Yale University :: Women Faculty Forum

Events Archive 2006-2007

September 2006

Opening Reception
September 12

We opened the 2006-2007 academic year with our sixth annual reception to welcome new women faculty and senior administrators, and to celebrate the successes of women who have recently received tenure, women joining Yale’s senior administration, and the developments and projects of the WFF. The program included a welcome from Frank Turner, Director of the Beinecke Library; an overview of the plans and projects of the Women Faculty Forum by Deborah Davis, Professor of Sociology and Council of East Asian Studies and Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law; and remarks on research on women in the academic pipeline by Judith Chevalier, Professor of Economics and Finance. Following the program we facilitated conversations by having council members spread out among 5 tables where people can gather to meet each other and learn more about WFF initiatives and how to be involved.

Alumnae/Alumni event: Gender Matters
September 19

We hosted alumnae and alumni at the Yale Club of New York City for a discussion on how “Gender Matters.” We asked alums to join us for a reception to learn more about the role that gender plays -- in the curriculum, scholarship, policies, and lives of the faculty and students at Yale. This event continued our discussion begun last spring at the May 10 event about how women and men -- as students, faculty, and alumnae/alumni -- have lives that work, given all the kinds of work that we do. Deborah Davis and Judith Resnik joined our alumnae hosts, Nancy Alexander ’79, Cynthia Brill ’72, and Vera Wells ’71, in welcoming the alums.

The discussion was then led by Frances Rosenbluth, Professor of Political Science and author of the recent Alumni Magazine article "Mother Yale", who reviewed some of her research on women's roles in employment markets in several areas of the world and the interaction between fertility rates, provision of child care, and women's market force participation. Her analysis of the structure in which we make decisions and on the role that institutional practices play in how time is allocated will provide the background for our small group discussions, organized at tables by topics of interest, at which faculty and alumnae/alumni can visit informally. Also speaking was Nazneen Mehta '06, who graduated from Yale last spring and will provide a student's perspective on the effects that the Women Faculty Forum has on the campus. In addition to celebrating the institutionalization of the WFF, this event also marked another "first" for Yale, with Katherine Edersheim as the first woman to be the President of the Yale Club of New York City.

PowerPoint Presentation by Frances Rosenbluth

Research paper by Frances Rosenbluth

October 2006

Balancing your life, managing your work:
A time management workshop for women grad students and post-docs
October 16

Co-sponsored by Women Mentoring Women, The WorkLife Program, and WFF.

Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Associate Professor of English and American Studies, and Nancy Close, Assistant Professor of Child Study Center & Lecturer in Psychology discussed how they have learned time management -- what works - what doesn't -- as one strives to have a balanced life while managing one's work.

Women and Globalization: Reflections from the Women Appointed as Yale World Fellows
October 17

In light of the interest in globalization, this session was a substantive occasion on which we could talk about gender and globalization. This year's World Fellows included:

Chantal Line Carpentier, Canada - Head, Environment, Economy and Trade Program, Commission for Environmental Cooperation
Jessica Faieta, Ecuador - Principal Officer, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations
Garentina Kraja, Kosovo - Correspondent, Associated Press
Nicola Newton-King, South Africa - Deputy CEO, Johannesburg Stock Exchange
Imane Rtabi, Morocco - Founder and Managing Director, Maghrebnet, an IT Company
Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, Mongolia - Former Advisor to the Prime Minister, Government of Mongolia

Click here to read the Yale Daily News account of the event.

Tea with President Rosalyn Higgins
October 19

WFF was delighted to co-host an informal discussion and tea with the first woman President of International Court of Justice, Rosalyn Higgins. Discussion focused on what role women play as lawyers, litigants and judges in the court, decisions of the Court in which gender has played a role, and President Higgins' personal reflections on how being a woman has affected her work.

November 2006

The Mistakes Madeline Made
a brown-bag discussion with Elizabeth Meriwether (YC '04)
November 1

Playwright and '04 Yale College Alumna Elizabeth Meriwether discussed what it is like to have the Tony Award-winning Yale Repertory Theatre mounting a professional production of her comedy, The Mistakes Madeline Made, two years after completing her undergraduate degree. Ms. Meriwethers riotous humor and insightful writing have captivated the New York theatre scene with such works as Nicky Goes Goth, a play that imagines Paris Hiltons sister dating a suburban goth, and Heddatron, an update on Ibsens Hedda Gabler performed by live robots, which earned the 2006 Newsday Oppenheimer Award.

Sponsored by the Yale Repertory Theatre, The Womens Center, and WFF.

Gender as an Analytic Category, a Disciplinary Location, and a Structuring Factor of our Workplaces
November 6

Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale is approaching its 30th birthday. What are the configurations, opportunities, and alternatives in the coming decades? Faculty members from various parts of the University – Jennifer Bair, Laura Wexler, and Judith Resnik – led an interdisciplinary discussion about gender. Our topics included: the history and current structure of Women's Studies at Yale and elsewhere; the relevance of gender mainstreaming as used at the United Nations and within the European Union and, the success of universities in gathering knowledge of how gender impacts their own structures and practices.

We also considered how gender studies in countries outside the U.S. should affect our thoughts and in turn how transnational feminisms influence the contents of Women’s Studies programs in the U.S. This event builds in part on the WFF work in this area over the last few years, and on some conversations begun at Cambridge England as representatives (all women) of ten Universities - - forming the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), came together to discuss Women in Universities Around the Globe.

Scholarship by Women/Research on Gender: WFF Poster Session
November 7-9

WFF hosted a campus-wide poster session. Posters were hung on Beinecke Plaza for three days as an outdoor display. Contributions were received from across the disciplines at Yale and represent an array of work being done on campus from the Nursing school to the Divinity school and almost every campus location in between.

The posters have toured libraries across campus – Medicine, Social Sciences, Forestry, and Divinity. The MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies is hosting a display of the posters in the 2nd floor common area in Luce Hall at 24 Hillhouse Avenue through February 16. Then the original posters will go to the library archive and the electronic slideshow of the posters will be available on the WFF website.

View the slideshow of the posters here.

December 2006

Beyond Bias and Barriers: The National Academy of Sciences Report on Women in Academic Science and Engineering
December 11

On September 18, 2006, the National Academy of Sciences released a report on the status of women in academic science and engineering. Panelists presented and discussed this report, outlined key recommendations and examined some of the specific research cited to elucidate the depth of the data on which the report is based. They offered some commentary that highlights the importance of this issue and its impact, both practical (future economic growth and science leaderships) and human (impact on people's lives). Panelists included Joan Steitz, Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, who is part of the Committee on Maximizing the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, which wrote the report under the oversight of the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy; Meg Urry, Israel Munson Professor of Physics & Astronomy, who was one of the reviewers of the report; and Kim Bottomly, Deputy Provost for Science, Technology and Faculty Development at Yale.

Click here to view the slideshow from the panel and click here to view the Yale Daily News article.

January 2007

In The Continuum - Talk Back at the Yale Rep

January 23

Co-sponsored by the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), Coalition for Diversity at Yale (CDAY), Yale Nursing School, Yale Divinity School HIV/AIDS Initiative, and Women Faculty Forum.

Praised by The New York Times as one of the ten best plays of 2005, In the Continuum puts a human face on the devastating impact of AIDS in Africa and America through the lives of two unforgettably courageous women. Living worlds apart, one in South Central L.A and the other in Zimbabwe - each experience a kaleidoscopic weekend of life-changing revelations in this story of parallel denials and self discoveries. Currently in the midst of a sold-out international tour, come see why this compelling drama was praised by The New Yorker as “fiery, intelligent and comedic.”

See the Yale Rep page for more info on this and other shows.

February 2007

Women's Rights and the Politics of Divorce in Israel
Dr. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari
February 7

Women's rights in Israel are intricately linked to questions of religion and state, and are immeasurably affected by the indissoluble link between religion and state in Israel. Primarily, it is in the area of marriage and divorce (the very area in which the State of Israel made a reservation and refrained from committing to gender equality when it ratified the CEDAW Convention in 1991), where women's rights are most infringed upon.

Within the heart of the problem is an issue of control: The State has yielded back and gave full control over marriage and divorce to religion; and religion (Jewish law) in its turn has accorded full control over the divorce to men.

This leads to the sad reality in which the field of divorce in Israel is a particularly intense war-zone, in which we face not just the sad but familiar gender-war, but also a rare battle over jurisdiction and normative control between civil-secular-mostly-liberal system and religious-traditional-patriarchal system. Halperin-Kaddari elaborated on that, and demonstrated the gendered nature of the battle between the two legal systems. Unfortunately, this often results in making women and children pay the price of the confrontation through making women give up the rights guaranteed to them by the civil system, as a means to extort concessions from them in return for the divorce.

Co-sponsored by the Schell Center for International Human Rights and Yale Women Faculty Forum.

Children and careers: when and how should you plan?
February 20

Have you ever wondered how having children will affect your career? Whether there is a “right” time to start a family? This panel discussed these issues with panelists who have become parents at various points in their careers.

Featured:

Anna Marie Pyle, Professor, Dept. of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Tijana Grove, Post-doctoral Associate, Dept. of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Martha Burger, Non-academic scientist, molecular biology
Fiona Scott Morton, Assoc. Dean and Professor of Economics, School of Management
Mary Miller, Professor, History of Art and Master of Saybrook College

Co-sponsored by WISAY, the WorkLife Program, WFF, and the Post-doctoral Career Development Lecture Series.

March 2007

Intuition, Science, and Decision Making: Lessons from the Field about Women in Natural Resources
March 27

A talk and open discussion with Toddi Steelman. Dr. Steelman is an Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. Her research examines public and community involvement in environmental and natural resource management, focusing on the substantive areas of watersheds, land preservation, forest management, and climate change.

Sponsored by the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Women Faculty Forum

April 2007

Working Lives / Lives that Work: Research on Working Women in Japan and the United States

April 4

This panel, relying on political science, anthropological, and sociological research from Japan and the U.S., discussed the ways in which labor markets, household obligations, education, and child care structure work options for women and men in different economies.

The panelists were:

Frances Rosenbluth, Professor of Political Science
Dhooleka Raj, Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and Macmillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University
Glenda Roberts, Visiting Fellow in Anthropology, Yale University and Professor at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Department of International Relations, at Waseda University in Tokyo
Karen Hansen, Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies at Brandeis University

Frances Rosenbluth discussed structural impediments to female labor force participation in Japan. Dhooleka Raj and Karen Hansen presented on care work, the "blame game," and structural impediments for women in the United States. Glenda Roberts presented qualitative data on women in two corporations in Tokyo, illustrating how difficult it is for Japanese women to "have it all." In contrast to the women in Frances Rosenbluth's study, Roberts examined the strategies of some women who are able to keep their careers after taking childcare leave.

The presentation by Karen Hansen and Dhooleka Raj can be viewed here.
The presentation by Frances Rosenbluth can be viewed here.

Women and Men in the Academy: Beyond Bias and Barriers
April 12

This session reprised the issues from the WFF “Beyond Bias and Barriers” panel about the NAS report on women in science held in December and also connected to what universities like Berkeley are trying to do to turn things around. Presentation by Alice Agogino, Roscoe and Elizabeth Hughes Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering, from University of California, Berkeley.

Working Lives / Lives that Work: American Social Policy
Progressive Family Values Conference
Presented by the Yale Law School American Constitution Society

Co-sponsored by the national American Constitution Society and Yale's Women Faculty Forum

April 21

The Women Faculty Forum joined with the Yale Law School’s chapter of the American Constitution Society to explore the meanings, confluence, and implications of the terms ‘progressive,’ ‘family,’ and ‘values.’ Articulating commitments to this language, the common values, and policies which signify progressive family values has proven difficult, frustrating, and ineffective on a national level. This conference was an effort to better address these issues and features the following confirmed speakers:

Rosa DeLauro Nine-term Congresswoman for Connecticut’s Third District whose work focuses on issues of economic insecurity, child care, educational quality and access, and health care.
Ariela Dubler Vice-Dean and Professor of Law at Columbia University.
Mark Greenberg Director of Social Policy at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and Executive Director of the Task Force on Poverty at the Center for American Progress.
Jacob Hacker Professor of Political Science and Resident Fellow of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University
Karen Kornbluh Policy Director for Senator Barack Obama
George Lakoff Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley and Senior Fellow at The Rockridge Institute
Robert Lerman Senior Fellow in Labor and Social Policy at the Urban Institute and Professor of Economics at American University
Nina Pillard Professor of Law at Georgetown University
Judy Scott General Counsel to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and a partner at James & Hoffman
Neera Tanden Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Center for American Progress and Policy Director for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton

Can Gender Studies be a Discipline?
April 30

Juliet Mitchell, Professor of Psychoanalysis and Gender Studies, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, Fellow of Jesus College, University of Cambridge, England addressed the question “Can Gender Studies be a Discipline?” Mitchell is a Full Member of the British and the International Psychoanalytical Societies. Her most recent books are Siblings: Sex and Violence, Polity Press and Mad Men and Medusas: Reclaiming Hysteria and the Sibling Relationship for the Human Condition. Robin Bernstein, Assistant Professor of Studies in Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University, and Laura Wexler, Professor of American Studies and Chair of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Yale University, responded to her talk, before general discussion with the audience.