'Burnout' in Women's Studies

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> So then the question is begged - if they've never consciously encoutered
> discrimination, is their perception of discrimination altogether
> inadequate or are they naive and immune to the subliminal, or need they 
> be taught that they are discriminated against?

I have known several students who didn't realize that they could be mad
about a particular experience (for example, sexual harrassment), and didn't
seem to suspect there was some sort of systemic discrimination that had
affected them.  Rather, discrimination is culturally normalized--leading to
self-blame for rape, attitudes like "boys will be boys," and all sorts of
excuses for the way "the world just is."  Black women receiving welfare
benefits? Dominant culture tells us those of us in that position are simply
lazy and can't control our fertility, not that there is a racist/sexist
paradigm in place.  Yes, we do have to teach students (and often ourselves)
to see through the normalization and naturalness of events. These types of
events are NOT caused by some sort of naturalness about how people are,
which is what the media, our educations, and dominant cultural values tells
us. Exposing these events as results of systems of oppression is in my
opinion, a huge part of what a WS education is about.  I think it is all
about consciousness-raising.  Yes, many people's perceptions of
discrimination are inadequate, and yes, this needs to be addressed.

Susan Wood
woodsu  @  ucs.orst.edu

> I was really thrown by their reactions.  What came through loud and clear
> was that they didn't have any experience of discrimination, or if they did,
> they didn't identify it as such.

This last caveat is enormously important.  I know all of us on the list
understand that, but I find it's crucial to emphasize to students that one
can be discriminated against and *not know it*, AND that one can also
engage in discrimination and *not know it*.  I find it especially helpful
in this connection to talk about schoolteachers (male and female) paying
more attention to male students, giving them more uptake for what they
say, grading papers higher when they have male names on them, etc.  (See
Sadker and Sadker's *Failing at Fairness* for more info on all
this.)  It is often a real revelation to them to realize that (a) many of
the teachers doing these things were completely unaware they were doing
them, and were even distressed to realize that they were, and (b) this
kind of discrimination is something one can experience all through
x-number of years in school and *not realize it is happening*--that is,
not realize that one's grades, the attention one gets from teachers,
etc. have anything to do with one's gender.  One just *assumes* that one
gets the grades one deserves, gets attention from the teacher when and
only when one says something attention-worthy, etc.  It's also a useful
example because it makes clear that discrimination is something that can
be daily and routine and seemingly unremarkable--I find that students
often have an extremely limited conception of discrimination as something
that can happen only when one applies for a job or promotion,
e.g.  (Although even there, it's worth making the point that one can
experience discrimination and not know it--it's not as though employers
usually advertise the fact that their decisions have anything to do with
gender (or race, for that matter)--if indeed they themselves are even
aware that they do.

While I'm at it, here's another exercise that I've found extremely helpful
in getting students to realize how aspects of gender oppression touch
*all* of their lives: when we talk about rape, I start off by having them
each brainstorm/freewrite for five minutes on the question "in what ways
would your life be different if there were *no rape* (i.e. if there were
no fear, threat, or danger of rape)?"  The ensuing discussion of the
myriad ways in which they routinely restrict their lives, behavior,
choices etc. so as to minimize the threat of rape (and the risk of being
blamed for any rapes they do experience) has never failed to be very
enlightening for all of them.  It's also helpful in getting male students
to see two things that are often hard for them to see, especially in
tandem: first, that they enjoy many concrete advantages over women *right
now* (such as being able to go out on dates without fear of assault,
and without making sure a friend knows where they are, being able to drink
at a bar without worrying about where one has laid down one's drink and if
someone might have slipped something in it, not having to get an escort to
walk across campus at night . . . and on and on); and second, that
nonetheless men in general could benefit in much deeper ways from *ending*
rape and sexual violence against women--for instance, in making more room
for truly trusting and friendly relations between men and women, not being
feared by women, being able to relate to women who have better feelings
about their bodies and about men . . . etc.

Rebecca Whisnant
rsw  @  email.unc.edu
or
rwhisnan  @  usi.edu

I've found that teaching at a conservative, religiously affiliated
school makes teaching intro to Women's  and Gender Studies both more
difficult and easier.  On the one hand, many of the  students at
Mercer U., the Baptist affiliated university where I teach, are quite
conservative, evangelical Christians who have accepted the recent
Southern and Georgia Baptist decrees on the submission of women (in
name, if not in their own behaviors).  On the other hand, students who
take WGS courses are often hungry, even desperate, for other points of
view.  They hear very conservative ideas about women articulated in
their families and churches all the time, so I don't have to convince
these students that sexism exists.  I would suggest the submission of
women decrees for intro courses at other institutions, if any of you
want to rattle your students a bit.  They provoke heated discussions
and they are not the opinions of a fringe minority, as the religious
Christian right has  enormous political influence in this country and
abroad (i.e. family planning "gags").  I also taught sections of the
recent book *The Surrendered Wife.*

Anya Silver

*******************************************
Dr. Anya Krugovoy Silver
Assistant Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies
Director of Women's and Gender Studies
Mercer University
1400 Coleman Ave.               "Tell me, what is it you plan to do
Macon, GA 31207-0001            with your one wild and precious life?"
(912) 752-5641                                         --Mary Oliver
silver_ak  @  mercer.edu

I'd like to second Linda D. Wayne's ideas of "meeting them where they are"
as not only a way of dealing with our own burnout but also as a way to make
the learning experience  vital to students.

Having recently taught WS in three very distinct regions I know that simply
transplanting a generic Intro Course to a different body of students won't
work for me or for them.  "Meeting them where they are" allows me to begin
to understand their contexts and what issues are important to them and we
can go from there.  In this way, the course can be relevant to them and
alive for me.

Often students aren't wowed by the readings in isolation but they are
incredibly engaged when they were able to see that an article relates to
something they have seen or experienced.  By bringing in their issues,
they're able to contextualize or make personal some of the theoretical
issues. Relatedly, by being able to theorize what they are seeing and
experiencing, they're able to understand those events in new ways too.

One class I had was not terribly engaged in the specific readings about race
but were able use the readings' ideas to have a deeply engaged and
theoretical discussion about an off-campus bar which they all knew (from
seeing the line-ups on Friday nights) had racist attitudes concerning who
was let in and who was not let in.  This is an example I couldn't have come
up with but it was a concrete illustration from their lives and it was
something they felt could do something about via a boycott or a protest.

In times of borderline burnout, I've found that "meeting students where they
are" gives me new perspectives and new energy. I also need to remind myself
that sometimes I won't "see the results" of my work in a semester or even
during a degree.  But, at the end of the day, seeds are planted.


Dr. Heidi LM Jacobs
University of Windsor
hjacobs  @  uwindsor.ca

>I am Ilana Nash, although this email is being posted
>for me by my colleague Dr. Ludlow because I am away
>from my usual email account.
>
>
>I have not taught WS long enough to feel burned out on
>the entire experience, but I have felt the frustration
>of listening (as Christine said) to students who have
>just spent months studying something, continue to
>sound as obdurately ignorant as they were the day
>class began.  The anger it ignites in me has sometimes
>made me feel physically ill from the exertion required
>to keep it in check (students are nice people;
>pummeling them would be very bad, I tell myself as I
>silently seethe).
>
>I stumbled upon something useful this past summer,
>though, when I taught Intro to WS.  There were two
>women in my class who sat beside each other, and who
>delighted in sniggering and rolling their eyes at
>everything I said. Surely the world is all right now,
>their expressions said; you feminists are just mad
>hysterics.
>
>I tolerated this for weeks. Then one day, the
>sniggering really pissed me off, because we were
>discussing such a supremely unfunny subject: wife
>beating.  I suddenly realized there was a way to give
>a healthy vent to my frustration, without abusing the
>students.  I simply interrupted the class to confront
>the louder sniggler, and said, "Why are you laughing,
>Amy?"  Amy looked aggrieved at having been asked to
>speak in class, but she rose to the occasion.  "I
>don't believe these so-called statistics about how
>often women are victims of domestic violence," she
>said.
>
>"Why not?" I asked.  "These statistics were compiled
>by police departments nationwide -- hardly bastions of
>feminism!  Police have no motivation to lie on behalf
>of feminist agendas. This is a simple record of how
>often women call 911 because they're being attacked."
>
>"Yeah, but aren't they just the same few women calling
>over and over again?" Amy asked.  "I mean, it's
>ridiculous to say that so many women are getting
>beaten."
>
>And then I made it personal -- as politely as
>possible.  "Amy, you've just spent several weeks
>studying all the ways women are subordinated in our
>society. You've read personal autobiographies of
>women's domestic and professional experiences,you've
>read impersonal statistics from local and federal
>government sources, you've learned to analyze media
>texts that portray women in radically disempowering
>ways. If the topic were anything else -- if we were
>discussing, say, current theories about cancer's
>causes and treatments -- you would have been convinced
>long ago. On *this* topic, however, you seem to be
>simply refusing to learn. I wonder why you're doing
>that?"
>
>When confronted directly this way, Amy was caught
>unawares and forced to think critically about her own
>strange student behavior (the cancer analogy really
>worked, to show her that she was using different
>standards of evidence and persuasion with our topic
>than she would with any other). Surprised, she
>blurted out a terrifically revealing statement: "I
>guess I don't want to believe it."
>
>Bingo.
>
>That led, then, to a fruitful discussion of the
>personal reasons, the psychological reasons, why
>students sometimes insist on repeating their vacuous
>truisms about life "being fair now."  Contemplating
>the possibility that fairness is largely a myth, is
>simply too powerfully disorienting, frightening, even
>depressing.
>
>The apathetic assertions that feminism is unnecessary
>are linked to students' belief -- fostered by the
>simplistic worldview offered in the mainstream media--
>that there are clear, simple lines between right and
>wrong, up and down, and that everyone who follows the
>rules can win the game of life. When we teach about
>social inequity and its systemic causes, we are
>threatening not just the values these kids have been
>taught, but also what those values represent:  our
>students' sense of security. Tell them the game's
>rules are unfair, and they panic, with good reason. No
>one wants to believe that unfair cruelties can pop out
>from behind corners.
>
>One way to cure such hurt and depression is to talk
>about what activism can accomplish.  Amy had been the
>most vocal critic, weeks earlier, of activism, saying
>that feminists (or anybody) who march around waving
>signs are fools.  On this day, after exposing and
>deflating her psychological resistance, I came back
>to the example of activism: "That's why women march
>and
>protest, Amy. They know that change rarely happens
>without a fight. When they accomplish positive
>results, that fixes the very sense of helplessness
>you're feeling now."
>
>I felt a very positive change in the class after this
>intervention.  I had effectively silenced Amy's
>rudeness without silencing her feelings (which was
>good for the other students, too, as many of them were
>interested and sympathetic with feminism, but were
>more quiet about it because they were cowed by this
>girl's obnoxious disparagements). And I opened up a
>class discussion on resistance in general that
>students could use later in their own lives. After I
>revealed Amy's resistance for what it was -- an index
>of her own fears --for the rest of the semester she
>was more thoughtful, more circumspect, and a bit more
>open-minded than she had been before (only a bit...no
>big revolution occurred, but it was enough).
>
>Students who rigidly resist learning after several
>weeks of exposure are, I believe, fundamentally
>frightened people who are "whistling in the dark" to
>make themselves feel brave. They're like the person
>who plugs up her ears and yells "LA LA LA" very
>loudly, to prove that she can't hear you.
>
>I think I stumbled onto a really useful strategy that
>day, when I stopped fighting my own anger and gave
>(relatively) free reign to it. I gave myself
>permission to address my student as though she were a
>normal interlocutor -- I asked the question that was
>really on my mind (why are you working so hard to
>resist this?) and the results were good. Maybe this
>work for others, too.
>
>Ilana Nash
>Bowling Green State University

I'm finding this thread very interesting, and many of the suggestions for
classroom exercises and tactics are very useful.  However, I wonder if
people could address the more personal issue of burnout itself as well.
When I reach a state of burnout, new approaches can be helpful, but first I
need some way to get past the despair, anger, and fatigue of burnout itself.
Do people have suggestions for doing that?
______________________________
Lori Kendall
Purchase College-SUNY
lori.kendall  @  purchase.edu

It's interesting to me to note my hesitation to respond on WMST-L to
this aspect of Lori's question, knowing colleagues may read what I say:

"Kendall, Lori" wrote:
>
>I wonder if
> people could address the more personal issue of burnout itself as well.
> When I reach a state of burnout, new approaches can be helpful, but first I
> need some way to get past the despair, anger, and fatigue of burnout itself.

I'm especially hesitant because I'm immersed in those feelings--with
just enough distance to perceive them freshly and ask myself why I have
once again, or more than ever, thrown myself so deeply into
co-curricular program planning, syllabus revision, service, etc. that I
have left next to no time for commonplace self-care.

My early thoughts in this discussion were that backlash and burn-out for
us work as a loop:  when we become embittered and exhausted, some of our
students read "feminism" as a bitter and exhausted thing.  Is there
backlash in biology departments?  computer science departments?  English
departments?  (Maybe so.)

There is burn-out (treatments:  relaxation, meditation, exercise,
getting away from it all, etc.) and then there is feminist burn-out...
Do faculty in other fields throw themselves so fully into their
disciplines, invest their life chances for making a difference in the
world into their jobs?  (Probably do.)

Yes:  as others have said, reminding myself not to demonize students for
their ignorance helps.  A high school student posted a message something
like this on the website of an educational activist I met recently:  "We
know only what we're fed.  And then they put us down for being
ignorant."

But at this moment, I'm convinced such strategies must be supported by
non-pedagogical strategies--self-care.  Is that a next phase for this
discussion (and maybe the direction that will take us out of WMST-L
guidelines)?  When I walk into a spa, I carry a class-race-gender
analysis.  I would be miserable on a tourist-style cruise.  I cover my
eclectic spirituality with anxiety about being seen as 'flaky', new age.

Grateful for the holiday break--
Janet Gray
gray  @  tcnj.edu

I've run into a fair amount on nursing burnout -- looking for info for
others -- I haven't read it.  But it might be a place to start looking.  I
think WS people are aware of the real life importance of our subject.
Whether the student continues with WS or even with college, the concerns of
our discipline will affect her.  In that way it connects with nursing.  A
number of years ago I saw a video called "Care for the Caregiver."  It was
being shown to a library staff, though it was a nursing-centered movie.  We
found it relevant because our roles are very service centered (library
people frequently find ourselves more concerned about the quality and amount
of the researcher than the researcher is).  In searching for information,
you might try nursing or caregiver as key words.

Perhaps this will lead to something useful.

Take care
Marilyn Grotzky

My dissertation research includes interviewing social justice (primarily in
the lesbian/gay rights movement) about thier experiences of activism.
Inevitably, burn-out and burn-out prevention emerges as a hot topic.
Although I have not completed the analysis, I have begun to notice some
patterns. Many deeply committed activists have suffered terribly because of
thier passion and the extraordinary demands of unpaid labor. Many talked
about the stress placed on families and on thier bodies.  No one mentioned
burn-out prevention strategies built into the movements or the smo's,
although some talked about developing thier own strategies, including
regular breaks from the work (ranging from the sacred Sunday afternoon with
family to full sabaticals), developing caring relationships that extend
beyond work, eating well and exercising (despite the pressures not to spend
the time), yoga, etc. The strongest personal message that I have recieved
from these interviews is to 1) figure out how to maintain the passion, and a
sense of accomplishable goals and 2) honor one's own energy and pacing and
have a long-term vision about our own participation. In social justice work,
burn-out prevention seems to require intentionality.

I share all this for 2 reasons. First,  academic institution rarely have
burn-out prevention strategies built into them.  Instead, there is pure
acceptance of the culture of over-work and a 50 hour work week is considered
acceptable. (How could burn-out not occur when I'd need to teach 12 courses
a year to make $30,000 w/out benefits?)  I strongly believe that we should
be teaching about and challenging the corporate ideologies that make
worker-productivity the back of the economy (see the united for a fair
economy web site for great stats on this issue, and Juliet Schor's excellent
book The Overworked American). The feelings of burn-out might occur less if
the work were given the amount of space and compensation that it deserves.

Second, as the mother of a small child, I've noticed that I use the same set
of skills in parenting and in teaching, and in some respects even in doing
research. I believe that most teaching involves over-work and the best
teachers probably encounter burn-out from the everyday nurturing that
students desire.  Women's Studies, however, is even harder to teach b/c the
content demands that we be emotionally present and thinking-on-our-feet all
of the time.  It feels unethical to invite students to think about
discrimination and then refuse them the time and attention they need to make
sense of it in thier own lives.  On the other hand, being attentive is
draining.  One of the requirements of Montessori preschool teachers is that
they have renewal built into thier daily lives - perhaps this should be a
job requirement/part of the job description of women's studies faculty. For
every hour of teaching, an hour of pleasure, reflection, renewal should
occur!

Sorry to digress to fantasy land.

Kim.

Janet raises  an important issue: do we really know if this feeling that's
being called burnout is different among  WoSt faculty than among other
faculty members?  I don't know how to judge this issue, but I certainly am
aware of other faculty members who over time have grown discouraged and
disillusioned and who leave teaching with a kind of "good riddance" attitude
that - I recall this clearly - depressed me a great deal when I first was
exposed to  it in the early years of my academic career. In addition,
everybody complains about the decreasing level of literacy over the years
and the low state of general knowledge displayed by students;  I have heard
this from professors all over the country, though I expect the situation is
worse at large state universities such as the one in which I teach. In
addition, I have always been impressed with how deeply  professors in this
country seem to care about their teaching, as is evident in their complaints
and disgruntlement when classes don't go well, and their jubilation when
they do.

 It seems  important to try to sort out how much of the burnout problem
relates to the area of women's studies and how much to the changes in higher
education or the sheer demands of being an educator--though I'm not sure
(like Janet) if this is an appropriate forum for that exploration.
DP
---------------------------------
daphne.patai  @  spanport.umass.edu

Hello,
One reference I could recommend to anyone who has posted so far, is the
chapter on burnout in Dass and Gorman's book, How Can I Help?  I have both
taught and been a counselor for 20+ years, and this particular work has
always helped.
--
Isbel Ingham