hold me back from moving to that new place, taking that job, hanging out with those people – all of which could be the lucky difference between me feeling like I belong or not.
Screw being born into privilege. Screw feelings that are a result of things out of my control. That’s not productive. Feeling guilt doesn’t help anybody. Acknowledge it and move on.
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just words? just speeches? A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.
When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.
The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers.
Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.
SSpS
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Paul Mitchell
Industrial Scene No 4 paulmitchellartist.co.uk etsy.com/people/artistmitch1974
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Maureen Murphy
I n Lab or o n a n L & D F lo or of a Ho sp ita l My youngest daughter had her 18th birthday recently and it got me thinking about my labor and overall childbirth experience and how different it was from my older daughter’s birth. Here is an excerpt from the thank you letter I sent the nurse midwife who assisted me my second time around: “Thank you doesn’t even begin to say it. I have described her birth as a joy, so different from her sister’s birth where I was coached to lay down, take Stadol and let the doctor pull her out by vacuum suction because everyone was tired at the change of shift around 7:00 am.” With my midwife-assisted birth, I was encouraged to walk the halls and later lean across the bed while on my feet, letting gravity do what gravity does. She rubbed my back and coached me through my pain. She made a rope out of a bedsheet which she tied to the end of the bed so I had something to pull up on while I bared down to PUSH! Phoebe’s birth was uncomplicated, un-medicated, exhilarating and satisfying. Two years prior, I arrived at the hospital at about 2:00am to deliver my first daughter. I was given a gown and helped into bed. Occasionally a nurse would come into the labor room to check on me and offer pain medication but then she would leave. I
remember feeling very tired and very alone with my pain. I accepted the narcotic pain medication which left me too drowsy to really get the hang of how to push my baby out, thus the vacuum suction delivery. This was the doctor’s idea. I hadn’t really seen her till it was time to push. She had probably been resting in the doctor’s room or watching my baby’s heart rate on an electronic monitor near the nurse’s desk. Maybe she was reading my chart or chatting with the nurses and the secretary at the desk. What was the nurse doing down the hall while I was lying flat on my back under the weight of labor pain in a labor room with only my husband to help me? Maybe the doctor and nursing staff were trying to operate at full capacity and were stretched thin with too many patients in labor. Empty beds do not generate revenue for the doctor or the hospital. Labor and delivery is an industry now and it seems the protocols are set up for the ease and convenience of the workers. Births are sometimes even scheduled for dates and times that fit the routine work day when a woman is close to her due date and can be induced. I think my experience of being encouraged to take narcotic pain medication and lay still and unassisted until it is time to push is the norm. I applaud the nurse mid-wife profession for its integrity and for being dedicated to safe, woman-centered,
natural childbirth. I appreciate the fact that my nurse mid-wife let me wait 2 full weeks past my due date before gently inducing me by popping the amniotic fluid and then waiting to see if labor would progress on its own. It did. I appreciate that the nurse had my back quite literally for hours while I labored on my feet over the edge of the bed. She rarely left my side during my 8 hour labor. This was a hospital birth but so unlike the standard hospital birth. I hope to see the midwife profession grow and would encourage any woman to seek mid-wife assisted birth. ----------------------------------------------------------------------I was not then, but I am now a social worker in a hospital. I work with doctors, nurses, nurse’s aides, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, chaplains. I interact daily with non-professional workers in my work setting as well: food service workers, transporters, environmental service employees. It is not considered polite to discuss it but I am keenly aware of the pay difference across the professions and departments of the hospital. My husband worked for a time as an environmental service worker at the same hospital. He could not find full time employment as a teacher, and substitute teaching didn’t pay enough to meet our family
expenses so my husband worked part-time nights in Environmental Services. He was often the guy called to clean up in the Labor rooms‌.imagine that job! I know from his experience, how hard the EVS workers work and how much they get paid, about $10.00 an hour. I am paid 3x that amount for what I do at the hospital. I was fortunate that my mother could afford my college education and I am fortunate to make a salary that allows me to support my own family now. I think about the environmental workers at my job and how difficult it must be for them to support their families on $10.00 an hour. They work as hard as I do but do not enjoy the same pay. Why is this? It hardly seems fair.
bookmark here find your next social justice text here BROAD Readers
Released: 2008
Genre:
Nonfiction
ruw: Overvie ed of leaving the orn
was b s dream er alway Knob where she y, and a t s a c y a ernit Ishma W nity of Cloudy ion, mod t a ging u c u m d m e ed mana ired v ral co s li e d e h e s h ed. S he one tunity and rais g than t time the oppor f in ll lfi u f slopes o e h t n life more farm. Yet every w get in r way do ily’s her fam hma to make he hing seemed to g of et hin r Is arose fo ains, som the honorable t t n u o M g elmed ky the Smo ter years of doin Ishma is overwh s , urn . Af her way g the family farm on living and t ful d in e ate maintain he never intend band, and ungr fe s she , hus by the li children e independence st r e h n o out th e neare her back ally seek ma travels to th ry job but n fi o t y famil f. Ish facto a eamed o hopes to gain a r d s y an Ishm a h t r e alw e h h s s r where uch ha o formilltown proves to be m y’s willingness t e in wn famil urviv life in to ility to s evere. e of her r b u a s n n U w . o d f her o pers expecte unsure o no choice but t d n a r, e a has give h wn, Ishm o lt il m e th
BROAD thumb’s up?: thor:
u About the A
enn a farm in K o rn o b s a w Dargan and Olive Tilford books, plays, s u ro e m u n rote d her sotucky and w ften reflecte o rk o w ’s n a ht to the poems. Darg , bringing lig fs e li e b t is in n. As m lity of wome cialist and fe a u q e in d n a labor rs she injustices of letarian write ro p le a m fe to a w one of the fe rs and voices te c ra a h c le fema lished Call contributed . Dargan pub re n e g d te a iguous male domin gender-amb e th r e d n u d by eart on’t be foole Home the H D . e rk u B g Fieldin tually pseudonym, work was ac ’s n a rg a D s, k oo the history b . r in her time la u quite pop
Written in 1932, Olive Tilford Dargan uses Ca ll Home the Heart to illu trate the hardships fa sced by women in sout he rn farming communiti and milltowns. While es the roaring ‘20s brough t prosperity to wealthy urban dwellers, history often skips over the les s glamorous realities lived by the majority of the population and th e labor movements th resulted. Call Home th at e Heart does an excelle nt job of preserving th hardships women face e d during this period an d showcases the Gasto strike of 1929 (an impo nia rtant and too often fo rgotten protest lead by southern mill women who demanded bette r working conditions). novel also stands out The in a time when female authors rarely appear the American literary in canon, and female ch aracters are unvalued they are Fitzgerald’s ha unless rdly daring debutantes , or Hemingway’s privi leged expatriates. -
Liberation Leaders Illuminating Then & Now, Inspiring Forever Kshama Sawat, Minimum Wage Activist
Inspires: Kshama Sawat is the Seattle City Council Member responsible for the minimum wage increase to $15 the highest in the United States. Sawat won the battle over minimum wage May 2014 and has since advocated for LGBTQIA, people of color, and women’s issues, as well as rent contra, increasing transit resources for the poor, and the legalization of marijuana. She plays a large part in local unions, opposes cuts to education and standardized testing, and supports unconditional citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Sawat donates the majority of her salary ($77,000 of $117,000) to social justice campaigns.
Ks from hama Bio Sa : Scie India w wat m her igra find nce te es in t ridd hat th the U he ear d to th n e e ty, w led wi field iversit ned a Unite B o t y h pov f com of M Sc in d Stat her hich b Co es ert P um pu e Uni hD i vers n ec came h y and ter en bai -o mpute e g n r it o bec e ame y. Saw nomic r inspi conom ineerin ly to ra at s ic g g a mo aining Unite move at Nort tion fo inequ was vem mo d St d to r h Car earn alime ent men ates S e oli in a mb er t she be tum in citizen ttle in na Sta g ob e el came the O in 201 2006 a te Sea ected the firs ccupy 0. Aft nd e in ttle S t sinc to po social eattle r e 19 litica ist p l offi arty 16. ce i n
Quote: “If making sure that w orkers get out of severely im poverty would pa then mayb ct the economy, e we do this econo n’t need my.”
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Liberation Leaders Illuminating Then & Now, Inspiring Forever Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker Movement
Catholic Worker Movement: Today’s Catholic Worker Movement advocates for the poor and fight against systems of injustice in America and beyond. Communities within the movement often live together under a vow of poverty, dedicating their lives to aiding people in need and promoting the movement’s beliefs.
Bio: young 97. When she was 18 ar ye e th in rk ting to Chiborn in New Yo years before reloca Dorothy Day was w fe a r fo o sc si to the an to San Fr n and continued on io at uc her family moved ed ol ho sc ly ished her high became increasing ay D s, ar ye ge cago where Day fin lle co rk. There, s. Throughout her ed back to New Yo ov m d University of Illinoi an ty si er iv ng her entually left un d began developi an ns io at ic bl progressive and ev pu t rty. In 1917 for several Socialis anyone political pa ith w n Day began working ig al to d le rights that she strugg eting for women’s ck pi r te af ys own social ideals da 15 nverting to ed and jailed for an’s’ Party. After co om Day was first arrest W l na io at N e roughout tal with th k as a journalist th or w to outside of the capi d ue in nt ith Peter Maurin late 1920s, Day co ion, Day joined w ss Catholicism in the re ep D at re G e blish the During th Movement and pu r ke or W the United States. ic ol th Ca varidations for the n advocated for a io at ic bl pu e to help lay the foun Th . d pacifism. r Magazine in 1933 ing labor, class, an lv vo in first Catholic Worke e os th on y erous focused largel tions won her num ic nv co al ci ety of causes but so r he d from India to e organization an r across the globe, he t Day’s work with th gh ou br d an in 1980, tiple arrests, ez. After her death av Ch r sa awards, led to mul Ce in jo ore than 200 sa to California to llowers and the m fo y meet Mother Tere an m r he h ug inued thro orld. Day’s work is cont ities around the w un m m Co r ke or W Catholic
Quote: “The biggest challenge of the d ay is: how to bring about a revolution o f the heart, a revolu tion that has to st art with each one of u s.”
SSpS
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Amanda Greavette
Under the Moon amandagreavette.com
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Erin DeFrancesco
T h e D e cr i m i n a l i z A t i o n o f S e x Wor k What would happen if the oldest profession were finally recognized as legitimate, respected labor protected by the state? The conversation around the decriminalization of sex work is a multifaceted one, and is in dire need of attention. According to a 2004 study by the American Journal of Epidemiology, the homicide rate for sex workers in the United States was at least six times higher than that of the next-most dangerous occupation. (1) This discussion affects those beyond the sex work realm as well. Low-income people of color and the LGBTQIA community are disproportionately subjected to human rights abuses under the guise of anti-prostitution policies. However, in certain counties in Nevada where sex work is legal, a sex worker is much more likely to report a rape or other crime if they feel they are protected by the law. Research by the Department of Sociology at the University of Nevada reported that 84% of the 500 independent contractors in business with Nevada’s legal brothels felt safer at their job under the protection of the law. (2) However, arguments against the legalization of sex work aren’t limited to the conservative. A broad range of arguments can be found on websites like Vancouver’s Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter, which states, “Prostitution is the quintessential expression of global capitalism.” Because sex work holds roots in racism and sexism, organizations such as the Asian Women
Coalition Ending Prostitution have brought to light a conversation on the possibly catastrophic effects that sex work legalization could have on women of color. To quote one of its members, Alice Lee, “these policies are grounded in social disparities of race, class and gender. They create conditions that force poor women to migrate. Those who support legalizing prostitution often argue that trafficking is bad, but prostitution is acceptable. But trafficking and prostitution are inseparable.” (3) Though organizations like these put very little faith in humankind’s ability to separate voluntary sex work from an involuntary industry, there’s plenty of evidence that this skepticism isn’t unwarranted. If we take, for example, Germany’s legalization of sex work and reports on its effects on the industry, decriminalization has led to an increase in human trafficking and deflation in the value of sex work with the increase of competition and supply. A Time magazine article in 2013 noted that, “Germany is like the ALDI for prostitutes” (http://business.time. com/2013/06/18/germany-has-become-the-cut-rateprostitution-capital-of-the-world/). However, upon closer inspection on the failures of decriminalization of sex work in Germany, one finds that the reports are misleading. For one, the bill passed by German Parliament in 2002 did not decriminalize sex work. This had already been accomplished in 1927. It did, however, give sex workers legal standing to sue a client who refused to pay, provided health insurance,
as well as gave them the right to turn down a client. Individual states within Germany failed to implement the bill that would improve sex workers’ rights because they personally found it to be immoral to recognize sex work as legitimate labor. A sex worker who is protected under the law of Berlin would not be so in Bavaria (4) Additionally, authorities made little effort in making this information well-known or accessible in the sex work community. As a result, many sex workers do not know how to exercise their newly implemented rights. (5) A 2012 report by the UN concluded, “there is no evidence from countries of Asia and the Pacific that criminalization of sex work has prevented HIV epidemics among sex workers and their clients,” and that in countries such as New Zealand who have successfully decriminalized sex work, indicates that “the approach of defining sex work as legitimate labour empowers sex workers, increases their access to HIV and sexual health services and is associated with very high condom use rates”. (6)
The hope would be that the legalization of sex work would bring strict regulation into these industries and do it’s best to combat human trafficking from independent contractors. Regulation and legalization could mean the difference between exploitation and empowerment in the sex work industry. And Germany’s cautionary tale of legalization shows that for this ship so sail smoothly, everyone has to be on board. (Note: Good reference on “Sex Work” definition and the fight to decriminalize in the U.S.: http://www. bestpracticespolicy.org/about/) Sources: 1. Potterat, John J.; Brewer, Devon D.; Muth, Stephen Q.; Rothenberg, Richard B.; Woodhouse, Donald E.; Muth, John B.; Stites, Heather K.; Brody, Stuart (2004). “Mortality in a Long-term Open Cohort of Prostitute Women”. American Journal of Epidemiology 159 (8): 778–85.) 2. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/19/is-legalized-prostitution-safer/nevadas-legal-brothels-make-workers-feel-safer 3. http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/learn/news/whoredom-left-chris-hedges 4. http://feministire.com/2013/06/06/does-legal-prostitution-really-increase-human-trafficking-in-germany/) 5. http://www.walnet.org/csis/groups/icrse/brussels-2005/SWRights-German.pdf 6. http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2012/10/18/new-un-report-takes-a-stark-look-at-links-between-sex-work-hiv-and-the-law-in-asia-and-the-pacific.html)
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Novi K Sujono-Paforopi
Woman at Work
WLA (Re)Animated Reimagine and Relive our Pasts Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Woman, 1985, 1986
Consider:
Mollie Lieber West was an activist and labor organizer throughout her life. From 1960-1987, as a member of the Typographical Union, West broke gender barriers. In 1973 she was the first woman elected to a union office in the Chicago Typographical Union, Local 16 (CTU) as a delegate to the International Typographical Union (ITU) Convention held in San Diego, California. West was also one of the founding members of the Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women with whom she is protesting with in the pictures above.
WLA Mission Statement:
Established in 1994, the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) collects, preserves, and makes available materials of enduring value to researchers studying women’s contributions to society.
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Calef Brown
Expecting calefbrown.com
We believe that unions have always been about much more than the industries in which they operate.The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.
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just words? just speeches? Cesar Chavez
From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.
Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money makers.
. . . when the farm workers strike and their strike is successful, the employers go to Mexico and have unlimited, unrestricted use of illegal alien strikebreakers to break the strike. And, for over 30 years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has looked the other way and assisted in the strikebreaking. I do not remember one single instance in 30 years where the Immigration Service has removed strikebreakers. . . .The employers use professional smugglers to recruit and transport human contraband across the Mexican border for the specific act of strikebreaking . . .
We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.
Sanity Optional beyond this point Peach Stephan
On Getting Paid in Experience I had always been curious about black hair: why it stayed in place, why some hair grew downwards in tight rows while some grew upwards into an afro and why my mom wouldn’t decorate my hair with colorful beads. I am a hands-on learner and black hair was no exception. When my classmates weren’t paying attention, I tried to cryptically touch black hair at any chance I got-sitting behind Archie at a school assembly, helping Bri refasten the clips in the back of her head and patting the younger children on top of their heads. But it remained esoteric and confusing to me. One of my freshman roommates was mixed, with coarse hair that smelled like fried eggs when she straightened it. The other, Sapphire, was black with long braided hair that never had a flyaway. One morning I rolled to the other side of my bed to find Sapphire staring at me in my sleep, her head just tall enough to meet my eyes on the top bunk. I shrieked not only because of the context, but because Sapphire was wearing what looked like a fullblown turban. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t recognize you. What’s on your head?” Sapphire mumbled something about her head’s oils
and walked away. But the real shocker happened when Sapphire entered the room with nearly all of her hair gone. Gone were the loose braids that had once graced her lower back-only a short patch of fuzz was left. “Sapphire!” I exclaimed. “Your hair. It looks good.” She nervously patted the newly trimmed lot, said thanks, and sat at her desk to do homework. But I’d be damned if she didn’t tell me more about the bold Britney Spears hair chop she just pulled. “Your hair was so long. Did you donate it?”
Being too eager to start our careers and clutching on to the idea of being a writer can hurt us - financially.
Sapphire responded, “No, I just took my extensions out.” At that point I didn’t know how I even got accepted into college. Her hair was fake this whole time I was living with her and I didn’t even realize? In my world, extensions were stringy, noticeably different strands of hair that looked tacky unless you were Paris Hilton, not gorgeous, natural-looking braids. Who else had been fooling me this whole time? With Sapphire being less than enthused about my intrusive inquires about black hair, I consoled in my two close friends to find out. They laughed at me. One pulled back her hairline to reveal her own short hair, which was in fact, a weave. I was baffled. They told me how often it had to be washed, what certain styles of braids and cornrows implied, and convinced me I hadn’t missed out for not having
beaded hair as a child since it was uncomfortable to sleep on. I found out it can take hours to install weaves and it is sometimes done with a needle. I asked about Sapphire’s turban and all my other burning questions and they answered patiently. Growing up, I thought divides between black and white were minimal, that we can’t possibly be that different. I never really understood what the big deal was about race and why some people couldn’t get along with each other. But like a well-done weave, culture clashes can be hidden, covered up and overlooked. Some people, like Sapphire, don’t want to talk about it because it’s uncomfortable. Some people, like me, risk being overly straightforward and offensive. But when people are open and proud of who they are, it is easy to find understanding.
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough ŠJeff Habenicht
WorKing Woman #1 etsy.com/shop/jhabenichtphoto
message me we asked. you answered. BROAD people
BROAD June 2014
12 and working as a dance class assistant at my dance studio. I got it because my mom worked at the studio and they needed new assistants
BROAD Info + Editors
When I was 16 years old, I worked at a Little Caesars Pizza Place. My dad is friends with the owner of 3 locations and gave me a position close to home so that I could get my start in the work force.
BROAD Info + Editors
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Arlene Burgio Burstrem
C HANG E S I N E D U C A T ION A ND W O RK LIFE IN TH E 6 0 ’ S A ND 7 0 ’ S F OR MY MOT HE R, MY S IS T E R S , A N D M E I am a Baby Boomer born in 1946 into an Italian-American working class family. My father finished 8th grade and my mother graduated from high school. There was never any discussion about careers in our household, but certainly an expectation about “jobs”. My parents themselves never really had careers. My mother was a factory worker who spent most of her working years trying to get the really good factory jobs, (the ones that the men had), but only had limited success in that pursuit. Up until the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, job ads were segregated into “Help Wanted Female” and “Help Wanted Male.” However, in many areas, jobs were still segregated in practice. The National Organization for Women picketed the New York Times a couple of years after that to protest the sex-segregated ads. The Supreme Court finally upheld a ban on sex-segregated ads in June, 1973. As a result of that, my youngest sister was able to get a part-time job in the 1976 loading trucks at UPS with a wage of $8 or $9 an hour; my parents considered that a great job. However, she was only the second female to work at that location and was subject to whistling and catcalls, and having to tolerate pin-up pictures placed in her work site. During our school years, my parents’ idea of a good education was a Catholic education. That meant elementary and high school. No talk of college was mentioned for us girls. They did give us the opportunity to choose any Catholic high school where they
could afford the tuition. When my oldest sister decided she wanted to go to college in 1960, my parents felt that decision was a foolish waste of money for a daughter. She was only able to pursue it on her own with no financial help from them, other than free room and board while she attended a college that she could commute to daily. In 1960, in our community, this was only possible because there was one publicly funded college in our hometown, called Buffalo State Teachers College. The rest were private institutions, mostly run by the Catholic Church. When the next daughter started attending a Catholic girls’ secretarial high school, my parents felt this was more appropriate. In fact when this daughter began working as a secretary while her older sister was attending college on her own, our father made it clear to all of us how much smarter daughter number two was because she saved more money for her eventual marriage, while her sister was wasting her money on college. There was another piece to this that I have to acknowledge. My parents, on some level, seemed to be uncomfortable about the possibility of their children achieving more than they themselves had. I’m not sure if this is an Italian-American phenomenon or specific to them because their work life had resulted in such meager earnings and limited success.
only closed in 1987.
By 1978, changes were beginning to be evident in our family and in society at large. One sister became a Pharmacist and most of us obtained Master’s Degrees or higher. I did come to believe that a secretary job was a respectable one for a female and I, daughter number 3, also chose to attend the Catholic girls’ secretarial high school. When I found secretarial classes like shorthand, typing and bookkeeping were not stimulating to me, an English teacher in my senior year encouraged me to consider college. Only then did I decide to change direction. By the way, that secretarial school for girls
Once I decided to go to college, I struggled with what could be in my future... As a young girl, I can only recall planning for marriage and children. I never thought about or considered a “career.” I knew I would probably need to have a job. In my circles, the only jobs I ever observed for females were secretaries, clerks, waitresses and teachers. Once I began attending college (1964) I became aware of other appropriate female “jobs” such as nurses and social workers. Careers as a physician or lawyer or pursuing a PhD were not a possibility at that time. The local medical school had only admitted 2 females in 1963, and those women had been well “connected.” A college degree was a high enough aspiration in my circles. By 1964, when I began college, there was a second college that became publicly supported. This was not just a teachers’ college. I was able to work part-time, though sometimes full-time, as a department store clerk at $1.25 an hour, to pay for my own undergraduate education without loans. Tuition was only about $400 to about $600 a semester. The good news was once my oldest sister began a teaching job after graduating, my parents too were educated as to the benefits of a college education, even for us daughters. It then became a source of pride for them that their daughter was college educated and had a “good teaching job”. When the fourth daughter, who was 8 years younger than me, in 1972 expressed interest in pursuing college, my parents had a change of heart and now were quite happy with her choice. She attended college as did the youngest daughter, with our parents’ blessings. However, our parents never came to feel they wanted to invest financial support in any of their daughters’ college education. We worked our way through college in a way that is just about impossible today, without student loans. By 1978, changes were beginning to be evident in our family and in society at large. One sister became a Pharmacist and most of us obtained Master’s Degrees or higher.
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Alexander Hallett - Sattva Photo
Working Hands sattvaphoto.com
Why
microaggreSHUNS it’s the little things that count BROAD People
woman doctor/president/CEO
male nurse/secretary/flight attendent
are you sure you can carry that? it’s pretty heavy are you on your period? [the only person of color at a store must be a worker and is probably not management
[accent equates to assumption of stupidity or lack of skill]
we’d lose money hiring you
[assumption that women/people of color are “the help” [lower wage/class workers lack ambition and are not hard working
can I speak to who’s in charge, pleas your generation just doesn’t get this work [younger people don’t know] | [older people cannot keep up and are not creative
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Erin DeFrancesco
The Problem with Retail My friend worked at American Apparel for just over a year before she quit. She was a ‘keyholder’ and her job appeared to be glamorous (because, let’s face it, it says a lot about you if you get to work at American Apparel). We’d never gone into detail about what went on at American Apparel while she was working there, largely because upon being hired she had to sign a privacy clause that prohibited her from talking about the institution in a negative light. But after reading the anonymously submitted Gawker article, “20 Days of Harassment and Racism as an American Apparel Employee” (link here: http://gawker.com/ twenty-days-of-harassment-and-racism-as-an-american-app-1629534409) in which an employee recounts their short-lived career in retail that details multiple accounts of racism, sexism, harassment, and complacency, I thought I ought to share my friend’s personal experiences with the iconic brand as well. After all, fighting back starts with awareness. While American Apparel has a history of taking advantage of its employees- take infamous former-CEO Don Charney and his convictions on multiple accounts of sexual harassment, for example- multiple sources lead us to conclude that is not merely one offender, but that the entire system is inherently exploitative. Women employees were held to strict rules as to how they would present themselves. To be employed,
applicants’ pictures must be sent to corporate for their approval, and they won’t be hired if they do not fit the image. While my friend was working there, if she passed on an application to a manager, the manager would ask about the applicant’s body type and wouldn’t hire them if they were “too big.” Employees were not permitted to wear any “noticeable” makeup and would get in trouble if their nail polish was chipped. While employees were required to wear American Apparel clothing, they were not permitted to wear conservative outfits like leggings or “Easy Jeans”. Women employees were required to wear the store’s shoes (even though many complained about them making their feet bleed) while men were not expected to because they were “too small” for their feet. Employees on the floor weren’t supposed to have water or be seen drinking water, and because they were understaffed and someone had to be on the floor at all times, it was common that keyholders, like my friend, wouldn’t be allowed a break, or even to go to the bathroom, because they were the only ones who knew how to handle the cash register. And even when they would get employees working stock to cover for them, corporate would call and get angry but refused to hire more people. Women employees were expected to push sexualized promos such as “Panty Time,” and were required to wear fishnets, a garter belt, and a miniskirt for a weekend promotion, while male workers were not expect-
ed to work the woman’s side or mention sexualized promos. An employee told her manager her mother would not allow her to wear the promo, to which the manager responded asking her if she could sneak her outfit in, because otherwise she would be written up. In my friend’s experience, she never saw a woman working at American Apparel promoted to a managerial position. She said that they worked the floor or were keyholders while guys usually worked backstock and were managers. Additionally, American Apparel wouldn’t hire anyone over 25- her district manager was 22 and ran 7 different locations. This was a main cause of the problems at the store. There was no formal introduction or training into a managerial position, just something like, “well if you think you’re up for it”. There was only one manager at the store at one time. Because of their young age and inexperience, issues between employees that were brought up to managers were usually dismissed as “catty,” or, “girl issues,” with the occasional derogatory jokes about them being on their periods. What was worse was how harassment from customers was dealt with. Even if employees felt threatened or harassed, they were not allowed to excuse themselves to the back room. A man would call every night asking about what kind of boxers would fit him because he was “well hung” and employees weren’t allowed to hang up on him. He asked the underage employee what “panties” she was wearing, and my friend, the keyholder, told her to hang up. She got in trouble and the district manager played it as a joke“What if it’s corporate trying to test us?” A worker had to pick out lingerie for a man who was
shopping for his girlfriend while he spoke about explicit sexual acts. When she told her manager after, all she got was, “well he’s gone now”. Undermining and ignoring the discomfort and fear caused by harassment invalidates the American Apparel employees’ experiences. Their employees are young and impressionable, and if you act like this kind of treatment is normal or inevitable, they will become desensitized to it or learn to silence themselves. A recent Cosmo survey suggests, “Roughly 1 in 3 women ages 18 to 34 has been sexually harassed at work,” and many of them go unreported. (http://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/a36462/sexual-harassment-at-work/) My friend finally quit when the company cut commission without telling employees (cutting off about $200 from her regular paycheck). Corporate chalked it up to commission being awarded to certain employees unfairly, but it was well known that they simply could no longer afford it. This also explained why the company never let them open more than one register even holiday seasons,because the other computer was broken and corporate couldn’t afford to fix it. Strangely enough, with American Apparel losing about $300 million since 2010, they have just enough to keep Don Charney on as a Strategic Consultant. My friend now works at Urban Outfitters, who are not without their problems, but are much more proactive at handling sexual harassment against coworkers and allow their workers to leave a situation that makes them uncomfortable. http://www.huffingtonpost. com/2014/10/01/dov-charney-american-apparel_n_5915434.html
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Gabriel Cruz
homeless
ADS MAD TE QUO ER N COR
tell-a-vision visions & revisions of our culture(s) Jose vs. Joe: Who Get a Job?
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In this short clip, Jose Zamora shares how he had to “drop a letter to get a title”.
Consider:
VISIT G IN
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E 1. Does it surprise you that employers responded more positively to the same and experience when the WE’V resume MAIL applicant was named “Joe” instead of “Jose”? Do you think this discrimination is purposeful or subconscious? E ANC V D A 2. What would your reaction to Jose’s application Ohave been? Were there any stereotypes hidden in your reMICR S sponse? How can we address those as a society? E AGR
Link:
https://youtu.be/PR7SG2C7IVU
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In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Erin DeFrancesco
The Fight For 15 Solidarity against AntiUnion CorporaTions Imagine you are a mother. A mother of two who must support her seven-year-old and two-year-old single-handedly, both financially and emotionally.
Clinton stated, “No man or woman who works hard to feed America’s families should have to be on food stamps to feed your own families.” (1)
Now imagine doing this at a job that pays you $7.25 an hour. Working full time, do you think you could manage? Could you even afford the most basic necessities? Healthcare? Phone bills? Heating?How would you feel knowing that no matter how hard you try, how many jobs you take, and no matter how many hours you clock in, you will not be able to provide for your family of three without federal assistance?
According to the PEW Research Center, the highest the United States minimum wage ever was -when adjusted for inflation - occurred in 1968. The real value of the minimum wage paid to employees has dropped about 40% while CEOs have seen an almost 40% increase in pay since just 2009. (2) Inflation of the cost of living greatly surpassed the proposed minimum wage, but the productivity of the average minimum wage worker has significantly increased in the past 10 years as well. This means “profit opportunities have soared while low-wage workers have gotten nothing from the country’s productivity bounty (Pollin, 105).”
That helplessness and desperation you might feel are similar to the experiences of Nancy Salgado and many others who find themselves in the same position. Salgado, a mother of two and a full time employee at McDonald’s, called McResources to alert them that she could not sustain her family on her current income, minimum wage. In response to this, the McResources employee suggests that Salgado apply for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance. With the minimum wage raises in states like Washington and California, the “Fight for $15” has now been officially endorsed by Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. In a speech given at a convention for low wage workers in Detroit earlier this June,
We are living in a time where workers only receive a fraction of the profits they produce, and where the gap dividing the haves and have-nots is at the highest it’s ever been, with no sign of reconciliation. So how did we get here? Ronald Reagan’s presidency certainly took a harsh toll on labor unions as well when his administration fired 13,000 federal employees for going on strike (Faragher, 899). Since then, union membership has dropped lower than it was before World War II, at about 11%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But it wasn’t just government restrictions on collective bargaining that set the stage for the increasing class divide. Mass production strategies and franchisement have dismantled unions as well by making it more difficult to organize. Similar to the division of labor strategy employed in the early industrial era, corporations use specialization to “de-skill” labor so that new employees have to go through next-to-no training, and so replacing employees due to high turnover rates becomes a seamless task (Schlosser, 69). Homogenization of every step in production maximizes profits and rids the company of its dependency on skilled labor (Schlosser, 70). Since its conception, McDonald’s and the like have fought ardently to prevent unionization because low prices depend on low wages. Tactics such as rap sessions, similar to a support group but for discontented employees, were used to “defuse tensions” and prevent any one McDonald’s location from unionizing. At any location where they actually get close to unionizing their workers they just shut down the location (Schlosser, 76). Some corporations are more overt, and borderline illegal, in their anti-union efforts. Take Walmart, for example, holding mandatory anti-union meetings for managers, or using political intimidations and threats, which are technically legal because they
are “predictions.” Workers who ask about unions are told that vacation and benefits “might go away” and Walmart can get away with calling this a ‘prediction’ rather than a ‘threat.’ (6) According to Representative Alan Grayson, “In state after state, the largest group of Medicaid recipients is Walmart employees. I’m sure that the same thing is true of food stamp recipients. Each Walmart “associate” costs the taxpayers an average of more than $1,000 in public assistance.” (7) It is clear that the only way to a sustainable living wage is through collective bargaining. The reestablishment of union strength can prevent further class stratification, something which benefits us all. Sources: 1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/07/hillary-clinton-sounds-populistnote-at-fast-food-workers-convention/ 2. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/20/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/ 3. Pollin, Robert. “ECONOMIC PROSPECTS: Making the Federal Minimum Wage a Living Wage.” New Labor Forum 5p. 1 16.2 (2007): 103-07. Academic Search Complete. Web. 26 Oct. 2014. 4. Faragher, John Mack. Out of Many: A History of the American People. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print. 5. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001. Print. 6. http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2008/08/01/27012/wal-mart-intimidation/ 7. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/walmart-black-friday-_b_2185675.html
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broadside poetry in street lit style Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi, PhD
Stone Two acts are different: Hold a flat and skinny stone; Throw it into the well. The water splashes and the stone disappears. But your fingers are rather skillful. When you hold it in between And skid it into the lake; It floats on the surface for a while; Then the stone breaks it and splashes. It is not the sound that matters: slosh and slush. But the ripples move across the body and it expands. It is love that matters in life, than duty. Your love lives forever in my memory.
SSpS
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough cborromeo photography
BURNING POTS themassiveaggressive.com themassiveaggressive.etsy.com
screen/play film review, justice take Call the Midwife
Release: 2012
Creator:
Heidi Thomas
Network: BBC One
Where to Find: Netflix
Overview:
This BBC historical drama is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, a young woman who left home in 1957 to become a widwife on the East End of London. 4 seasons chronicle Jenny’s life at Nonnatus House, a local convent, as she discovers the complexity of life and love in the midst of tragedy.
BROAD thumbs up?:
From both a film and conscienscious viewer’s perspective, this TV series is wonderful. Full of classic drama and romance, Call the Midwife also undertakes more difficult plotlines: poverty, PTSD, racism, and incest to name but a few. It skillfully captures the upheaval of gender roles that was occuring during the 50’s as well - the introduction of pain-relieving gas during labor, the transition to hospital deliveries, the avant-garde presence of men in the delivery room, and most importantly access to affordable birth control (a real problem for impoverished mothers with 8+ children and no opportunity for safe abortions or reliable contraceptives).
Not BROAD enough?:
Raw and addicting, this series is on occassion too heartwarming when addressing the experience of motherhood. In the narration provided by actress Vanessa Redgrave, motherhood and motherwork are often framed as someting magical and sacred. Much of the romanticism of childbirth in the show promotes the damaging myth of motherhood and minimizes the various ways mothers experience the birth and life of a child. Viewers should keep in mind that every woman experiences motherhood and motherwork differently, according to their personality and various other sociological circumstances. There is no universal “right” way to be a mother.
HomeSchooling Multitasking like most students, plus a child at home Jessica B. Burstrem
How I Got to Graduate School, or, A Single Mom with Privilege I am a student and a feminist just like you, so I am concerned about many of the same social justice issues that you are, but I have even more on my mind because I am also a single mom. So this column has a, ironically, BROAD focus, just like me, and just like BROAD itself. Sometimes I am writing about what it is like to try to balance work and school and family and other life issues; sometimes I am writing about U.S. political issues; sometimes I am writing about feminism and academia; sometimes I am writing about American popular culture -- but through it all, just like you, I am who I am, and I know that that shapes the way that I see the world. It’s always useful to be attentive to our own and others’ perspectives, after all, so that we can learn from them. -------------------------------------------------------------------I grew up privileged in a number of ways: I am a cisgendered straight White woman with well-educated upper-middle-class married parents with white-collar jobs. This has benefited me in a number of obvious and not-so-obvious ways. I imagine that you, Reader, are familiar with the obvious ones. I want to discuss some of the not-so-obvious ones. When I became a single mother at 21, halfway through college, I also became eligible for social services. In the process I learned about many other resources for which I might be eligible and looked into them. I don’t even remember how it occurred to me to look for these options – I just did it. Or maybe I knew about one of them,
or someone suggested that I consider one of them, and in the process of getting information about it, I kept my eyes open and gathered information about other options. At any rate, I found my way to some assistance. When I met other families in similar situations and talked with other single moms, though, I was surprised to discover that they did not know about many of these resources, even though they had usually been involved in the system for much longer than I had. Why, I wondered, did it occur to me to look for help when it didn’t to others? What is it that triggers that impulse in some people, such as me, but not in others? I believe that it is my privilege. I was subconsciously trained, from an early age, to see the world as my oyster, as a place of possibility, where ultimately, I was likely to find satisfaction and success. So of course it would occur to me to look for possibilities, opportunities, and help. But if I hadn’t been raised in a way that would inculcate that attitude into me, I might have had different expectations: that the world was a place of hopeless misery, for instance. If you don’t believe that anyone is likely to help you or that your situation can realistically improve, then why would you bother to seek it? This, too, is how I believe that I ended up in graduate school and got my Master’s degree: because it didn’t occur to me that I couldn’t. It didn’t occur to me that,
as difficult as such achievements are for most people, it would be even harder – nearly impossible – for someone in my situation. There is a reason that very few single moms with school-aged children at home have managed to make it as far through school as I have. It’s not because they are intellectually incapable – although academia sure makes things almost logistically impossible. And it’s not, I believe, because I necessarily work harder than anyone else. It’s perhaps a little bit about luck, but it’s also about attitude. I tried to do it, and ultimately did do it, because I was naïve enough to believe that I could. And that, I offer, comes from privilege. But don’t get me wrong – I’m not doing that well. I’m certainly not finding it easy – especially since I realized, a couple of years ago, that I probably shouldn’t be in grad school at all – that, for single moms, it basically can’t be done. In my own manifestation of the impostor syndrome that is so common among professors and graduate students alike, I began to feel that I had somehow slipped under the radar – until now. Now I, too, have been caught by the fatalistic attitude that I believe is more common to the marginalized. But I’m still here. Of all the deserving and capable single moms in the world, I am one of the few who has managed to make it this far. I am happy to have this chance at living out my dreams – I am – but I have to wonder about all of those other single parents who are not here alongside me. That, I cannot celebrate.
Why, I wondered, did it occur to me to look for help when it didn’t to others? What is it that triggers that impulse in some people, such as me, but not in others?
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Dominique Millette
The moving goal posts of discrimination We often hear, as women and minorities, how “things are so much better” either “now” (compared to 40 years ago) or “there” (insert country of choice). This type of statement is usually intended to shut down any complaint or observation about inequality. Leaving aside the toll that micro-aggressions take on our psyches (and the toll is high), the above type of assertion is disingenuous. There are a million ways to exclude people by any other name. All it takes is a flip of the script. Yesterday, “women” were “delicate”. Today, it’s just you being “emotional”, despite the loud rant on the part of your male colleague that goes unnoticed or chalked up to “the courage to say it like it is.” Yesterday, a woman who wanted to vote was “mannish”. Today, Hillary Clinton has literally been transformed into a nutcracker, complete with unfeminine pantsuit - an image calculated to ensure no young woman should want to imitate her. Women are still only making about 72 cents on the dollar. They still only make up about five percent of executives in boards of directors. Funny, that. Must be our “life choices” - you know, the ones where we take maternity leave because our husbands make the higher salary so it “makes sense” for us to be the ones to step down and take a career break, which ends up costing us hundreds of thousands in lost income and dozens of opportunities. We are told to “lean in” by women of privilege, yet
study after study indicates that behaviour exhibited by women is judged differently than exactly the same attitudes on the part of men. When women are angry, the sky falls. When men are angry, they are being assertive. When a woman negotiates, she is greedy and unpleasant, unlike her male counterpart who is doing what the world expects of him. The list continues. African-Americans will be very familiar with this shell game of perception: black boys and girls are judged as far more threatening than their white counterparts for the same infractions at school and beyond. When the 13th Amendment ended slavery in its most obvious form, the prison-labour exception allowed former slave owners to recoup their losses through unjust laws targeting newly-freed slaves to put the latter in prison and once again extract free work from them. Emancipated slaves were simply rebranded as thugs and criminals. The fallout of the 13th Amendment wording continues to this day. No doubt, this is why Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie famously told girls to stop pursuing the ideal of “likeability”. The politics of respectability won’t save women either, since game is rigged no matter what we do. The problem lies not in our behaviour, but in societal perceptions of women and girls designed to keep us “in our place”. We are never forgiven to the same extent as our male counterparts for any of our trespasses. There is no perfect way to be a woman. There is only the rigorous analysis and communication of double standards: rinse and repeat, and call it out.
Photo Credit: Luigi Morante
There is no perfect way to be a woman. There is only the rigorous analysis and communication of double standards: rinse and repeat, and call it out.
QUOTE CORNER
tell-a-vision
MADADS
visions & revisions of our culture(s) Don’t Just Follow Your Passion. TED
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VOLUNTEE R VOICES
Eunice Hii, a recent graduate of University of British Columbia, addresses Generation Y’s struggle to follow their passions, better the world, and find a stable career.
Consider:
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ESSAGE M E 1. Consider your role models. Have they all followed their passions, or are they just really good at the thing they do? MICRO 2. Do you think Generation Y, or people born between 1980’s-2000, are the “worst generation”? Why or why not? AGRES 3. Is Generation Y demanding work/life balance the result of natural progress ADV or privilege? Could it be both? SH UNS
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Link:
https://youtu.be/sgbzbdxTm4E
BROAD
WE’VE GO T MAIL
(not) buying it BUYING IT!
busted advertising, bustling economy Oregon Center for Nursing
Consider: 1. Do you think the use of “Are You Man Enough,” words which are generally used to promote one type of acceptable masculinity, is warranted in this ad? Does it enhance the message of the ad - that a person can be a nurse and still retain their masculinity? 2. What do you think of the use of “intelligence,” “courage,” and “skill” in the description? Do you consider these to be masculine traits? Would the ad use these same words to appeal to female candidates? Why or why not, and is that problematic?
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Erin DeFrancesco
Underpaid Professors The previous academic year was my first one at Loyola University Chicago. And in both semesters of my freshman year, I had been instructed by maybe two full-time professors, the rest were adjuncts. While this is not a new phenomenon - adjunct teaching has been around since the 50s and became widely used in the 70s - much has changed since higher education became a commodity dependent on a contingent workforce. According to the U.S. Department of Education, about 78% of university faculty was tenured; now, 65% of faculty is not. Adjuncts make up the majority of instructors now at universities (cite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/11/ adjunct-faculty_n_4255139.html). Adjunct professors are compensated, on average, $2,700 per course without benefits. 25% of part-time university faculty receive some kind of government assistance due to inadequate pay. (cite: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/14/ adjuncts-public-assistance_n_7066148.html) The students of Loyola finally saw the tensions between the administration and adjunct faculty come to a head late in the spring semester when our teachers joined thousands of low-wage workers in solidarity for the Fight for 15 protests. I went to a Loyola adjunct faculty member to better understand the working conditions for the majority of our university’s instructors: Q: Why do you think adjuncts are paid so little? People usually chalk up the low pay to excess of supply?
Is that really all it is? A: There are so many factors to this, including the staggering increase in non-faculty positions, particularly in upper administration (where salaries tend to be highest); prioritizing campus amenities (dining options; athletic and recreational features; perfectly manicured campus lawns) over things that facilitate academic enrichment and accomplishment (instructors with secure jobs and benefits; enough classrooms for the student population; smaller class sizes; libraries with adequate collections of real, actual books and subscriptions to journals; etc). As colleges and universities turn more and more to business models, they must cut costs where they can. What makes incoming students (and their paying [generally] parents) most excited, most secure? The trappings that don’t have much to do with real transformative education. Education is invisible, and so the things that really affect what can’t be seen tend to become increasingly undervalued. Q: What is the difference between a full-time teaching position and a part-time one? Is it just hours? A: “Just hours?” I taught 11 classes last year and I made so little I was able to defer my loan payments (which are astronomical; please budget early and seriously!). You know how many hours that is? But it isn’t just that - not just not having time for self-care, friends, exercise, my own work, anything that might help me get a real job - it’s also not having access to
resources, particularly any funding for conference presentations or attendance; I have no say in any departmental or university governance; I am called upon to help advise students, but given no resources to do so; I have very little time for my research, which means every semester I adjunct, I become less hirable. Q: Do Adjuncts receive any benefits? Health care? Is there a union for part-time faculty? A: No, and no, not that I know of. (Quick interjection - to expect adjunct faculty to perform the same duties as tenure-track faculty without any of the benefits is ridiculous. The American Association of University Professors’ website states, “Positions that require comparable work, responsibilities, and qualifications should be comparably compensated.”) Q: I’ve heard adjuncts are essentially hired at will with no job security, can you talk about your experiences with that?
Photo Credit: Eflon
A:There is no job security (at institutions with adjunct unions, there is a little more job security, but if no classes are available, then they are not available- fulltime professors always get classes first). It is stressful. Currently I have enough work for fall, but I may not get any classes for spring. Do I apply for a full-time admin job (or at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or something) for the security, or do I gamble and hope I’ll get classes? I get very little say in the classes I am offered or the times they are held. I am in no position turn down whatever is offered to me. Q: What does it take to get a full time position? A: This question makes it sound like (a) it’s possible to plan to get a full-time position (b) there’s some logic behind hiring. There are brilliant, accomplished people who will never get full-time teaching jobs, and there are less qualified people who were fortunate enough to get them. So much comes down to luck. And whether you got to go to the best schools. And how good you are at networking and publishing and all that, sure. But you can do everything “right” and still not get a job. Schools are hiring fewer and fewer full-timers, so more and more great candidates
S will have to do other things. We know this. There are some, like me, who think the degree is still worth it, who wanted to learn how to think and research and write, even if that particular training didn’t automatically equal a job. Still, even a passionate upholder of the liberal arts tradition has to eat. Q: Do you feel like you get less respect because you’re an adjunct and not a full-time professor? A: Only from (some) family members, for the most part. I feel the shame of it in articles and ranty comment boxes online -who the hell did I think I was anyway, going off for “worthless” degrees on the taxpayers’ dime? How dare I ever even think of complaining about my debt or job search! If I am unwilling to work at McDonalds or Jewel, then “STFU” (never mind that my chances of paying off the loans on a minimum wage job are nil). I have family members tell me I am the reason the economy crashed -because of the loans I have not defaulted on (they think I have defaulted or will do so). I am guilty of being the daughter of a factory-worker with an elite education I don’t “deserve.” Students and support staff have only ever been respectful to me in my (admittedly limited) experience. Q: Is there anything students at Loyola can do to advocate for better treatment of adjunct faculty? A: You know, I don’t actually know how to answer this. I’d like to think that if more students and their parents insisted that students be taught by tenured (or full-time) faculty, eventually more full-time positions would have to open. The problem is that administrations insist that hiring more full-timers would raise tuition, and no one wants to pay more tuition. Efforts to promote better care for adjuncts are met with protestations that the desire is present but the wallet is empty. To be a little more hopeful- I think that the more students know about the challenges adjuncts face, the better overall. I think it is an important part of liberal arts education, in fact. The liberal arts are aimed at freeing the mind of ignorance, bias, and prejudice; study appropriate for a free person. Critical thinking is foundational for such an education, and you can’t think critically about things you don’t understand. Yes, adjuncts want better jobs. But we stay because we love teaching. We tend to think that teaching is just about the best thing you can do, and even under such unstable conditions, it remains something of a calling, an honor and a responsibility we feel we hold. This is why we’re so exploitable--we feel so passion-
More mundanely, I think there is something pedagogically useful in having students know that their instructors, for all their fancy degrees and intellectual prowess, are very likely to face serious financial struggles; they might fall behind on grading not because they are absent-minded, but because...
ately about the importance of teaching that so long as the rent got paid somehow, and there were wine, lipstick, and books enough, we’d do it for free. So we practically do. More mundanely, I think there is something pedagogically useful in having students know that their instructors, for all their fancy degrees and intellectual prowess, are very likely to face serious financial strug-
SSpS
words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough ŠJeff Habenicht
Rice Worker etsy.com/shop/jhabenichtphoto
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QUOTE CORNER
tell-a-vision
MADADS
visions & revisions of our culture(s) So we leaned in...Now what?, TED
TELL-AVISION
SCREEN/ PLAY
BOOKMA RK HERE
TELL-AVISION
QUOTE C ORNER
BROAD FACULTY FEED
BROAD RECAP
LIBERATIO N LEADERS
WLA REANIMA TED
CAREER
In this follow-up to her well-known TED talk, “Why we have too few women leaders,” Sheryl Sandberg discusses the world-wide response to her equally popular book “Lean In”. VOL-
Consider:
ROADworkplace. 1. Sheryl says “We judge women through a different lens” inBthe Do SIDE VISITyou ING think this is true? What experiEDITOR ences of yours speak to this, if any? MESSAGE ME 2. What are the stereotypes that are holding women back all over the world? What role does self-acceptance and self-confidence play in women’s equality? MICRO 3. Do you think the status quo is enough? AGRE
Link:
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https://youtu.be/YraU52j3y8s
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words are useless sometimes words aren’t enough Sue Blanchard
Working class Heroes - Fast Food soobee.com
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Dominique Millette
Women as the Opiate of Man Back around 1843, Karl Marx declared that religion was the opiate of the masses (or people — Volkes). Indeed, everyone in the working class in the industrialized world was exploited badly. Promising them heaven as a reward for their hard work, and hell as punishment for rebellion, was an effective way to keep them in line. Whether you like Marxist observations or not, the man was onto something. Today, though conditions and salaries have improved comparatively in most cases, many would argue there are myriad forces to bring them back down to 19th-century levels. Even before the recession, unionization levels had dropped and outsourcing to developing economies had increased exponentially, thus exerting downward pressures on wages. The middle class has shrunk and the gap between rich and poor has increased everywhere in the industrialized world. At the same time, agnosticism and atheism are permissible to an extent they never were before. Religion is now optional. The pursuit of happiness has dethroned it and instant gratification is now god. A big part of that instant gratification is sex. However, the way sex is marketed about 95 percent of the time is by offering up sexy women to heterosexual men for their consumption. Therefore, if Karl Marx were alive today, he might observe that women are the opiate of manhood. Feeling exploited, down on your luck? You just need some tail. Drop by Hooters, where the girls are there for your pleasure for free, once you buy some food. This isn’t some coordinated, deliberate conspiracy.
It doesn’t have to be. Those at the helm of our socio-economic infrastructure simply naturally look to the marginalized as expendable scapegoats and diversions, as the path of least resistance. Women fit the description of being expendable along with the added “bonus” of being useable. PUA (pickup artist) folklore did not develop in a vacuum; it is part and parcel of capitalism’s attempts to divert attention away from itself as the force gathering up and monopolizing resources. It’s no wonder we live in a rape culture. Men are spoon-fed porn so they won’t bother thinking about why the hell they only make 10 bucks an hour while some guy on Wall Street pulls in their yearly salary in under a week. Don’t get mad at him: get mad at that girl who wouldn’t give you the time of day, goes the underlying message. After all, she’s supposed to follow the script. It’s not our fault — blame that cold uppity bitch instead. That could explain 90 per cent of all street harassment, rape and other related violations. Entitlement: where does it come from? Think of advertising, television, communication from all those companies out there that want to sell their products and the whole lifestyle around them by using women’s bodies and lives. They don’t care about us. They just don’t want anything cutting into their bottom line, or focusing too much attention on what’s really going wrong. What is, therefore, the opiate of womanhood, our Sugar Candy Mountain as it were? We are encouraged to seek Romance, psychologically bludgeoned into believing that Love Will Make Us Whole. It’s a crock, of course, given the divorce rate which,
Photo Credit: Jonathan Kos-Read
at between 25 and 50 per cent across Canada (depending on your education level) is on a trajectory to shoot up much higher given existing demographics. The rate of marriage has plummeted and the separation rate for cohabiting couples is even higher than for married ones: as high as 92 per cent after four years, for couples in Canada outside Quebec. (Meanwhile, cohabitation is set to be half of all couples in Canada by 2020). However, if we had no divorce or separation at all, this would probably be a bad sign, since it would mean we couldn’t escape things like domestic violence, economic exploitation and serial infidelity.
The truth is that Romance has never been the road to happiness for women. A good relationship is only one factor in a balanced and fulfilled life.
The truth is that Romance has never been the road to happiness for women. A good relationship is only one factor in a balanced and fulfilled life. You would never know this from the so-called women’s magazines, “chick lit” and “chick flicks” that are foisted upon us like so many wonder pills. And the romance peddled to us can set us up for a lot more than disappointment: it can set us up to get assaulted. We get one message, to lure us into the trap (“you’re hot, you’re sweet, you’re sexy, you’re beautiful, you’re special, you’re amazing”) — men get the other message (“she’s easy, she’s asking for it, look at her, she wants it, she’ll do anything”). Meanwhile, should we experience dissatisfaction as women, instead of being encouraged to go out and get as many men as possible, like they are encouraged to get as many of us as they can (since this might after all be off-putting to the males encouraged to “capture” us), we are told to buy a new lipstick, lose those 30 or 50 or 100 extra pounds, or hate the woman next to us for being prettier. So long as we women are fed like fodder as rewards to males to channel their frustrations, rape or harassment will never stop. As long as the system keeps doing this, we have every incentive to opt out of the system altogether, by actively contesting and debunking its lies.
broadside poetry in street lit style Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
Work
She works too.
A mother of two, And a woman of someon e.
She shares her body to everyone. She works for her body, Or, her body works for her. She does not know.
bills to be paid. She knows that there are lly those who depend. And she has to fill the be
rmitted, She also pays for being pe -husband, For work, to an agent-cum and mutton. Who needs regular spirits , And his bodily share too
People pay price, and sh e sells each day. And gets a prize of being a woman.
After centuries of dormancy, young women... can now look toward a future moulded by their own hands.
“
quote corner
just words? just speeches? Rita Levi-Montalcini
My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife.
Progress depends on our brain. The most important part of our brain, that which is neocortical, must be used to help others and not just to make discoveries.
At 20, I realized that I could not possibly adjust to a feminine role as conceived by my father and asked him permission to engage in a professional career. In eight months I filled my gaps in Latin, Greek and mathematics, graduated from high school, and entered medical school in Turin.
If I had not been discriminated against or had not suffered persecution, I would never have received the Nobel Prize.
Power & Money BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Jessica B. Bustream
What a Single Mom Needs to
Get through Graduate School
A friend has recently been telling me that he thinks that I need a rich man to pay off my debts and take care of me and my son, financially, while I finish school and look for a good job of my own. My response, until now, has been that I don’t want that, and that even if I need it, I would never accept it. I also need to do this on my own, for myself. But what if it is really true that I need it? I asked him while writing this article: Why does he say that I need a man instead of a good-paying job? Because you have to finish school, he said. You can’t really do that if you’re working full-time. He has a point. But writing a dissertation doesn’t pay the bills, and I ran out of graduate school funding a couple of years ago. Teaching, being a parent, commuting too far to school, working too many part-time jobs, and representing myself through a divorce took so much of my time that I wasn’t finished with my degree by the time my stipend was finished with me. Ironically, teaching after graduate school pays less than teaching during graduate school, so I can’t merely con-
tinue working as much as I was before – which was already too much anyway. I need to work even more to make as much as I was before. That makes it even harder to finish my book, get my degree, and get that good-paying job. It would seem, then, that my friend is right. But there is another way to look at this. Some time ago, my dissertation director read an article about a program that gives students full funding for their dissertation year – truly full funding: enough money to actually live on – provided that they do not hold any jobs during that year. She sent it to me with the comment that she wished she could give me $30,000 to finish my dissertation in a year too. Honestly, if such a plan were possible on a broader scale, I suspect that more parents – especially single parents – would have a better chance of finishing a Ph.D. program, not to mention the many students without children who don’t manage to ever complete it either. And why shouldn’t we have proportionate representation of single parents in graduate school? Aren’t those the people who have most need of bettering their and their families’ lives? Don’t we want those who are capable and motivated to have the same educational opportunities as everyone else – or are the highest degrees reserved only for those with
the right family and/or financial situations too? At the very least, don’t we want an educational environment in which we have a diversity of voices comparable to that in the population as a whole?
It would also mean that colleges/universities might be more likely to better shepherd their graduate students through, since the students wouldn’t be quite as expendable as they are now.
Of course, many graduate programs could not afford such an option for the number of graduate students that they currently accept each year. Either it would have to go to a select few – and, let’s be real, single parents would not likely have the wherewithal to compete for such awards with those without as many familial responsibilities throughout graduate school – or these graduate programs would need to accept fewer students in the first place.
On the other hand, it would also mean more competition for those grad school spots in the first place, so once again, single parents might not make the cut. But it is a conversation worth having. There must be a better way for a financially-strapped single mom to earn a Ph.D. than for a man to pay for everything for her. But … what is it?
That is an appealing idea. Fewer students would mean less competition for scarce jobs at the end. That, in turn, would mean fewer adjuncts and graduate students teaching lower-level courses and thus more appreciation and remuneration for teaching across the board – and better education for everyone.
I asked [my son] while writing this article: Why does he say that I need a man instead of a good-paying job? Because you have to finish school, he said. You can’t really do that if you’re working full time. He has a point.
In Labor BROAD Voice, BROAD Communities Jessica B. Bustream
I s t h e re still S e x i s m i n S c i e n tifi c R e s e a rc h L a b s ? You may have heard, this month, about the 2001 Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Sir Tim Hunt, who, at a lunch for female scientists during a professional conference in Seoul, made a very sexist joke that no one in the world, it seems, found funny. On 9 June 2015 Hunt said that the “trouble with girls . . . in the lab” is that “You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry.” Now, obviously there are many problems with this statement, as others before me have noted. For one thing, presumably these are women, not girls, working alongside men in laboratories. Moreover, the triggering event here appears to be Hunt himself, who, evidently, falls in love inappropriately with women at work. But he says that that is a problem with women – not with him. There are also some unfortunate assumptions at work in the remark about where and with whom one can have a romantic relationship – which I’m not going to debate here – and where, when, and how one can express emotion. After someone at the lunch tweeted about the sexist comment, the news went viral, and the response from social media, the news media, and the academic and scientific communities was heartening. Hunt was roundly criticized, so the next day he made a public apology – which was perhaps more damning than the original comment itself. He stood behind his remarks (!) and said that he “did mean” at least part of
them: “I did mean the part about having trouble with girls. It is true that . . . I have fallen in love with people in the lab and people in the lab have fallen in love with me and it’s very disruptive to the science because it’s terribly important that in a lab people are on a level playing field. I found that these emotional entanglements made life very difficult.” Ultimately all that he apologized for, then, was “causing any offense” and making the remark “in the presence of all these journalists,” which he admitted was “a very stupid thing to do.” He insisted, though, that he “just meant to be honest.” After this, Hunt was forced to resign, which many scientists and academics feel is inappropriate and dangerous to academic freedom. I’m not going to debate that here either. What I do want to point out is that this incident demonstrates that there is indeed still a sexist and hostile work environment in some scientific laboratories for women. One of the top scientists in the world actually felt it was appropriate to make these remarks to a group of female scientists at a professional event specifically intended for female scientists, and he only appeared to be sorry that people didn’t like it. Some have claimed, subsequent to this debacle, that he
Of course, that was 17 years ago. I’m sure that things have changed since then. But, as this incident shows, not enough. Our work here is not done. was actually supportive of women in science initiatives. If this is being supportive, I would hate to see how the “real” sexists behave! When I was a first-year college student at the University of Michigan in 1998, I got the opportunity, through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, to work in a cardiovascular pharmacology laboratory on campus for college credit. I had want-
ed to be a research scientist, but this experience changed my mind. All of the young men working with me in the lab through this program got to actually participate, hands-on, in the work. All of the young women spent their time going to the library to retrieve research articles and make copies of them for the lead scientists, all of whom were male in this lab. (Supposedly this division of labor was due to how deserving we each were of different kinds of work.) I remember two of these male lead scientists standing behind me and making remarks about enjoying the view of my body as I leaned over the copy machine. I remember a conversation about an upcoming pool party that took place in the lab one day, and the men were “joking” in front of the women about looking forward to seeing them all in bikinis. The women in the lab didn’t seem stunned; they smiled and went about their business. The fact that such attitudes didn’t even seem inappropriate to them is further testament to how common those attitudes are. I somewhat regret abandoning the sciences over this experience. It wasn’t a hasty generalization – I had been encountering sexism in my attempts to pursue STEM throughout my young life at that point, which is a story for another time – but I worry that I should have stayed to be an example and a mentor to other women, to fight the good fight, to work toward change in the field. I just didn’t want to have to feel that I was fighting a battle every day. I was already tired of the sexism I had seen in the sciences, and I was only 17 years old. Of course, that was 17 years ago. I’m sure that things have changed since then. But, as this incident shows, not enough. Our work here is not done.
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