Blog against sexism --- late, so what?

It seems that Wednesday this week was blog against sexism day... and I missed it. Maybe that is because I'm 37 and don't seem to think about sexism much in my current work -- or, because it was Spring Break this week and being so serious didn't seem to be in the cards..

Of course I think sexism is wrong. Just like racism and classism -- duh.

Perhaps my family has created a different set of expectations for me so that when I bump up against sexism I either ignore it or work around it. I occasionally see sexist attitudes from the old guys at BNCC, but since I know that I'm actually smarter and younger than they are -- I usually ignore them and get my way.

In my family the women have pretty much been the center of power and culture for a while. The family does what the women want done, we set the agenda and decide when to have reunions etc -- the men more or less go along for the ride. My great grandmother was a farm girl and farm wife. She had 2 girls and three boys, one of whom was my grandfather. She taught them the value of education -- and my grandfather met my grandmother in college. She was a couple of years ahead of him and he decided that he had to have a college education to keep up with her. My mother is their eldest daughter. She was divorced when I was about 10 -- and taught me and my sister that you don't die from being tired, and that education will help you in the long run. I ended up being someone who ignores sexist BS - I feel pretty lucky to be in my generation in this family. We aren't radical feminists -- although my grandmother's sister was a big ERA supporter -- but we do think that women can do whatever men can do.. yea us!

The first time I saw regular and systematic sexism was in my grad department --Generally, very few grad students and NO grad profs who were women... or, to be more precise, there was one woman on the grad faculty during my time but she was working mostly in adminitration and only taught one course the whole time I was doing coursework. On the undergrad faculty there was only one female lecturer, and her office wasn't even on the same floor as my department. I hear they have hired some female faculty members recently -- so perhaps the old gaurd has relented...

in terms of grad school I probably should have had a clue when the grad advisor asked if my husband was OK with my taking grad classes and pretty much implied that I should be worried about being both a wife and a grad student. That sexist ass didn't even tell me that i should be taking some semesters of 9 credits to avoid an issue later on with my "in residence" status. Thank goodness I ended up with a better advisor than him who helped me get that one straightened out --

When I am done with my dissertation and am Dr. Phil Factory, I know one thing I won't do is to send bright women to my grad department...