My early educational experiences, probably not unlike many from small town, USA, consisted of rousing conversations about the greatness of our forefathers, the groundbreaking scientific discoveries of Newton and Edison, and countless re-readings of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It’s not, of course, that these subjects don’t have merit, it was just always more of the same.
When I began studying at Villanova in
the Fall of 2005, I was astounded at the types of subjects I got to study:
Ancient Medieval Renaissance Thought, Poetry and Prose of the 1800s. I read
authors I’d never heard of and examined narrative in a deeper way than ever
before. In that Poetry and Prose class with Dr. Marylu Hill, I got my first
taste (pun intended) of a gendered perspective when we studied Christina
Rosetti’s “Goblin Market.” I was fascinated by this visceral poem that
described a woman being lured into the sleazy and dangerous marketplace and how
only her sister could save her using the addictive fruit that called to her in
the first place. I would study this poem again in graduate school and
rediscover its many layers that centered on the complexity of femininity and
what it means to be a woman in the world. I can just picture my 19 year old
self sitting in Dr. Hill’s class with my mouth hanging open thinking, “What
would my mom say if she heard this?"
The truth is I was never raised to think much about what it meant to be a woman. My mom is one of the most hardworking women I know and I don’t think she has any idea that this is true. She is the quintessential “do-it-all” woman – she works full time, she takes care of her husband and her children and her house – and she never ever questioned this as the path for her. The more I was exposed to feminist studies and a gendered perspective through my classes, the more questions I asked her about why she made the choices she did, whether she felt pressured to be a certain way because she was a woman, and even whether she thought about how she may have raised my sister and I differently from my brothers. Her answers were typically, “I just never thought about it,” which only inspired me to continue applying a gendered lens to practically everything I encountered – both in academia and outside of it – because I wanted to think about it I was fortunate enough to continue my analysis and research of gender and women’s studies during graduate school when I became the GWS graduate assistant (a job that had I been allowed to keep I would have!). It was very early in my two year tenure that my passion for the necessity of gender studies at Villanova and elsewhere was reaffirmed.
During our first appearance at the Majors fair in 2010, I set up our booth and placed on the table a poster collage that some of the current majors had made. On it were pictures cut from magazines of all types of bodies, male and female, in various states of dress and undress, and the poster challenged those looking at it to consider the difference between sex and gender. A Villanova employee setting up her own booth next to me, glanced at the poster and asked, “Why are there men on your poster?” I replied, “What do you mean?” She said “Well, I thought you were Gender and Women’s Studies. Isn’t that just about women?” I explained, “Men have gender, too. You know, masculinity?” And she just shrugged her shoulders. Indeed, there was still work to be done. In my graduate work, I tried to read and analyze almost everything with a gendered lens, my final project tracing motherhood through the waves of feminism – a culmination of my academic interests and the questions I raised to my mom. It had been my goal from the beginning to delve even deeper into the subject that already meant so much to me as an undergrad. Thankfully the English department at Villanova is amazing and my professors supported me every step of the way. So I would plan GWS events during the day – thinking of the best way to reach undergrads who maybe like me hadn’t had any experience with gender, and I would think through these things through literature and criticism at night. It might seem like this would become tiring, but it really didn’t. There was so much to think about! An issue that while growing up may have seemed black and white, now had many beautiful shades of gray. And while this expanded palette did expose more societal injustices and issues that I had not before considered, it was still beautiful since it is only when we see these problems that we can begin to combat and solve them.
And now outside the walls of academia, I can safely say that I wasn’t wrong – gender, in one form or another – plays a role every day. In my position as a project manager at DirecTV’s home security company, LifeShield, I work in an office of about 50 people and I am the only woman. Many days, I feel like I am playing a tug of war with what I was hired to do and what I am assumed to want to do because I’m a woman. Office maintenance tasks not included in my job description often get pushed to me - because surely I want to order the coffee – I’m a woman! I give the credit for my ability to realize that I don’t have to give in and play this part to my GWS education and to the classes that urged me to challenge what was most widely accepted about gender roles. It also taught me that sharing this awareness – even on the small scale of a 50 person office – is worthwhile. In my little niche, I can challenge the gender norms in my office and thwart the idea that “the technology field isn’t for women” by being very good at my job, asserting my authority, and continuing to learn and advance in the company.
It has been extremely rewarding for me to see aspects of my GWS education play out every day – in my work and in my life. It is as if I am shaking my fist at everyone who ever said, “Gender and Women’s studies? What are you going to do with that?” I have a more liberated and fair perspective of how gender affects a workplace dynamic and the understanding that individuals should pursue any field they desire regardless of gender. Both women and men don’t have to fit into pigeon-holed positions that are typically prescribed for them – instead we can cultivate our talents, follow our passions, and let that lead us into the positions in which we will thrive. What will you do with an education in GWS? You will be a thinker! You will be an examiner of life. You will never take somebody else’s word for how things are or should be. We are challengers. We disrupt the commonly accepted conclusions. We make the world a more fair, exciting, and meaningful place to live.
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