Critical Reflections and Politics on Advancing Women in the Academy 9781799836186, 9781799836209

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Critical Reflections and Politics on Advancing Women in the Academy Taima Moeke-Pickering Laurentian University, Canada Sheila Cote-Meek York University, Canada

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Ann Pegoraro Laurentian University, Canada

A volume in the Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies (ARCS) Book Series

Published in the United States of America by IGI Global Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA, USA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-global.com Copyright © 2020 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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Names: Moeke-Pickering, Taima, 1961- editor. | Cote-Meek, Sheila, 1957- editor. | Pegoraro, Ann, editor. Title: Critical reflections and politics on advancing women in the academy / Taima Moeke-Pickering, Sheila Cote-Meek, and Ann Pegoraro, editors. Description: Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book seeks to make the Academy responsive and inclusive for women advancement and sustainable empowerment strategies by broadening the understanding of why women in the Academy are overlooked in leadership positions, why there is a pay parity deficit, and what is being done to change the situation”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019056927 (print) | LCCN 2019056928 (ebook) | ISBN 9781799836186 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781799836193 (paperback) | ISBN 9781799836209 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Women in higher education. | Women college teachers. | Women college administrators. Classification: LCC LB2332.3 .C74 2020 (print) | LCC LB2332.3 (ebook) | DDC 378.0082--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019056927 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019056928 This book is published in the IGI Global book series Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies (ARCS) (ISSN: 2475-675X; eISSN: 2475-6768) British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher. For electronic access to this publication, please contact: [email protected].

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Titles in this Series

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Handbook of Research on the Impact of Culture in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Essien Essien (University of Uyo, Nigeria) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 400pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799825746) • US $245.00 Oral History Reimagined Emerging Research and Opportunities Sam Pack (Kenyon College, USA) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 392pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799834205) • US $145.00 Applying Innovative Technologies in Heritage Science George Pavlidis (Athena – Research and Innovation Center in Information, Communication, and Knowledge Technologies, Greece) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 364pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799828716) • US $195.00 Fostering Collaborations Between African American Communities and Educational Institutions Patrice Wynette Jones (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 260pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799811817) • US $195.00

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Developing Effective Communication Skills in Archaeology Enrico Proietti (Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism, Italy) Information Science Reference • © 2020 • 347pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799810599) • US $195.00

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Editorial Advisory Board

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Cyndy Baskin, Ryerson University, Ontario, Canada Keri Cheechoo, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Ruth Koleszar-Green, York University, Ontario, Canada Leigh MacEwan, Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada Cheryle Partridge, Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada Amanda Schweinbenz, Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada Joey-Lynn Wabie, Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada

Table of Contents

Foreword.............................................................................................................. xv Preface...............................................................................................................xviii Acknowledgment..............................................................................................xxiii Introduction...................................................................................................... xxiv Section 1 Experiences and Insight Shared by Faculty (Full Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Head Sport Coaches) Chapter 1 Women in Academia Matter: Indigenous Worldviews and Women Movements Activism..............................................................................................1 Taima Moeke-Pickering, Laurentian University, Canada

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Chapter 2 Resisting Exotic Puppetry: Experiences of Indigenous Women Leadership in the Academy.........................................................................................................21 Lynn F. Lavallee, Ryerson University, Canada Chapter 3 A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter: Community, Creativity, and Comedy...................................................................33 Sharon Lauricella, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada Chapter 4 “I Didn’t Come to Play”: Pasifka Women in the Academy.................................52 Sereana Naepi, University of Auckland, New Zealand



Chapter 5 A Pathway to “Becoming”: Stories About Indigenization From One Indigenous Health Scholar....................................................................................70 Chantelle A. M. Richmond, Western University, Canada Chapter 6 The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes...........................................................................................87 Lindsey Darvin, State University of New York College at Cortland, USA Elizabeth H. Demara, Monmouth College, USA Chapter 7 Indigenous Killjoys Negotiating the Labyrinth of Dis/Mistrust.........................105 Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University, Australia Chapter 8 Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens: Bridging the Gap Between Academia, Legislature, and Politics.............................................124 Shubha Sandill, York University, Canada Section 2 Academic Administrative Roles (President, Vice-President, Acting Vice-President, Research Assistant Vice-President Graduate Studies, Dean, and Manager) Chapter 9 Intergenerational Indigenous Resilience and Navigating Academic Administration....................................................................................................151 Sheila Cote-Meek, York University, Canada

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Chapter 10 “I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”: A Critical Refection on Three Decades of Women’s Leadership in Canadian Academia...................166 Vianne Timmons, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada Chapter 11 Breaking the Ice: Refections on Our Leadership Expedition to Antarctica With 99 Women in STEMM...............................................................................178 Tammy Eger, Laurentian University, Canada Kirsten M. Müller, University of Waterloo, Canada



Chapter 12 An Intersectional Love Story: When Gender, Culture, and Sexuality Meet.......203 Joël D. Dickinson, Laurentian University, Canada Carla A. John, Cambrian College, Canada Compilation of References............................................................................... 213 About the Contributors.................................................................................... 237

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Index................................................................................................................... 242

Detailed Table of Contents

Foreword.............................................................................................................. xv Preface...............................................................................................................xviii Acknowledgment..............................................................................................xxiii Introduction...................................................................................................... xxiv Section 1 Experiences and Insight Shared by Faculty (Full Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Head Sport Coaches)

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Chapter 1 Women in Academia Matter: Indigenous Worldviews and Women Movements Activism..............................................................................................1 Taima Moeke-Pickering, Laurentian University, Canada Empowering women in academia matters. As women academics, we need to unleash our leadership power if we want to make a change. Colonization sexualized, subjugated, and dehumanized women and girls and unfortunately continues in the academy today. This is evidenced by pay, hiring, racism, and leadership inequity. This chapter shares the meaning and value of Indigenous worldviews, women movements in social media, and why systemic strategies for sustained equity, diversity, and inclusivity in the academy matters. This is a huge responsibility and commitment. The author’s experience working with women academics is that they take their role seriously, they use instinct, they defend when they need to, they are creative, they spend a lot of time on the whys, they use diplomacy and often put their own feelings aside to make sure that equity goals for women are achieved.



Chapter 2 Resisting Exotic Puppetry: Experiences of Indigenous Women Leadership in the Academy.........................................................................................................21 Lynn F. Lavallee, Ryerson University, Canada Indigenous women have increasingly taken up leadership roles in the academy, particularly in the time of truth and reconciliation within the Canadian context. While the institutions are keen to promote Indigenous leadership, spaces are carved out, yet there is a surge of resignations, fring, and toxic work environments. This chapter will delve into the colonial patriarchy and misogyny that intersects with Indigeneity within academic institutions. The notion of these carved out spacing being stages of performance and the exotic puppetry that often plays out particularly for Indigenous women will be underscored. Chapter 3 A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter: Community, Creativity, and Comedy...................................................................33 Sharon Lauricella, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada The online arena is rife with mansplaining, harassment, and intimidation of women. Similarly, women in academia operate in a traditionally patriarchal, misogynistic environment. What happens when a female academic creates a vibrant online presence? This chapter is an autoethnographic account of the author’s experiences managing the public, online performance of a female scholar (@AcademicBatgirl) with the objective to create and cultivate community. She argues that in the online landscape, prosocial behaviour is essential in creating community and sustaining cohesion. She addresses the prosocial efects of humour, including examples of memes that she created and posted on Twitter. She also addresses pitfalls relative to student shaming that she recommends academics avoid in any online or ofine forum.

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Chapter 4 “I Didn’t Come to Play”: Pasifka Women in the Academy.................................52 Sereana Naepi, University of Auckland, New Zealand Pasifka women in the academy face many of the same challenges as other racialised women working in universities. At the intersection of race and gender, we experience the white and masculine imprints of higher education. These imprints lead to Pasifka women experiencing excess labour, infantilization, hyper-surveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility, and desirable diversity. In spite of this daily onslaught Pasifka, women continue to work and engage in higher education and the question needs to be asked: Why? This chapter explores these experiences and more importantly the motivations of Pasifka women to continue to engage with higher education in spite of the systemic exclusion they face.



Chapter 5 A Pathway to “Becoming”: Stories About Indigenization From One Indigenous Health Scholar....................................................................................70 Chantelle A. M. Richmond, Western University, Canada In Canada, an exciting transformation has taken place within the context of Indigenous health research and scholarship. As Canadian universities strive to embrace processes of indigenization, the author takes the position that much can be learned from the Indigenous health experience. Drawing in large part from her own journey into Indigenous health scholarship, frst as a student and now as an academic leader, the goal of this chapter is to describe the author’s pathway “to becoming” an independent Indigenous health scholar. Herein she shares stories that describe how her pathway—and her continued learning as a researcher, teacher, and mentor—has been shaped by the powerful experience of being engaged in these Indigenous health training environments. She describes the important sense of belonging and success she achieved from learning in such indigenized environments, but also of the internal struggles she has experienced when attempting to bridge these powerful practices within the wider university context, where the same openness to indigenized ways of learning and doing has not been similarly embraced.

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Chapter 6 The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes...........................................................................................87 Lindsey Darvin, State University of New York College at Cortland, USA Elizabeth H. Demara, Monmouth College, USA The objective of this chapter is to provide a more thorough understanding of the current United States intercollegiate athletics model that includes competitive sport opportunities within its system of higher education, the history and emergence of women in sport within higher education, the experiences of women leaders within intercollegiate sport, and future women sport participant and leader empowerment initiatives within higher education. While women were provided opportunities to compete in sport competitively within higher education at a much later date than their men counterparts, the signifcant impact of athletic participation for women and girls at this level has been established within the previous research. Most notably, women and girls with past sport participation experience at the college level have been found to represent a high proportion of women in leadership roles across a variety of industry segments. These insights provide signifcant evidence of the importance of equitable access to sport participation within the higher education model. Chapter 7 Indigenous Killjoys Negotiating the Labyrinth of Dis/Mistrust.........................105 Bronwyn Carlson, Macquarie University, Australia



Indigenous scholars often feel like they have to do better and be better to ft in the academy. The sense of being an imposer is an emotion that is familiar to many. Indigenous women particularly become very accustomed to the gendered and racialized codes of academia. Raising the issue positions Indigenous women as killjoys – always demanding more than they are entitled. Indigenous scholars bring a lot to the academy and can draw on millennia of Indigenous knowledge as they negotiate a labyrinth of dis/mistrust in the system. Despite this, they will prevail as scholars of substance and worth. Chapter 8 Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens: Bridging the Gap Between Academia, Legislature, and Politics.............................................124 Shubha Sandill, York University, Canada An insurmountable amount of great research being done in academia rarely gets transformed into laws and policies. This can be attributed to the disconnect between academia, law/policy makers, and decision-making tables. A three-pronged approach to bridge the gap between academic scholarship, grassroots advocacy, and political activism could be instrumental in impacting socio-legal and policy reforms. Gender, as a social construct, has intersected since time immemorial with the way law and society have been organized. Law, as a hegemonic collection of practices and processes, has actively perpetuated a particular social order that did not go far enough in matching lived realities. This chapter begins with the author’s eforts to examine family law and social inequality through a gendered lens by exploring marriage, divorce, and family entrepreneurship. It further outlines the ongoing debates about gender vs. diversity mainstreaming in policy realms. Lastly, it concludes with how these experiences drove the author’s passion for grassroots advocacy, which fnally led the author to political activism.

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Section 2 Academic Administrative Roles (President, Vice-President, Acting Vice-President, Research Assistant Vice-President Graduate Studies, Dean, and Manager) Chapter 9 Intergenerational Indigenous Resilience and Navigating Academic Administration....................................................................................................151 Sheila Cote-Meek, York University, Canada The author has been asked a number of times about how she arrived at the role of an academic administrative leader in postsecondary education. Queries and interviews on questions such as these have provided her with an opportunity to refect on her path into academic administration and to think more deeply about her own values and



understandings about academic leadership. This chapter provides critical refections of her experiences, understandings, and knowings from an Indigenous women’s leadership lens and provides a perspective on navigating academic administration in the postsecondary environment. She intentionally weaves personal narratives as well as relevant literature to discuss the challenges and successes of navigating academic administration as an Indigenous woman. She does this because of the nature of this book and also because women in academia continue to be oppressed. Importantly, she situates the importance of staying true to core values and her own Indigeneity drawing on her own intergenerational resilience. Chapter 10 “I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”: A Critical Refection on Three Decades of Women’s Leadership in Canadian Academia...................166 Vianne Timmons, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada After decades of being male dominated in nearly every respect, Canadian universities made signifcant progress toward gender equity in 1980s and ‘90s. That momentum stalled for the most part for almost two decades, and only in the past few years has an awareness of the lack of progress—as well as the importance of overtly promoting gender equity and women’s leadership—re-emerged as an urgent priority both for faculty members and for the institutions where they work. In this chapter, the past three decades of women’s advancement and leadership in Canadian academia are described and analyzed through the refections and experiences of one woman.

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Chapter 11 Breaking the Ice: Refections on Our Leadership Expedition to Antarctica With 99 Women in STEMM...............................................................................178 Tammy Eger, Laurentian University, Canada Kirsten M. Müller, University of Waterloo, Canada The “leaky pipeline” has become a popular analogy to explain the gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine (STEMM). The reasons for the “leaky pipeline” are varied and continue to be addressed in the literature, and entire sections of the pipeline are missing for Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S+, persons with disabilities, racialized minorities, and women who experience other forms of marginalization. In 2019, the authors were selected for Homeward Bound, a 12-month international leadership program that culminated in the largest ever allwomen expedition to Antarctica. They joined 97 women from 34 diferent countries around the world where they explored and refected on their leadership in the context of personal values, strategic planning, visibility, and team building. In this chapter, they explore current statistics that paint a clear picture that the “pipe” is still leaking. They also share refections from their journey to Antarctica and ofer strategies to “break the ice” and create a system that will enable all women to thrive in academia.



Chapter 12 An Intersectional Love Story: When Gender, Culture, and Sexuality Meet.......203 Joël D. Dickinson, Laurentian University, Canada Carla A. John, Cambrian College, Canada As a lesbian couple working in academia, you might imagine that the authors have similar experiences. However, once you add race and ethnicity to the mix, the equation changes beyond measure. This chapter will focus on the diferent paths that two lesbians take to leadership positions in academia. Often referring to ourselves as “professionally gay,” the authors tell their stories from “slightly” diferent lenses: the White woman with a PhD who moved to a rural town for a tenure-track position and the Black woman with a Master’s degree who took positions such as “assistant to the administrative assistant.” Compilation of References............................................................................... 213 About the Contributors.................................................................................... 237

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Index................................................................................................................... 242

xv

Foreword

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No Erasure YOU people all seem to be related, Said so casually, YOU….(all pointy and passive aggressive) Māori people All related. Mmmm Well, says I, YOU people all look alike YOU Pākeha (White) people All lookalikes. Oh no, that’s absolutely not true All outraged At being stereotyped WE are not related So it is impossible that WE lookalike. I am here because I have skills My presence is based on merit All indignant and entitled No, YOU are here based on patronage. I am here because I have more skills, And I am a survivor of your policies. Well, I’m sorry but YOU are here because of RACE I am here based on MERIT No. No. No. YOU are here because of RACE And I am here Because YOU can not erase me Linda Tuhiwai Smith

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Foreword

This book brings together a superb collection of chapters written by and about women’s experiences in higher education leadership roles in Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand. One of the many unique contributions of the book is the strong presence of Indigenous women in the academy who have held high level positions from President to Directors, Departmental leaders, Professors and Associate Professors. It is sometimes assumed that women are absent from these positions but the chapters here talk to the ceiling breaking achievements of women generally and Indigenous women particularly. The book as a whole brings into sharp relief the barriers and challenges that these women have encountered and smashed through. In this respect the book is filled with inspiring stories by inspiring women leaders with some insights, reflections and very practical ideas for others coming through the ranks. The book should be read by every woman working in a University, not to dampen their ambitions, but to help them achieve their aspirations. An important element of the book is the critical analyses used to reflect on women’s academic careers in higher education and the barriers that they encountered or the broader context of women in STEM, for example, or the impact of the law on women’s lives or responses in social media to women. There is ample evidence of the ways in which women are excluded from academic leadership and the multiple barriers to women having full academic careers. The ‘pipelines’ for women are, as one chapter suggests, broken, or non-existent. The chapters demonstrate how the intersection of systemic sexism and racism works in the everyday life of a woman trying to do her work in academic institutions. These range from being ignored, disrespected and undermined to examples of abuse, harassment and intimidation. All the chapters relate in some way to my own experiences. The years of service, working the hard-yards only to witness the trajectories of some males who came lately to the job, did little in their jobs and rose rapidly to jobs they could not do. While we can share some of these stories just as women, the experience of Indigenous, Aboriginal women, Black women, LGBTQI and other marginalized academic colleagues also speaks to colonialism, race and exclusion based on gender, appearance, language and class. These are different kinds of experiences where women are not necessarily natural allies of each other. There are contributions in the Book which speak to these intersectional spaces. There is a dark humor we can use to laugh away the daily micro-aggressions of racism and sexism and to celebrate survival and accomplishment in our careers but this book helps us laugh (darkly) together and then strategize to make the future less awful and much more equitable and rewarding for women beginning their careers.

xvi

Foreword

Linda Tuhiwai Smith University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

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Linda Tuhiwai Te Rina Smith, CNZM, is a professor of indigenous education at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.

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xviii

Preface

Prayer to Women Academics

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Dear all Women and Girl Goddesses Keep all women safe in your embrace Let our collective tears cleanse our guilt, shame and despair Embrace all our sisters as beautiful and inspirational beings Remind us to search for the lessons that have come into our pathway Give us collective strength when we are weakened Stand with us when we rebuild our lives over and over again Give our thanks to all women and girls that stood strong in the face of adversity Send our love and solidarity to every generation of girls and women that come after us When we are down shine a light so we can see the path ahead Encourage our collective to embrace joy and fun Support us to open our minds, bodies, spirit and vision to all we can become and more Keep instilling in us a positive framework for living, working, playing, resting and being Surround us with warm, loving, kind and strong Women and Girls Help us to be open to boundless energy and gifts Learning from a Women and Girls perspective is our paradise Thank you from the Women and Girl Goddesses in Training Women academics and administrators tell us that they want to see themselves reflected at all levels of the academy particularly in leadership and innovation positions. At the heart of the issue are the statistics which constantly remind us that leadership is male dominated, that males dominate Research Chairs, Science and Technology as well as Management training. This book seeks to broaden the understanding of why women in the academy are overlooked in leadership positions, why there is a pay parity deficit and what they are doing to change this situation. On the positive

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Preface

side, women in the academy are speaking up, challenging academic politics, questioning policies and finding a rightful place for women as scholars, leaders and researchers. This book is a collective of women voices exploring possibilities for making the academy responsive and inclusive for women advancement and sustainable empowerment strategies. Our interest in tackling gender and equality issues in academia was spurned by our lived experience (Indigenous, LGBTQ, Women of color, harassment by male peers in the workplace, pay inequity) and experience activating social media as a social justice tool for women empowerment. We recognized from our personal experiences, research and cultural perspectives the multi-faceted ways in which women and girls have been oppressed and mistreated. We shared our strategies on social media, primarily Twitter, for breaking barriers, advocacy and mentorship to validate and honour the experiences of women in academia. We took advantage of the Women’s Movements to draw attention to women activism and this book is in part somewhat our organized “political struggle” for advancing women in academia. This book also represents the ways in which women academics inspire, lead, struggle, expose, empower, survive and thrive in the academic workplace. The collection provides a shared perspective for advancing women in the academy. The chapters in this book are divided into two sections. The first section are chapters written by faculty, those who primarily have a teaching, research and administration portfolio, and are authored by professors at various stages in their career including Assistant, Associate and Full Professors. The second section is written by women who work in academic administrative positions and hold positions that include President, Vice-President, Dean, Manager, Vice-President Graduate Studies and Acting Vice-President Research. The 12 chapters in the book represent work from academics from Canada, United States, Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand. We appreciate that six of these chapters are written by Indigenous women. In some ways, this book also contributes to re-righting (and re-writing) the rightful place of Indigenous women as first story tellers. Their narratives bring awareness to the ways in which academia have colonized First Peoples and demonstrate ways to ‘talk back’ to systems that were built by settler coloniality. We are honoured to have a further six chapters that expand our knowing about women in STEMM, climate change, women in sports, racialized experiences, LGBTQ issues, leadership roles, personal and collective political organizing, social media and activism. All chapters provide strategic ideas for advancing women and respecting their accumulative worth in the academy. This 12-chapter book seeks to advance critical scholarship on a number of issues relating to interrogating the complexities around Women Empowerment in the Academy. This edited collection is timely given the amplifying of women’s issues across Canada and the world, due to movements such as “MeToo”, “Women’s xix

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Preface

Marches” and “Times Up” and the pursuit of gender equality. While these movements seek to address issues of sexual harassment and violations in the workplace, sports, education, politics and science to name a few, the underlying thread is resounding in that women are uniting their collective voices and building networks based on empowerment. Women in the academy are raising issues of pay parity, equal representation of women on committees, increased leadership positions for women, stories of resilience and mentorship and espousing changes at all levels including teaching, research and administration. These strategies demand interrogation and larger questions are being asked about the place of women empowerment worldviews in the dominant intellectual traditions of the academy. Further, the trend to create change requires an exploration of new transformational approaches that draw on critical theory to resist discrimination, sexism, racism and other forms of oppression, support resistance and build sustainable empowerment strategies. The book is intended to add to the growing literature in the fields of Management and Leadership, Education, Sociology, STEMM and Indigenous Studies. It will be particularly important and valuable in post-secondary undergraduate and graduate courses on Women Empowerment, Women and Leadership, Women and Innovation, Pedagogical and Curriculum Strategies, Transformation of structures, Women’s Health, and Equity studies where issues of empowerment and discrimination are also taught. The book would be relevant at the undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels of study. Finally, this book will also be of interest to academics working in the field of diversity and inclusivity, race relations and women empowerment. The timing of this book is situated in the era of Truth and Reconciliation, a period of Canada’s horrific history on generations of Indian Residential School survivors, efforts by UN Women to champion Women and Girls and, social media activism movements. As Editors, we are honored that the contributors shared their academic journeys and insights drawing from their personal and political experiences in the academy. Sexism and racism are pervasive and persistent, and by not sharing one’s truth, we can become complicit bystanders of the systemic abuses that happen to women inside the academy. We read how difficult it is to work in an institution where one’s academic scholarship is marginalized, displaced, sexualized and or racialized because of gender. Despite this, the authors shared powerful portrayals of resistance and activism. This book describes their creativity, strategies and resilience to forge ahead through the struggle because they are committed to ensuring the rightful place for women in post-secondary education. They each share insights about how to use networks beyond and within the institutional borders and find solace with peers, elders, allies and cultural traditions. They also provide insights for allies working in the academy. Often women and girls are taught not to speak out, or speak about their sacrifices and attributes. This piece of scholarship is often not shared openly.

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Preface

Yet it is a resounding demonstration of conviction, commitment and brilliance that the world should know about. The following provides a description of each chapter. Drawn to women empowerment and social media activism, the Editor’s start off the book sharing a critical lens of women movements and the importance of leadership and mentorship in academia. The next seven chapters provide insight into the lived realities of “faculty” in the academy. In this section, the authors share barriers and strategies to survive and thrive in the academic workplace. Professor Taima Moeke-Pickering in her chapter shares about the meaning and value of Indigenous worldviews, women movements in social media and why systemic strategies for sustained equity, diversity and inclusivity in the academy matters. Professor Lynn Lavallee’s chapter, situates the importance of the Truth and Reconciliation, and what institutions can do to both promote and sustain Indigenous faculty in academia. Importantly, her chapter exposes colonial patriarchy and misogyny that intersect with Indigeneity within academic institutions. Associate Professor Sharon Lauricella in her chapter, shares her social media experience with the objective to create and cultivate community. She argues that in the online landscape, prosocial behaviour is essential in creating community and sustaining cohesion. Associate Professor Sereana Naepi, shares her research on Pasifika Women in the Academy. Her findings describe the impact of intersections of race and gender which include excess labour, infantilization, hyper-surveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility and desirable diversity. Associate Professor Chantelle Richmond shares about her journey through Indigenous health scholarship. She talks about the process of indigenization and why it is important in academia. Assistant Professor Lindsey Darvin and Head Coach Elizabeth Demara share about the emergence, experience and empowerment of women academic coaches. They provide significant evidence of the importance of equitable access to sport participation within the higher education model. In her chapter, Professor Bronwyn Carlson shares about her experience of being an Indigenous scholar in Australia. She points to gendered and racialized codes of academia and how they are an impediment for Indigenous women and importantly, she gives insight into how the academy can learn from Indigenous knowledges. Finally, Associate Professor Dr. Shubba Sandill, an academic lawyer, shares her perspective on bridging the gap between academia, grassroots advocacy and political activism. Drawing from a gendered lens, she explores intersections of marriage, divorce, family law and social inequality. The last section incorporates four chapters written by women academics who hold academic administrative leadership roles in the academy. Professor Sheila Cote-Meek provides critical reflections of navigating academic administration as a Vice-President in the postsecondary environment. She situates the importance of staying true to one’s core values and her own intergenerational resilience. Dr. Vianne Timmons, provides insight into being a President of a University and the xxi

Preface

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importance of overtly promoting gender equity and women’s leadership. In her chapter, she shares about the past three decades of women’s advancement and leadership in Canadian academia. Fixing the leaky pipe is the theme of the chapter by authors Professor Tammy Eger (Acting Vice-President) and Dr. Kirsten Muller (Assistance Vice-President Graduate Studies). The “leaky pipeline” has become a popular analogy to explain the gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine (STEMM). They share their Homeward Bound Antarctica experience with 99 women scientists and leaders, particularly focusing on climate change, strategic planning and women leadership. Carla John (Manager) and Dr. Joel Dickinson (Dean) share their experiences as a professional gay couple and holding leadership positions in the academy. They provide insight into intersectionality of race and ethnicity and how this impacts their academic experiences. These are the critical reflections and politics of women academics who share their perspectives for advancing women in the academy. Higher education can greatly benefit from these stories and experiences. We hope that you enjoy reading what women academics have to say about their career in the academy and what they hope for future women academics. As women academics, we diverged from the scientific academic writing style to be more inclusive of a women’s voice, their writing style and their passion. We view this as an important opportunity to promote womencentered academic writing as an authentic scholarly contribution to academia.

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Acknowledgment

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We honor all female educators who came before us for laying a strong foundation for women’s scholarly work in academia. To all the women educators and allies who currently work in the Academic system. We hope that this book endorses your scholarly activities, acknowledges your politics and experiences and importantly, assures you, that you have a rightful place at a university. To all the contributors in this book. Kia ora, Miigwech, Thank You for sharing your academic journeys, insights and strategies for women in the academy. To the Academy: We hope that you pick up your part in transforming the Post-Secondary education system to provide a rightful place for women in the academy.

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Introduction

Across Canada, there is a continuing and still growing trend for progressing the status of women and girls. The same trend is propelled internationally by the Commission on the Status of women (United Nations), whose mandate is to actively promote gender equality and the empowerment of women (UN Women, 2020). Fostered by the United Nations, and driven at local and international levels, there are a series of events observed for women and girls. For example, March 9-20th are the dates set aside for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. February the 14th is International Day of Women and Girls in Science. International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is observed on 9 August every year. Activities and celebrations such as these bring awareness to women’s rights, women and leadership, women and economics, Indigenous women, women and scientists, climate change and women against sexualized violence to name a few. These events serve to inspire, legitimate the voice, status and experiences of women and girls. Drawn to social activism, empowerment actions and movements make it possible to fight against the oppression of women and girls. Young climate change activists such as Greta Thunberg (Stockholm, Sweden) and Autumn Peltier (Wiikwemikoong First Nation, Ontario) are examples of #sheroes (female heroes) bringing messages and strategies for climate change and protection of water at the United Nations and international levels. In November of 2019, Homeward Bound chartered the largest all women (99 women from 34 countries) expedition to Antarctica. Women scientists and educators had the opportunity to study the effects of climate change and promote leadership. Individual and collective empowerment strategies re-vision and re-centre a positive framework for women and girls. Women’s movements such as #MeToo and #TimesUp aggressively called out and continue to call out sexualized violence and harassment in the workplace shedding a light on sexual harassment (Ferrante, 2019). The hashtag #MMIW raised awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada. Social media became a technology platform that built capacity, engaged advocacy and activism from users all around the world. Uniting women, social media encouraged solidarity and fostered the organizing of women’s rights movements. There was an acute spike

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Introduction

in women using podcasts, TED talks, films, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for advocacy and activism. Salary and pay equity became another topic hotly discussed in both the news media and social media realms. The discourse on salaries between women and male colleagues have been re-examined across industries, institutes and organizations calling into question the worth of women’s work. Issues of pay parity, maternity leave, qualifications, sessional contracts, discrimination, racialization and oppression, the value of women in sports, and health and retirement benefits have not only raised awareness but also created sites for advocating for change. The process of engaging sensitive and difficult matter is unsettling and can cause anxiety. Often, female students or new faculty come into the academy with very little critical analysis about race, gender and sexism let alone knowing how to navigate oneself in a misogynistic or patriarchal system. In a nutshell we are unprepared and sometimes feel very alone as we struggle to survive and build our careers. In order to survive and resist ongoing challenges women respond in a range of ways; turning a blind eye, fighting back, fighting each other (termed internalized oppression) or leaving the academy altogether. The urge to keep ones’ job preserves the status quo, which unwittingly serves oppression in the academy. Despite this, we are seeing more female faculty speaking out, reaching out and demanding equality. We note a growing ‘social media activism’ by women in academia (Carlson, 2013; Duarte, 2017; Moeke-Pickering, Cote-Meek & Pegoraro, 2018). In alignment with social justice goals, these women academics use the social media trend to share their scholarly activities, research and ideas beyond the normal academic networks such as conferences, literature sources and educational workshops that have long controlled their intellectual outputs in the academy. The social media forum is free and as a result, more people gain access to women’s scholarly works and in turn women academics can use these platforms to share their work outside the constraints of academic societies long dominated by men. In their chapters, Carlson, Lauricella and Moeke-Pickering talk to the importance and meaning of social media in their scholarly activities as sites of activism. There is an increase of women using big data providing powerful statistics on key issues and using this data to destroy the myths around topics like gender pay equity, gender, leadership and organizational performance. Social media itself is a source of big data, providing insights into public discussion around these topics. This changes the landscape of intellectual and numerical power a stronghold normally held by male scholars. Women are creatively increasing their ability to push the academy to be more inclusive of their scholarly works. We also used social media in our own research to raise awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in Canada (Moeke-Pickering, Cote-Meek & Pegoraro, 2018). We studied how social media reported on the xxv

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Introduction

MMIWG Inquiry and the 2019 Final Report “Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls” (National Inquiry Committee into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (2019). This 2-volume report comprised the truths of more than 2,380 contributors. The report painted a grim picture of the high rates of violence inflicted on Indigenous women and girls and the poor tracking of homicide cases; and the discrepancies of statistics on MMIWG. For the record, Canada is not the only country with MMIWG nor are missing and murdered women and girls only Indigenous. The sexualized violence against women and girls has been going on for centuries. We state this point here because much of the underlying threads of gender oppression is linked to sexualized violence. This is a tool wielded to assert power and dominance. In North America where sport is included in higher education institutions we see gender imbalance in leadership roles within this area. As noted by Darvin and Demara in their chapter, even in the United States where there is a federal policy, Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex within activities hosted by federally funded institutions, the representation of women in leadership roles is still low. While participation by women student athletes in sport exploded, Darvin and Demara note that the same growth did not occur for leadership positions where only 43% of head coaches are women and female athletic directors account for only 10.5% at the division I level. Similar figures can be found in Canada, where the latest work indicates only 17% of head coaches are women while close to 25% of athletic director positions are held by women (Donnelly, Norman & Kidd, 2013). Yet research using big data sets has shown that the gender of a coach or leader does not have an impact on the performance of athletes and ultimately the wins produced by a team (Darvin, Pegoraro & Berri, 2017). The question remains why more women are not head coaches or athletic administrators? Academic administrative leadership is starting to realize the capacity of women leadership as we are seeing more women in key academic administrative positions such as Deans, Vice-Presidents, Provosts and Presidents. In this book we are fortunate to have Dr. Vianne Timmons who shares about her ten-year experience being a President and Professor Cote-Meek who shares experiences and leadership as a Vice-President. Both these senior women leaders, were ‘firsts’ in their academic administrate leadership roles. While it might seem that women are forging ahead in certain administrative roles in academia, statistics say otherwise. A study by Dr. Malinda Smith on the Canadian U15 institutions’ leadership diversity found “their most senior leadership, and the academic leadership pipeline, remain overwhelming white and largely male” (Academic Women’s Association, 2019). In their chapter, Eger and Muller report that in Canada, white males account for over 60% of the senior academic management positions at the Deans, Provosts, and Presidents level. xxvi

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Introduction

Further, Eger and Muller also indicate that minority persons remain underrepresented, with minority women filling less than 8% of the positions and racialized men less than 14%. We need to shine a light on the implicit bias in the academic system particularly in areas of hiring, promotion, pay and workload distribution. Implicit bias exists in pay and workload distribution. Fiscal funding restrictions correlated with increased student-staff ratios account for a rise in sessional contracts. More women are employed in precarious contract work, thus preventing them from promotion to higher levels in the academy (Crimmins, 2019). In her chapter, Sandill addresses paid/unpaid labour as applied to a socio-legal examination donned upon women in marriage, family entrepreneurships and motherhood. Her findings unearth some of the roots of inequality in the law in the treatment of women’s contributions to the home and society. Implicit bias is also a huge barrier for racialized women, LGBTQ and differently abled women. We are learning more and more about the range of implicit bias that exists for women in the academy. In their chapter, John and Dickinson talk to issues of implicit bias on race, ethnicity and LGBTQ issues. All the Indigenous authors expressed experiences with racism. Carlson, Moeke-Pickering, Richmond, Lavallee, Naepi and Cote-Meek mention racism in their chapters. All talk about the need to recognize, respect and include an authentic place for Indigenous knowledge and ways of being in the academy. In Naepi’s chapter, her research found that masculine behaviour is rife in universities. Further, she reports that infantilization (not expected to be capable of authority) of women of color exists. The inference is that women must learn to adapt to the system which is designed to exclude them. There still remains significant barriers in the academy for racialized and Indigenous women faculty (Cote-Meek, 2014). Research and training on implicit bias, are providing more in-depth information about intersectional analysis and how to respond to it. All the authors in this book articulated a need for a better place for women in academia, that we can and must do better. In a survey by @haveherback, two years after #MeToo started, they found that 42% of companies were talking about making changes, however 42% of women feel nothing has actually been implemented that addressed sexualized violence and harassment in the workplace (Ferrante, 2020). This is a timely reminder. Despite all of the efforts by women, change is slow. Do we need more women to speak out? Is investing in gender equality policies at all levels of governance going to make a difference? Are women expected to lead this change? What about male allies, what can they do to change the landscape for women in academia? The chapters in this book provide the statistics and critical analysis to shed more light on these questions.

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While the authors share ideas for an intersectional approach to advancing women in the academy, such as gender-based training, confronting racism and implicit bias, hiring and promoting more women, learning about Indigenous history and rights to name a few, one thing is for sure. We are beyond verbal commitments and meetings. A top down policy and cultural change is needed. Universities must do more to advance women academically and administratively. It is then we will have a better chance of closing the gender pay gap, and eradicating discrimination, racism and sexual harassment. Taima Moeke-Pickering Laurentian University, Canada Sheila Cote-Meek York University, Canada Ann Pegoraro Laurentian University, Canada

REFERENCES Academic Women’s Association. (n.d.). U15 remains largely white and male despite 33 years of equity initiatives. University of Alberta. Retrieved March 11, 20202 https://uofaawa.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/u15-senior-leadership-awa-diversitygap-2019.pdf Carlson, B. (2013). The ‘new frontier’: Emergent Indigenous identities and social media. In The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (pp. 147-168). Sydney: University of Technology Sydney E-Press.

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Cote-Meek, S. (2014). Colonized classrooms: Racism, trauma and resistance in post-secondary education. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Crimmins, G. (2019). An activism of inclusion. In #SocSciMatters: Championing original and authoritative research. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/socialsciences/gail-crimmins Darvin, L., Pegoraro, A., & Berri, D. (2017). Are Men Better Leaders? An Investigation of Head Coaches’ Gender and Individual Players’ Performance in Amateur and Professional Women’s Basketball. Sex Roles, 78(7-8), 455–466. doi:10.100711199017-0815-2

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Donnelly, P., Norman, M., & Kidd, B. (2013). Gender equity in Canadian Interuniversity sport: A Biennial Report (No. 2). Toronto: Centre for Sport Policy Studies, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto. Duarte, M. (2017). Connected activism: Indigenous uses of social media for shaping political change. AJIS. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21, 1–12. doi:10.3127/ajis.v21i0.1525 Ferrante, M. B. (2019). Two Years After #MeToo Started, Report Finds Companies Are Not Taking Enough Action. ForbesWomen. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ marybethferrante/2019/11/13/two-years-after-metoo-started-report-findscompanies-are-not-taking-enough-action/#4e5718f65981 Moeke-Pickering, T., Cote-Meek, S. & Pegoraro, A. (2018). Understanding the ways missing and murdered Indigenous women are framed and handled by social media users. Media International Australia, 1-11. DOI: doi:10.1177/1329878X18803730 National Inquiry Committee into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019). Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. https://www.mmiwg-ffada. ca/final-report/

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UN Women – United Nations Equity for Gender and Empowerment of Women. (n.d.). https://www.unwomen.org/en

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Section 1

Experiences and Insight Shared by Faculty

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(Full Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and Head Sport Coaches)

1

Chapter 1

Women in Academia Matter: Indigenous Worldviews and Women Movements Activism Taima Moeke-Pickering https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9524-9850 Laurentian University, Canada

ABSTRACT Empowering women in academia matters. As women academics, we need to unleash our leadership power if we want to make a change. Colonization sexualized, subjugated, and dehumanized women and girls and unfortunately continues in the academy today. This is evidenced by pay, hiring, racism, and leadership inequity. This chapter shares the meaning and value of Indigenous worldviews, women movements in social media, and why systemic strategies for sustained equity, diversity, and inclusivity in the academy matters. This is a huge responsibility and commitment. The author’s experience working with women academics is that they take their role seriously, they use instinct, they defend when they need to, they are creative, they spend a lot of time on the whys, they use diplomacy and often put their own feelings aside to make sure that equity goals for women are achieved.

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INTRODUCTION Leadership Rules: Call to the Wolfpack If you have a voice, you have influence to spread. If you have relationships, you have hearts to guide. If you know young people, you have futures to mold. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch001 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Women in Academia Matter

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If you have privilege, you have power to share. If you have money, you have support to give. If you have a ballot, you have policy to shape. If you have pain, you have empathy to offer. If you have freedom, you have others to fight for. If you are alive, you are a leader. Abby Wombach (2018, p. 81) For most of my academic journey, women have been absent from positions of power and influence, such as Full Professors, Deans, Presidents, and Chairpersons. Sadly, there were no Maori women in any leadership positions when I was attending Waikato University in Aotearoa, New Zealand between the 1990s to the early 2000s. For me, the only female role models were other female students and a few lecturers who were not in my discipline. Most of the articles, textbooks, theories and conference presenters were white males. Statistics and sciences were viewed as the real authentic academic sources. The only entry points for a woman into any type of leadership position was to join a research team, be on a committee or take up a position on the student council. These extra activities added more work while trying to complete my studies, yet at other times it kept me sane, as I had come to learn very early on, that the whole academic system created barriers for women and women of colour. The statistics sadly, seem to have only slightly improved. According to Crimmins (2019), women’s presence at the senior and executive level positions in academia is disproportionately low, with fewer than 30% in most countries. Not surprising, sexism, social, economic, ethnicity, sexual orientation and health are some of the forms that lead to educational marginalisation and barriers for women (Crimmins, 2019). This chapter provides insight into my critical reflections of being an academic, Indigenous woman and professor in academia. It discusses three interconnected themes that impacted my academic career. The first is situating self as an Indigenous woman in academia and how this positions my worldview. Secondly, I share about the development of the GirlPowerEffect social media site and how the international Women’s movement shaped my academic activism. Lastly, I provide insights into my journey toward becoming a full Professor and the consequences of speaking out. I hope that the power of sharing my story assists others to navigate their way through academia and at best, dismantles the male hegemony that props up academic institutions. This paper starts from a positionality of strength, through the form of what Abby Wombach describes as “leadership rules” for women. Renown USA soccer star and activist for equality and inclusion, Abby Wombach uses these “Call to the Wolfpack” rules to situate the power of women in leadership. It is therefore a befitting way 2

Women in Academia Matter

to start this Chapter. Why? On a daily basis the world around us is shaped by a male dominant worldview fuelled by the media, rules, policies, religious, cultural, economic and societal regulations. This never-ending assault impacts women and girls. Being a woman or a girl is not easy. We are sexualized from a young age, taught not to speak too loudly, told that we cannot be smart, remonstrated into what we can wear, taught to keep secrets when violated, paid low wages therefore enslaved workers, simply put mansplained about how to be. Speaking out is labour intensive. When a woman or girl speaks out or demands change, she has to fight or dismantle intergenerationally maintained traditions of male dominance. This stance can be exhausting. However, if we want change then speaking up and out is necessary. And so, the circle goes around and around. At this stage in my life, older, generally wiser, wounded and somewhat tired, to write this chapter is actually an honour and a privilege because I know women’s words and experiences are legitimate ways to empower our networks and those wanting change.

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SITUATING SELF AS AN INDIGENOUS WOMAN IN ACADEMIA AND HOW THIS POSITIONS MY WORLDVIEW In Maori culture, relationships are important and meaningful. Because we grew up in colonial violence and racism, building trust is vital and connecting who we are to the land, territory and culture is a form of expressing one’s identity, sovereignty and worldview (Moeke-Pickering, 2010). Situating myself as an Indigenous woman and how this links to one’s worldview is both a meaningful and respectful way to introduce oneself. Starting with my traditional territory, I was born in Whakatane, a beach town in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa/New Zealand. My ancestors have lived there since the Mataatua Canoe (voyaging canoe from Polynesia) arrived to Aotearoa in about 1350AD. Prior to colonization, my ancestors fostered their cultural, tribal and political relationships to the land, their language and their spirituality (MoekePickering, 2010). During the colonial period, my ancestors were subjected to violence during the New Zealand Land Wars (1843-1972) and the development of a Colonial Government under the Treaty of Waitangi (signed 1840) (Belich, 2001; Orange, 1987). Their communities were dehumanized by imposed colonial Acts that separated them from their lands, history and culture (Moeke-Pickering, 2010; Walker, 1990). They lived during a time when thousands of newcomers from Europe arrived bringing their culture and their laws. By 1839, more Europeans had settled in New Zealand and the lawlessness of these early settlers had caused concern among Maori leaders (Belich, 2001; Orange, 1987). My ancestors watched helpless as their populations collapsed to diseases, from a population of nearly150,000 in 1800 to 3

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Women in Academia Matter

nearly 42,000 by 1896 (Durie, 1998). Further, Maori skin colour was racialized to demean their character, their personhood and their way of life (Moeke-Pickering, 2010). Colonizers justified their superiority based on biological racial difference thereby maintaining their social mobility (Memmi1991). Therefore, racism became a consubstantial part of colonialism. Racism laid the foundation for the immutability of the Maori world and worldviews. By the time I came along in the early 1960’s, much of the European expansionism was imbedded throughout societies, schools, religion, law and politics. European ways and being were influential throughout most of my early life. My Maori culture was not encouraged or openly talked about. Much of my culture was contained to safe places such as family, tribal gatherings and events. To protect themselves, my grandparents conveyed most of the culture through the language and because we were not taught it, we missed out on its depth and breadth. This was a lot for young Maori children like myself to carry. On the one hand we felt guilt about not knowing our culture and on the other hand, were made to feel like an outsider to European ways of doing and being. With respect to my early education at Poroporo Native School, we were taught to be manual labourers. Leading up to the 1960’s, educational policies and priorities for Maori were directed towards agriculture and manual work (Bishop & Glynn, 1999). I was not valued for being clever even though on many occasions I was the top of my class. I learned very quickly to do the best I could although I made a lot of mistakes and felt the wrath from both my Maori side and what was imposed on me by the European world. I had an experience that gave me an “aha” moment. During high school, I recall an assignment we had to complete on finding our Maori genealogy starting from ourselves to our great grandparents. I asked my grandfather who were his parents and grandparents. He scolded me (I had never been scolded like this from him prior so knew this was a really bad question to ask). He told me that knowing who your ancestors are “is not important, so why bother”. I sensed he was sad about this, so rather than being discouraged I began a journey which I still do today, and that was to find my genealogy. When I explained to my high school teacher that I couldn’t complete my assignment, rather than berate me, she shared that most of the Maori kids were told the same thing, that was, to not bother learning about who they were and where they came from. None of us completed that assignment. Even as I write this piece, it makes me sad. I was often in a state of lachrymose for my ancestors. Sadness and grief are imbedded in my worldview and what I became accustomed to. I desperately wanted to believe that my grandfather and grandmother had someone who loved them too, just like they loved me and wanted the best for me. So began a personal journey for me of finding their genealogies which also meant learning the history and the sad and dark truth about my peoples.

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Women in Academia Matter

On reflection, I was never encouraged to go beyond my class, gender or race. This caused me a lot of stress internally, and my identity was confusing at the best of times. This is how intersectionality of sexism and racism impacted me. Inherently, this was the worldview bestowed on me without my permission: a Maori, a woman, a manual worker, another intergenerational colonized group. This critical analysis of intersectionality is extremely important. Why? Because when you encounter any woman of color in your workplace, there is always a deeper fabric of whom they are and where they came from. I believe that academia would be more enriched if people of color were enabled to contribute equally to its systems and policies. I always take the time to find out about another person, who they are and where they come from. For me, this counters colonization. Humanizing people and establishing connections strengthens my spirit, my life and my worldview. In an Indigenous worldview, the past and knowing where you come from is vital. As Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith (2012) relates, decolonization involves re-righting and re-writing our history. This task of re-righting and re-writing provided me with a deep sense of love, compassion and empowerment especially about the strength of Maori women. It was through researching about one of my female ancestors, that I gained a deeper insight into their resilience. To provide a context, my fifth great grandmother Mere Hiki was born about 1860. Mere grew up in the midst of New Zealand’s tumultuous colonial period namely the New Zealand Land Wars. During that period, the colonial government imposed racist Acts such as the NZ Constitution Act of 1852 - establishment of provincial government; Native Lands Act 1862 and Suppression of Rebellion Act 1863. Under these Acts, an estimated 10 million acres of Maori lands were taken mostly through confiscation. These Acts were used to punish Maori for being rebellious and the penalty was confiscation of their lands (Durie, 1998). My own tribes were labelled Rebels (after the Rebellion Act). When I was at school, I grew up being called a rebel too from the non-Maori kids. Understanding the context of what happened to our ancestors is important because it helped me to sort through the intergenerational trauma which I carried in my being. Linda Tuhiwai Smith names this as a state of ‘unfinished business’ (Smith, 2012). This is important she states, because there is “unfinished business; we are still being colonised and we are still searching for justice” (p. 34). My Indigenous worldview will always be unfinished business no matter how much personal work I do. Likewise, it is imperative that everything I do matters in terms of searching for justice. What I am immensely proud of, is that my fifth great-grandmother Mere had a moko kauae (a traditional Maori chin tattoo). I view this as a source of her resilience for her culture, her community, her strength to wear it during a tumultuous period and her sense of defiance against Christian and European cultural imposition. She must have been absolutely internally strong. This paradox gave me strength to

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Women in Academia Matter

face adversity and to continue to find social justice for my Maori culture and my own Maori identity. Doing genealogy and learning the truth about our history can be overwhelming. My anger became a motivator to learn more and to fix up unfinished business. This process helped me to become more connected with my culture and my ancestors. As I connected with my history, culture and genealogy, I also started to attend decolonization and anti-racism workshops, I worked in the area of anti-violence and I participated in land marches. I had always wanted to go to university. When I was a teenager I dreamed about being a professor. My family did not have money, so I had to go to work. An opportunity arose in my late 20’s and I was able to go to university, doing a degree in Psychology. I love learning. I love the thrill of studying and searching for new information beyond what I grew up with and being with people from all walks of life. Despite the niggling racism and sexism that permeated the academic institute, I turned a blind eye (or kept it in my back pocket) and got involved in my studies. Within a few months, two major issues assisted me to express my voice. The first incident was when a professor told me that I was too old to be doing a philosophy course, and suggested that I go home and make babies. He redacted his statement when I went with a senior woman student to challenge him. The second incident (all within a week) was when a professor talked about Maori people and used a contorted cartoon of a pig chasing a Maori who was running from it to depict his version of what Maori people were. The class (mostly young white students) laughed, I was boiling with rage. I immediately reacted both in the classroom to the professor and with the other students. The professor’s response was that he had used that cartoon for his class over many years, and no one had ever complained about it before. In other words, shifting the blame and made it about me. I was not going to let it go so went to see the Dean. It was then that I fully realised that academia perpetuated racism against Maori. I was called a rebel again and even call sexist terms such as she is a “strident and angry young woman”. I noticed they emphasised “young” or “new” on many occasions, namely to dumb me down. To control this so called young angry Maori woman, I was steered by senior academics onto committees, into other forms of leadership to learn about academia and how one should speak out or make change appropriately. This time, I wanted to call out the university for its racist practices. I guess I had had enough of sitting on the fence. This also meant stepping outside the Maori safe zone. I recall it was a very difficult decision to make, but my sense of justice became more stronger, so I followed this path blindly and mainly through my intuition. I realised in hindsight, that I was demanding that academia serve Maori culture and students better. G.H. Smith (2003) asserts the importance of encouraging the academy to respond to the validity and legitimacy of Indigenous language, knowledge and culture (p. 2). After all, the purpose of a univers(e)sity is 6

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Women in Academia Matter

to represent all knowledges in the universe. That is how I positioned the purpose and mission of a University for me. I made the decision to make the academic landscape better for Maori, and to express my voice to contribute to unfinished colonial business. You become known, you become someone to be feared, and you become someone to be picked on. I faced all types of racism, from many levels of the academic system, and unfortunately from my own Maori people too. I was told to tow the party line, be nice, and to not make it worse for the rest of us. This juxtaposed position sucks a lot of good energy from you, as you do not know what other Maori are saying behind your back. I learned a lot about lateral violence and was able to mitigate these nuances with being around strong Maori elders, leaders and other smart critical thinkers. Within six months of academic life, I had become a full blown outspoken, smart, strategic Maori woman academic who without realising it at that time evolved into activism work. I have no doubt that my pre-entry Maori worldview combined with critical analysis in the setting of academia was exactly where I needed to be. I pushed the edges by drawing on a Maori methodology for my master’s thesis in psychology. I pushed for Maori elders to be included in training. I advocated for Maori students who needed it. I learned my language. I became outspoken against racism where needed. I worked hard with my studies. I went home to my tribal territory often and all of my research involved Maori in some form or another. My Maori worldview expanded and so did my academic learning about relevant social justice theories which I appreciated and academically grew from. My cultural background gave me the unique opportunity to change the landscape for Maori woman to assert their voice in academia. Smith (2012) emphasizes the importance of claiming a space in which to develop a sense of authentic humanity and centers this space as a tool for decolonization. I concur. I learned if you want change, be at the table. That there is power in being assertive, seen and heard. Taking on committee roles meant that woman voices were at the table, we could monitor educational opportunities for women as well as hold the leadership accountable. It made it possible to put a spotlight on racism and sexism where needed. The task at that time, was to ensure that whatever decisions were made for anti-racism or anti-sexism work, it needed to be sustainable and written in policy where possible. I note that many women faculty and students came up to me and appreciated that a woman was at the table talking about women issues. No one wants to put in an effort for change without hoping for a sustainable commitment. However, I began to realize that systemic changes were very, very, slow. It meant, that generations of women leaders needed to be at every table. At the very least, I learned just how difficult it was to change the academic system and how male hegemony permeates the system. So, I put a lot of effort into creating Indigenous courses, teaching Indigenous

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Women in Academia Matter

pedagogies and Indigenous research. Taking control of one’s responsibilities and living them is a form of social justice and imperative in an Indigenous worldview. Over the course of my life experiences and subsequent work in academia, I came to realize that to change any male hegemonic system, a movement is required. The following provides two experiences of movements I have recently been involved with; using social media as a form of activism and the Women’s March movement.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GIRLPOWEREFFECT SOCIAL MEDIA SITE AND HOW THE WOMENS’ MOVEMENT SHAPED MY ACTIVISM

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The impetus for the “GirlPowerEffect” site that three of us (myself, Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek and Dr. Ann Pegoraro) created in January 2018, came about because of two key issues. The first being the USA Women’s March movements and secondly, using social media as a tool for activism. Originating in the USA and copied across the world the Women’s March is a social movement against the rising tide of misogyny, white nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, ableism, classism and ageism (Women’s March Board, 2019). The Women’s March was a worldwide protest which started on January 21, 2017 after the inauguration of President Donald Trump (Women’s March 2017). Built on Unity Principles, the Women’s March movement protested against the Trump administration and their glaringly misogynistic attitudes and biases toward women and girls. For myself, the brazen statements on women by Trump such as “grab them by the pussy” and “she bleeds” caused me to seek out others who wanted to do something to mitigate such degrading and sexist statements. I was not the only one who felt that such blatant attacks against women and girls were demeaning and offensive. I learned that many women across the world felt promulgated into fighting back. This was displayed by the overwhelming women led protest movements across the world which showed that women were no longer going to sit back and tolerate this type of overt misogyny. According to Chenoweth and Pressman who reported in The Washington Post about the numbers of marchers on February 7th 2017: In total, the women’s march involved between 3,267,134 and 5,246,670 people in the United States (our best guess is 4,157,894). That translates into 1 percent to 1.6 percent of the U.S. population of 318,900,000 people (our best guess is 1.3 percent). To put this in perspective, the combined armed forces of the U.S. military - including the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps reserves, National Guard, and Coast Guard comprise just over 2 million people. 8

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The Women March movement relied on social media to reach others and to form coalitions and support. This rise of social media activism inspired a new type of discourse on women that resulted in many Women led movements including the #MeToo and the #TimesUp movements. This inspired Women led initiatives all over the world, mostly led by women, joined by communities, leaders, and all who had seemingly had enough of all forms of women discrimination. It meant also the discourse on women’s rights, health care, equality and freedoms came to the forefront. In a lot of ways this was the first time I had witnessed a coming together of women and girls internationally across race, class, ability and geopolitical stances. I even saw this come together amongst my own peers and colleagues at my university, across my friendships, coming together by thought, discussions and action in unison and activism. The Women’s March notes this as “the first intersectional feminist policy platform” (Women’s March Board, 2019). These Women movements became tangible activism worldwide, sharing ideas, strategies and support regardless of which country you lived in, what race, class or religion you were, or where you worked or what you stood for. Such show of solidarity, compassion and bravery, got me off the couch, out of my own safe spaces and searching for an activist forum where I could use my voice and energy to re-right and re-write women and girls stories and to amplify our voices. The second issue that inspired us to create the GirlPowerEffect site was to encourage activism within our university, with our peers, our research, teaching and our students. For myself, I wanted to build a small academic community of support, be able to inspire others, be courageous to stand in solidarity and to educate, given that I am a professor at a university. Mostly, I saw this as an opportunity to make change around me, in my work place, research and teaching. It is not easy taking that first bold step. I remember being motivated in mind and spirit but realised it would be an enormous undertaking to add my views in the international public sphere. An opportunity arose when I posted on facebook a message to friends and colleagues to join me at our university’s entrance to stand in solidarity with the US Women’s March of January, 2017. I was pleasantly surprised at those who showed up, and realised that there are more than just your personal peers in your sphere of influence. This small show of activism by my Sudbury friends and colleagues inspired me. While our group was small, we contributed to the Women’s March protest by showing up and being public via social media accounts, sharing our frustrations and concerns and sharing ideas for activism in our personal and work spaces. We began by using our twitter accounts to bring awareness about the ongoing discrimination and oppression against women and girls. As a group of three, myself, Sheila and Ann decided to go one step further, and that was to create a site where we could amplify women’s voices as a method to create change hence the idea to create the GirlPowerEffect site. We needed an intent and purpose, so discussed what we valued, what we could convey 9

Women in Academia Matter

Figure 1. Standing in Solidarity with the First US Women’s March Protest January 21, 2017, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario

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© Dickinson, Joel. Used with permission.

and why this would be important. Our first premise as educators, was to develop the site into an educational forum to bring about awareness, to build a community with alike-minded others and to share stories about women empowerment. As a result of hashtags such as #WomensMarch, #MeToo and #TimesUp we began to see more women engaging twitter and facebook to bring awareness and analysis to key issues. We viewed this type of activism as the “girl power effect” hence the name for our site. In our research (Moeke-Pickering, Cote-Meek & Pegoraro, 2018) we noticed the increase of female tweeters and social media users who were speaking out against sexism, racism and male hegemony. We noted social media became a space for unifying voices in safe twitter shelters where courageous conversations and teaching moments could be espoused and reported. We quickly realised the power of social media to change the political landscape was becoming a norm for portraying women issues quickly. We found that women hashtags provided swiftness in disseminating information, strengthening ties among the alike-minded, and increased social interactions with the world (Moeke-Pickering, Cote-Meek & Pegoraro, 2018). Social media users seek support, ideas and endorsement from amongst their peers and followers. Positive reinforcement from likes and retweets highlight hot topics and key messages and confirm what is meaningful and valued. We noticed an important trend by those who used social media was the women’s stories themselves, powerful, raw and bringing truth to women issues framed from a women worldview. In our view, we began to understand their strength, as their 10

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Women in Academia Matter

tweets by sheer volume were changing the discourse for the better. We noticed that social media tweets had a women’s touch, they conveyed pure heart driven messages and women were sharing deep experiences with others. A positive outcome of the GirlPowerEffect twitter account and website, was that social media was the new data haven providing researchers with a glimpse into the lived realities and political stance of social media users and their followers. This data we realised could be used to inform equity and equality policies and strengthen conversations for making a difference. This allowed us as researchers to engage big data to frame data analysis and make assumptions and sense of what was becoming valuable in Women’s social media movements and beyond. Our small group of three began writing papers and OpEd pieces, providing social media workshops and presenting at conferences both nationally and internationally, all drawing on how big data analysis and social media can benefit women empowerment. Perhaps the most meaningful research that the GirlPowerEffect team were involved in is on the topic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women #MMIW and social media activism (see Moeke-Pickering, Cote-Meek & Pegoraro, 2018). We used big data analysis to amplify MMIW issues and researched how colonial sexualization reduced the status of Indigenous women and girls. This topic touches me deeply and as a social activist it is my duty to advocate for the resilience of women and girls. The topic of sexualized violence also drove the momentum of the Womens’ marches. Once we understood the power and the courage of women social media users we also began to notice the backlash, the negative and threatening responses. We noticed that despite these, women social media users continued. I began to feel a sense of how the real power of social media can obfuscate threats instead compelling audiences to rethink or reimagine women activism and the potential of what could be possible. Courageous tweeters keep alive the fires of “women’s rights are human rights” from this generation to the next. Such tweets are an assurance that people care about women issues and that there are those who are dedicated to finding solutions to facilitate change. This was both the motivation and impetus behind the creation of the GirlPowerEffect site and the hashtag #GirlPwrEffect. The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements proved that connecting key issues about sexual violence and women empowerment gave voice to the up-rise of women taking back control. The #MeToo movement had its 2nd year anniversary on 10 October, 2019. Tarana Burke the creator of the #MeToo hashtag reflected on the monumental impact: In just a few hours, sexual violence, including harassment, went from a topic seldom discussed on mainstream platforms to one that dominated headlines and affected everything from pop culture to policy debates (Burke, Oct, 2019). In order to make change, women needed to be in positions of leadership and power and be at the table everywhere. With that echoing in my heart and mind, I decided to submit my application for a full professorship at my university. 11

Women in Academia Matter

Figure 2. Tweet image taken from my personal collection

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Source: Moeke-Pickering, Taima

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Women in Academia Matter

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INSIGHTS INTO MY JOURNEY TOWARD BECOMING A FULL PROFESSOR AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF SPEAKING OUT During my early years as an academic no one ever mentored me or said you might want to be a full professor. I am not sure if this was because I was a woman or a woman of color or an Indigenous woman or even if my discipline area Indigenous psychology or social work should even merit submitting for a professorship. It has only been in the era of #MeToo, #TimesUp, #MMIW and #GirlPwrEffect and putting myself out there on social media for woman academic activism that I felt motivated to submit. Crimmins (2019) posits that academia privileges male voices at the cost of women. Thereby women’s voices and experiences are diminished within this type of hegemonic discourse. It makes survival sense that we look for women mentors and role models. It is also enriching to be mentored by, to celebrate with, and or to have female academic role models to follow in their footsteps. How are we supposed to know what our potential is when women are subjugated in a male academic system? While promotions and success for women academic leaders still remain invisible (Crimmins, 2019, p. 54) with the right mentoring this too can be overturned. I talked about my ideas for promotion with a few close women friends. Flowing on from the Women’s March movements and wanting to make a difference at our university, a small group of women leaders decided to offer support to women colleagues to help build their curriculum vitae’s (CV), help with promotion packages, funding applications and writing. It is great to receive positive feedback from friends, mentors and those who see beyond your own blindness about what you contribute to and why you are worthy of promotion, and in my case a full professorship. Once I got that into my head and heart, then I decided to put together my CV and promotion package. Honestly, at first, it was very overwhelming as I felt that much of the ask was very clinical if not scientifically based expectations. In other words, I felt that it was well suited to male scholars than female. However, with the support of women colleagues, I persisted and in doing so reclaimed my academic voice, experience, skills and creativity. I was excited to see how women mentors were creative about making the promotion criteria suit me, my Indigeneity, leadership style, decolonization and anti-racism activism work as well as my social media involvement. I heavily emphasized these areas, not only because I am proud of them, but I wanted to show that making changes in a hegemonic and male dominated system is scholarly and academic work too. As well, my work is my creativity and identity and I wanted to make sure that those who were judging me, saw the real me too. I was not just a check the box scholar, but a very creative and wonderful supporter of women and Indigenous rights.

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Women in Academia Matter

On the very first paragraph of my professorship application, I situated my truth. I wrote that “I am a strong proponent of values that are rooted in fairness, equity, diversity and inclusion and I highly value creativity and sound ethical practice. I work better when my teaching, research or governance is exciting and inspiring and I strive for equity, diversity, social justice and women empowerment at any opportunity with students, at meetings, with colleagues or with community”. I guess putting myself on the line, could be viewed as risky. I must admit, that pre-professorship, I often wondered if these political, social and cultural stances might be an impediment to my promotion. So, like most upwardly mobile women, we try to build a stronger positionality, that makes it harder for scholarly impediments. I served as a Director for the School of Indigenous Relations for six years as well as taught 9 credits (three 3 credit courses) while maintaining an active research portfolio. I led and wrote the Indigenous Social Work program Institutional Quality Assurance Framework (IQAP) reports and Canadian Associate of Social Work Education (CASWE) Accreditation documents. This involved facilitating student, faculty, administration and community/agency input. This is critical for programs to report on what they have done well, the impact for students, agencies and communities, to convey and situate the importance of Indigenous worldviews and pedagogies as well as ensure long term sustainability. Notably, my role was to ensure that all cultural meanings remained intact and their value was not lost in the clinical conversion processes. Under my leadership, the Indigenous Social Work program received CASWE and IQAP approval while keeping intact social work integrity and values of equity, social justice and Indigeneity. During the time of my directorship, the university was also facing extreme cuts. This speaks to the real dynamics of an Indigenous School that is constantly positioning for adequate resources and recognition. I was on a large number of committees, mainly to ensure that the School remain sustainable and it was important to be in places where decision-making about leadership, budgets, policy and strategic direction was being made. Despite extreme cuts, I managed to increase our faculty from 3 to 5, maintain sessional instructors and double the student enrolment. Naturally in my model of leadership, I value relationships and am acutely aware of the importance of consultation, listening and engagement with our communities. Communities, agencies, students and faculty/administration are at the heart of who we serve. I understood how difficult and challenging it is when working with complex relationships. I strived to learn, understand and find ways to build relationships. These are my core values. As an Indigenous woman, I am also very aware of racism, sexism and other isms, that foreground such complexities, and as a result am not afraid of facilitating difficult conversations. I have a strong history for standing in solidarity for social justice, diversity and inclusivity issues.

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Women in Academia Matter

I worked hard to ensure that my research portfolio attests to significant partnerships I have built locally, nationally and internationally. My approach to research is Indigenous-based, rooted in community engagement where I strive to engage research relationships in ways that they feel a valued member of the team or can contribute to meaningful decision-making processes. There is a lot of pressure to get large grant funded research, to publish or perish, and to be a keynote at conferences. While I did check these boxes, perhaps the most heartfelt research I carried out was with grassroots groups on topics such as women empowerment, food insecurity, sexualized violence and Indigenous rights. I served on over 30 committees. My knowledge of how the university ‘works’ (e.g., how courses are developed and approved, how programs are reviewed, how policies are developed) has grown exponentially over the years as a result of my serving on governance committees. This experience has allowed me to gain insight into the larger picture of the university from the perspectives of the students, faculty, staff and administration. I feel that this knowledge helped me to achieve both the goals for my School (sustainability) and the university at large (increased Indigenous social work strategies). I enjoy being creative. I developed three new courses, one for the Indigenous Social Work program (ISWK 4406 Colonizing/Decolonizing Issues of Violence in Indigenous Communities online), and two for the Master of Indigenous Relations program (MIRE 5016 Indigenous Research Methodologies & MIRE 5046 United Nations and International Indigenous Issues). Although I led the development of these new courses the motivation for the topics was inspired by the Indigenous community, faculty and students. My role as faculty was to align these courses to community needs and aspirations as well as ensure relevant theory, pedagogy, content and materials. Therefore, the courses were endorsed by the community, evaluated by Indigenous faculty/students and confirmed by the Laurentian University Native Education Council (LUNEC). The response from students who completed these courses has been positive, they found the content relevant and it opened their minds. I used my own social media blog accounts (girlpowereffect.com and taimamoekepickering.strikingly.com) to promote my own research and articles, my student theses, and other Indigenous topics that were not always found in books or journals. I also decided to publish in this way hoping to reach a wider audience than just the scholarly sector. I recall talking to a colleague who shared that her article in a medical journal was only read by those who either could afford it or who were in that field. Sadly only a few read scholarly work. Social media helped me to write beyond the university systems. It enabled me to write truthful OpEd pieces where I can use both my academic background and my heart. I wanted these to be counted in my promotion package, so I inserted them as scholarly works.

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In summary, I chose to be co-intentional with my promotion package, in that I checked the academic boxes as well as included my own social, cultural and political stance along with my creative scholarly flair. In July 1 2019, I became the second female full Indigenous professor at my university. In hindsight, I would encourage women to keep their story in their promotion application and be proud of it. I was extremely pleased with the positive feedback from external reviewers, which noticed those parts of me that make me the unique scholar that I am.

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THE CONSEQUENCES OF SPEAKING OUT: BEING A STRONG WOMAN AND RETALIATION ARE INEXTRICABLE When one is a leader, or a strong women leader, there are consequences. Perhaps, I could have got to full professorship earlier if I had not fallen into the so-called system requirement mindset. Maybe I could have been a Dean, or been a Chair of women empowerment committees or been promoted to Vice President positions. Personally, I did not make myself available for those either, mainly because Indigenous and women empowerment were the areas I wanted to focus on. As a result, mostly you are on the backfoot and doing the work to bring about awareness, challenging those in power, trying to create policies to be more inclusive, and for some people that could be misconstrued as a nuisance or agitator. You have to put yourself out there, when you want to bring about change. Because I am active on social media mainly twitter, facebook and instagram, and watching the backlash of the MeToo and TimesUp movement, I knew it would be a matter of time before I received social media abuse. I was ready by then, I was now “out” in the public sphere making strong women empowerment statements. Speaking out and retaliation are inextricable. While the global groundswell by #MeToo bolstered confidence in women to share their sexual and harassment experiences online, fomenting policy changes at many workplaces, it also took a personal toll on some of the women who spoke out (Noguchi, 2019). For some the backlash was vehement in the form of dismissals to being sued, losing jobs, financial hardship and for others being outed and harassed. In my personal experience, and without giving away too many details, I received constant threats and harassments from a certain person. In some ways it was related to my stance on women empowerment, because I was an outspoken Indigenous woman. Often academic leaders are targeted and fodder for those who might perceive us to be a threat. So, it did not surprise me that my sexuality, my stance on women issues, my leadership and role at the university and my work with Girlpowereffect would be a target for harassment. I am highlighting this here, because, it is a topic that we hardly talk about openly. I informed the Dean, the Vice President, the President, my union and my colleagues. 16

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Women in Academia Matter

Being abused and harassed on email or any types of social media where many people view it, is awful. You feel isolated, you feel minimized and you want to shut down. In fact, I did shut down for the first three months hoping that it would go away. But it did not. The person kept harassing me publicly on social media, sometimes up to 20 times per day and including more and more people, media and anyone else who wanted to watch the abuse. The impact of the constant harassment is hard to describe when your personal, social and professional image of what you have built is being negatively targeted. Needless to say, I involved the Police. There is an impending court case, but the truth is, is that being a victim is a difficult terrain and you need every possible positive mentor, friend, colleague or analysis to keep you strong. One feedback I received was to “let it go, it will go away”. Another was, “if you do not stand up to it, then that person will keep doing it to another innocent person”. Anyways, I stood up to it, and here are the ramifications, that is, the abuse stepped up, and so did I, in finding my rights and searching for protection and support. The academic system is not made for victims, I learned. There were many times that I had to find the information externally and bring that into the institutional process as a way to navigate being safe in my workplace. Although, there are many words in our policies that talk about safe spaces, there are also many loop holes about how those spaces are supposed to be. Also, I found that because social media is relatively new, some of our policies have not caught up. There is a lot of empathy but not a lot of action sometimes. I must admit in the above case my experience became the ‘first example’ at my university to learn from. I feel better for the next ones who come up behind me in terms of social media harassment policies at our university, that perhaps we might have learned a bit more. However, to be honest, it is one of the most difficult experiences I have ever faced at the university. Why this is important is because I do not believe that women academic leaders are exempt from harassment. I believe this happens more often than not. Most times we do not hear or talk to each other about these experiences. I feel that as women, sharing our experiences informs the next generation of women academic leaders. Not everyone is going to have the same extreme experience as I did, but certainly sharing and networking are all part of women movement work. It is difficult, it is hard, and sometimes it feels embarrassing. Collectively, if we all shared what happened to us in a safe and teachable context, then perhaps we might actually see the ‘amazinginess’ and ‘power’ of women academics. Wouldn’t that be a great story to tell. As I write this piece, I am yet to attend the court case of the person who has been harassing me now for two years. Academic systems can be slow to change their policies. They tend to wait for many examples before making changes (if any). I

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have worked in an academic system for nearly 30 years so I should not be surprised at how slow making change is.

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CONCLUSION In this chapter I shared three themes that I drew upon to interweave my academic journey and to demonstrate why women in academia matter. My cultural background gifted me with my Maori identity and worldview. Smith (2012) astutely names this as a sense of “authentic humanity” a decolonial tool. My Maori authenticity became a decolonial framework that sharpened my lens for social justice. The intergenerational resilience I carry from my Maori ancestors, is my internal strength. It also helped connect me with others who were fighting for social justice issues. Academic women mentors, is also a gift as we share our positives and negatives of working in male hegemonic systems. We have to pave a way for the next generation of women academics, especially because we deserve academic change. What is inspirational, is working with those women colleagues who have the guts and fortitude to push the margins of academia to make it fit for women. We deserve to be academics. Our scholarly work shapes societies and communities. I am glad to be a full professor, but most importantly, I am pleased that I claimed all of my scholarly activities to represent my work. As we speak, social media is transforming the world quickly. Women, Indigenous and other disparate groups can now be the authors of their stories, experiences and ideas. We can connect with alike-minded persons, unify on social justice and share our strategies for support or change. Academia will ultimately change because of social media and it is up to us to take advantage of using this forum as a way to amplify what is important and meaningful. I noted and this is important, that with change comes backlash. It is important for us as women to understand that it is more than likely to happen to us, and to put in place ways to support each other. I am privileged to be around supportive women academics. Even if it is just a hug or a nice card, these gestures of support go a long way when constant harassment and abuse happens to you. Remember, you are not alone. We are here. I would like to end how I started, and that is with a quote by Abby Wambach “Leader is not a title that the world gives to you - it’s an offering that you give to the world” (2019, p. 80). As women academics, we need to unleash our leadership power if we want to make a change. And, like my Indigenous ancestors, the Women’s March movements and social media activism, we must be at every table. My offering to the world, is my creativity, sense of social justice and my energy. I am grateful for my Indigeneity, my ancestors, women leaders, young women and girls who ask “why”, are “inquisitive” and want a better world for women. I hope that by sharing 18

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my academic journey and ideas for being a woman in academia will be helpful for others. Most of all I learned, that we are all unique, and must bring our creativity to the fore wherever we work in the academic system. Truly, we must represent and reclaim the “universe” piece of university.

REFERENCES Belich, J. (2001). Paradise Reforged: A History of the New Zealanders, From the 1880s to the Year 2000. Auckland: Allen Lane/Penguin. Bishop, R., & Glynn, T. (1999). Culture counts: Changing power relations in education. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press Limited. Burke, T. (2019, October 10). Survivors of sexual assault are votes too. So why aren’t the Presidential candidates paying attention to them? Time.Com. https://time. com/5696961/tarana-burke-2020/ Chenoweth, E., & Pressman, J. (2017, February 7). This is what we learned by counting the women’s marches. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost. com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/02/07/this-is-what-we-learned-by-counting-thewomens-marches/ Crimmins, G. (2019). An activism of inclusion. In #SocSciMatters: Championing original and authoritative research. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/socialsciences/gail-crimmins Durie, M. (1998). Te Mana, Te Kawanatanga: Politics of Maori self- determination. Victoria: Oxford University Press. Memmi, A. (1991). The colonizer and the colonized. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

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Moeke-Pickering, T. (2010). Decolonisation as a social change framework and its impact on the development of Indigenous-based curricular for Helping Professionals in mainstream Tertiary Education Organisations. https://researchcommons.waikato. ac.nz/bitstream/10289/4148/3/thesis.pdf Moeke-Pickering, T., Cote-Meek, S. & Pegoraro, A. (2018). Understanding the ways missing and murdered Indigenous women are framed and handled by social media users. Media International Australia. DOI: doi:10.1177/1329878X18803730

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Noguchi, Y. (2019). For many #MeToo accusers speaking up is just the beginning. Herald on Morning Edition. Downloaded 7 November 2019. https:www/.npr. org/2019/11/05/772223109/for-many-metoo-accusers-speaking-up-is-just-thebeginning Orange, C. (1987). The Treaty of Waitangi. Wellington: Allen & Unwin. Smith, G. H. (2003, October). Indigenous struggle for the transformation of education and schooling. Keynote address to the Alaskan Federation of Natives, Anchorage, AK. Retrieved from http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/Curriculum/Articles/GrahamSmith/ Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonising methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Dunedin: University of Otago Press. Walker, R. (1990). Ka whawhai tonu matou: Struggle without end. Auckland: Penguin. Wambach, A. (2018). Wolfpack: How to come together, unleash power, and change the game. New York: Celadon Books.

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Women’s March Board. (2019). Mission and Unity Principles. https://womensmarch. com

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Chapter 2

Resisting Exotic Puppetry: Experiences of Indigenous Women Leadership in the Academy Lynn F. Lavallee Ryerson University, Canada

ABSTRACT Indigenous women have increasingly taken up leadership roles in the academy, particularly in the time of truth and reconciliation within the Canadian context. While the institutions are keen to promote Indigenous leadership, spaces are carved out, yet there is a surge of resignations, fring, and toxic work environments. This chapter will delve into the colonial patriarchy and misogyny that intersects with Indigeneity within academic institutions. The notion of these carved out spacing being stages of performance and the exotic puppetry that often plays out particularly for Indigenous women will be underscored.

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RESISTING EXOTIC PUPPETRY: EXPERIENCES OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN LEADERSHIP IN THE ACADEMY Indigenous women have increasingly taken up leadership roles in the academy, particularly in the time of truth and reconciliation within the Canadian context. In Canada, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was established to collect Indigenous survivors’ experiences in residential schools and the final report was released in 2015 noting 94 Calls to Action (TRC, 2015) – an attempt to redress the intergenerational harms of residential schools. Some universities responded by creating Indigenous specific senior level positions, such as associate vice president, DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch002 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Resisting Exotic Puppetry

academic and Indigenous programs, vice provost, Indigenous engagement, deans of faculties that focused on Indigenous principles, etc. This is not to say that prior to 2015, Indigenous peoples, and Indigenous women in particular were not taking up leadership roles in the academy. While the institutions are keen to promote Indigenous leadership, spaces are carved out yet there is a surgence of resignations, firings and toxic work environments. In the efforts to ‘Indigenize’ university spaces and academic programs in response to reconciliation there is growing complexity to the experience of Indigenous learners and leaders, particularly how this relates to colonial patriarchy and misogyny that intersects with Indigeneity within academic institutions. The notion of these carved out spacing being stages of performance and the exotic puppetry that often plays out, particularly for Indigenous women will be explored in this chapter.

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SETTING THE STAGE: TIME AND PLACE I never thought of myself as a feminist. That term never really fit, because I never saw myself reflected in people who identified as feminist or within feminist movements, which was and I would argue, still is, predominantly carrying the privileged white woman’s narrative. Green (2007) and others have articulated the need for feminism to make space for Indigenous thought and Cameron (2010) incorporated critical theory and feminism from an Indigenous perspective in her doctoral work, coining the term critical ekweism. I credit Dr. Sheila Neuman, a white feminist who was provost at the University of Toronto for increasing my awareness of toxic masculinity, misogyny and patriarchy in the academy. To a certain degree, I could now relate to women’s experiences in the academy. Albeit, this analysis did/does not translate for Indigenous women in the academy or Indigenous women in society more generally. She was the keynote for a talk about women in academia. She asked us to reflect and take note of how men in the academy take up space, and gave an example of a man, spreading out, leaning back - #ManSprawl - and presenting his accolades for 20 minutes, yet a woman with more experience and credentials taking a fraction of the time to do the same. I reflected back to many experiences where this would occur and how I played into it by minimizing my accomplishments. I became increasing conscious of this #ManSprawl in the academy. Around the same time, a teaching about not minimizing myself came from Grandmother Dr. Lillian McGregor while I was on the Board of Directors of the Native Canadian Centre in Toronto. Grandmother Lillian held an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto and an Indspire1 award recognizing her well over a half century of work with the Indigenous community. Her teaching recognized the 22

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Resisting Exotic Puppetry

internalized colonial violence of misogyny in our communities. She spoke about the way in which women’s voices around the table were often minimized and told me that I should not shy away from using my title of doctor. She noted that humility is much needed from the men in our community but for women, humility is often projected on us to take away our strength and power. Dr. Lillian McGregor is now in the spirit world and I will never forget this teaching. Fast forward a few decades to the narratives of toxic masculinity, heteropatriarchy and misogyny existing and playing out within the #MeToo movement. In the past two years the #MeToo movement has gained momentum in the Indigenous community. Misogyny and toxic masculinity in Indian country is being publicly presented in social media exposing behaviour of Indigenous male leaders. This #NativeMeToo is not quite a movement in comparison to #MeToo. I term the #NativeMeToo as an expression and not a movement because there does not appear to be as much support within and outside of the community for, primarily Indigenous young women coming forward attempting to share their experiences of sexual harassment, assault and misogyny. Of course, the #MeToo movement began with the courage of an African American woman, Tarana Burke and only gained broader momentum after actress Alyssa Milano tweeted about sexual harassment and assault by producer Harvey Weinstein (Garcia, 2017). The cooptation of the #MeToo movement by white women increased the support and awareness creating a movement that seemed to matter more. The #NativeMeToo expression has no momentum and women, 2-spirit and trans people who are speaking up are being openly suppressed. Does #NativeMeToo need an Alyssa? Perhaps a national inquiry could help? #NativeMeToo is happening within the context of the release of the reports of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG, 2019). This inquiry was in response to the overwhelming number of Indigenous women, girls, 2-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual and/or gender diverse or non-binary (2SLGBTQQIA* acronym used in reports) who have been murdered and have gone missing over the decades. The commission, while fraught with resignations from its inception in 2016, culminated in a series of reports. The inquiry gathered truths from families of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA people, survivors of violence, experts and knowledge keepers. This inquiry unequivocally identified systemic colonial violence as the foundation of gendered-based genocide. The commission reports consist of two final report volumes totalling just under 1100 pages, a supplemental report for the province of Quebec (175 pages), specific Calls to Justice for government related to human and Indigenous rights, (11 calls), government related to culture (2.7 calls), government related to health and wellness (7 calls), government related to human security (8 calls), government related to justice (25 calls), media and social influencers (1 call), 23

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health and social service providers (9 calls), transportation and hospitality providers (1 call), police services (11 calls), attorneys and law societies (1 call), educators (2 calls), social workers and those implicated in child welfare (15 calls), extractive and development industries (5 calls), Correctional Services Canada,(13 calls) and for all Canadians (8 calls). In addition to the above, the evidence of the facts gathered throughout the commission, matters specific to Metis, Inuit and First Nations, and a supplementary report on the legal analysis of genocide unapologetically positions MMIWG within colonial violence and gender-based genocide. The inquiry further delineated the four pathways that maintain systemic colonial violence and gender-based genocide. Namely, historical, multigenerational and intergenerational trauma; social and economic marginalization; maintaining the status quo and institutional lack of will, and ignoring the agency and experience of Indigenous women, girls and 2SLGBTQQIA (MMIWG, 2019, p. 117). Yet, the colonial violence and gender-based genocide became the focus of the report upon its release with debate on whether these systemic structures actually exist. This is the context in which we receive or rather reject #NativeMeToo. This is the context in which the stages of performance and exotic puppetry exist in the academy.

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CHARACTERS IN THE STAGES OF PERFORMANCE AND EXOTIC PUPPETRY The stages of performance where misogyny and Indigeneity intersect in the academy have been heightened as strong Indigenous women and two-spirit warriors increasingly take on senior level and leadership positions in the academy. For instance, in 2010, Dr. Sheila Cote-Meek was one of the first Indigenous women to take on an inaugural senior level administrative role at Laurentian University, associate vice president academic and Indigenous programs and is currently at York University in another inaugural role, vice president, equity, people and culture. In 2016, Dr. Angelique Eaglewoman was the first Indigenous Dean of Law at Lakehead University. In 2017, Dr. Lynn Lavallee took on the inaugural role of vice provost, Indigenous engagement at York University, followed by Dr. Jacqueline Ottman taking on the same role at the University of Saskatchewan. In 2019, University of Alberta announced Dr. Florence Glanfield as the vice provost, Indigenous programming and research. And most recently, Dr. Catherine Cook was appointed to the role of vice president, Indigenous engagement after leading a consultation for a few months in response to the earlier resignation of Dr. Lavallee. These women were all publicly celebrated by their institutions, sometimes or arguably, as a way for the university to visibly perform on the stage of reconciliation and compete with or one up other institutions. We need not look further than the 24

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Maclean’s university rankings which now asks students to rank the universities’ efforts to make Indigenous histories, cultures and languages visible (MacLean’s, 2018). On a side note, MacLean’s was responding to a request from a senior Indigenous leader to “assess the investments and commitments to Indigenous people” (para 1), yet this translated into assessing the visibility of Indigenous history, culture and language, not the success of Indigenous peoples in the academy. This public display positions the institutions as the performative ally and the Indigenous female leadership as the exotic puppet. The exotic puppetry eluded to is wanting what is perceived as the exoticness of Indigenous women and Indigenous culture and even being initially attracted to the strong Indigenous warrior woman persona. However, in this ally theatre, the institution plays the role of performative ally, holding the strings, like the strings of a puppet, holding up the exotic puppet in public, trying to mould and display the palatable Indian. The performative ally actors are other senior administrative people, men and women alike, who sincerely believe they are doing all they can to support Indigenous people. This messiah or saviour complex is the script, acted out publicly in a very different way than acted out behind the curtain. The stages of performance, both public and private, uphold colonialism, enmeshed with patriarchy and misogyny. The foundation of this play can be symbolized by the curtain, the impermeable curtain, where the foundation is colonialism, intricately woven with threads of patriarchy and misogyny. This is the stage of performance, the stage of reconciliation and the exotic puppetry. The stage of reconciliation is where truth is circumvented and ill-defined Indigenization and decolonization take centre focus. Indigenization and decolonization are the sound-bites that uphold the stage of reconciliation keeping truth at bay and perpetuating the performative allyship, attempting to mould the strong Indigenous female warrior to that of the palatable Indian, the exotic puppet.

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Act 1, Scene 1: The Ogichidaakwe To understand the exotic puppetry of the Indigenous woman in the academy, it is helpful to speak to strong Indigenous women leaders in general. In Anishinaabemowin, ogichidaakwe general translates to woman warrior. However, when the ogichidaakwe term is used, it also brings forward the sense of a strong, Indigenous woman warrior working, or rather, fighting to make change within community. The notion of warrior is not necessarily in the physical sense but emphasizes the spiritual, intellectual/ mental and emotional realms. The term, ogichidaakwe recognizes the overwhelming strength of women, in spite of, and often, because of the colonial violence that was acknowledged as gender-based genocide in the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG, 2019).

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When someone is called an ogichidaakwe, there is recognition of the constant onslaught of colonial violence one faces, both in front of and behind the impermeable colonial curtain interwoven with misogyny and patriarchy. There is also an understanding of the vulnerability that exists within and the constant need to fight the internalization of colonial violence. This quote about undeservingness from Lavallee (2008) highlights the exchange between vulnerability and strength and demonstrates the internalization of the colonial violence and the battle within to emerge from this underservingness that is continually enforced by society. Undeservingness - My undeservingness as a woman. I’m understanding… that my undeservingness is a symptom that comes from our long history and how we unlearned our ways to respect women. It comes from my Dad, and his Dad, and so on. And, in turn, the men I have selected act similarly because I’m comfortable with and expect to be treated unwell. So my next symbol is the Strong Women’s Song— the song that I know has brought me helpers to unlearn this lack of deservingness (Lavallee, 2008). Ogichidaakwe find a way to break through this colonial curtain of violence and often that is through ceremony and culture. Hawk, the woman in this quote, used the power of the drum and song, and the Strong Women’s Song specifically, to challenge the overwhelming onslaught of underservingness she expressed as an Indigenous woman who was currently surviving experiences that could easily have made her another MMIWG statistic. In this context, the ogichidaakwe is a surviving, a survivor and a warrior simultaneously.

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Act 1, Scene 2: Stripping, Violating, and Surveillance of the Ogichidaakwe The colonial academy is not free from the system of colonial violence. The system is the same but with different outcomes. Colonial violence is upheld through the same four pathways identified in the MMIWG report; historical, multigenerational and intergenerational trauma; social and economic marginalization; maintaining the status quo and institutional lack of will, and ignoring the agency and experience of Indigenous women, and 2SLGBTQQIA people. The scenes that occur behind the impermeable colonial curtain in the academy are an attempt to strip ogichidaakwe of their strength, keeping them in a state of undeservingness and reinforces the palatable Indian, so the exotic puppetry can continue. A quote from Bishop Grandin, a man celebrated for his pioneer missionary work in Manitoba, reminds me of the current work in the academy where colonialism and patriarchy are espoused. 26

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When they graduate from our institutions, the children have lost everything native except their blood. They have forgotten their mother tongue and, in this way, cannot live native life anymore; we instill in them a pronounced distaste for the native life so that they will be humiliated when reminded of their origin (Bishop Vital Grandin, 1875). One might argue that this quote from 1875 is nowhere near comparable to the present-day colonial academy but a primary outcome of colonization, is and continues to be internalized oppression – where the subordinate groups are socialized and moulded to fit the needs and desires of the dominant group (Fanon, 1969), upholding patriarchy, white privilege and misogyny. There is often an expectation of internalized oppression upon joining senior leadership in the academy. As a senior administrative member of the academy you must stand with the colonial academy, thus socialized and moulded to fit the needs of the institution. There is an expectation that you then socialize and mould other Indigenous people who do not fall in line. You are meant to deal with what is often perceived as the Indian problem on your own. Inability to appropriately address these situations by upholding colonialism, patriarch and misogyny is met with distain and colonial violence. In this way, the ideology of Bishop Grandin is relevant today. A challenge of some of these leadership roles in the academy is battling the internalized oppression and the resulting disrespectful and problematic behaviours by Indigenous people on Indigenous people. Further complicating this is the misogyny and toxic masculinity within the Indigenous community. The misogyny and toxic masculinity in Indian country has been discussed as it relates to MMIWG and that colonial violence leads to gender-based genocide. It is not just non-Indigenous men who participate in these acts of violence but also Indigenous men who capitalize on the colonial structures that can afford them some type of power in a society that renders them powerless. However, this statement is not meant to excuse this behaviour and violence but to provide further context. This takes me to experiences of ogichidaakwe in the academy who face vulnerability, underservingness and internalized oppression, albeit in a very different way than ogichidaakwe who have less privilege. Indigenous men in the academy have been and are performers of colonial violence, misogyny and patriarchy against Indigenous women in leadership positions in particular.

Act 2, Scene 1: Stages of Performance in the Academy - The Unwitting Indian Agent As a senior Indigenous administrator in the university, you are often expected to deal with Indigenous issues and challenges. It’s almost as if the administration can 27

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breathe a sigh of relief because the Indigenous lead is expected to deal with the Indian problem, often on their own, with little information or support. The notion of the administration being a team washes away leaving the Indigenous lead to play the role of Indian agent on behalf of the institution. There is a stripping away of your Indigeneity particularly when the university position is far removed from what you know is the expectation of community. You are expected to uphold the status quo of the colonial institution. I was unwittingly put in the position of Indian agent controlling the Indian problem, while a display of Indigenous toxic masculinity and misogyny played out in public theatre at the 2017 Building Reconciliation Forum. Although the Building Reconciliation Forum was created by universities presidents three years prior to respond to the TRC Calls to Action, after the opening events, all senior administration departed leaving me as the most senior administrative person in the room. I had little if any information about the challenges the university was having with our Indigenous partner but was left to deal with a set of circumstance that would unfold. Even after requesting senior administration return to the room, I was denied and expected to represent the institution. However, as an ogichidaakwe, I first stand with community. Fundamentally, I could not agree with the stance of the university. A series of events lead to many of the Indigenous participants being justifiably upset. Myself and other women were centre stage, as well as back stage attempting to roll out the quintessential play of reconciliation for the university. The perfect storm was created. The events that unfolded included on-stage activities of colonial violence, patriarchy and misogyny sprinkled with what many experienced a lateral violence. Behind the curtain, the misogyny and toxic masculinity exacerbated. This was a scene that many of the Indigenous women who were on the receiving end of the assault will never forget while having been strengthened by the solidarity of our Indigeneity and womanhood.

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Act 2, Scene 2: Misogyny and the Toxic Indigenous Male Mansplaining misogyny! Yes, it happened. When we try to identify the systems that are at the root of colonialism, patriarchy and misogyny, we are challenging the status quo, the third pathway that maintains colonial violence as noted in the MMIWG report. Often, a response to challenging the status quo is an attempt at silencing and ignoring the experiences of the very Indigenous women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA persons experiencing misogyny and toxic masculinity. Misogyny is not about men hating women, rather is the controlling and punishing of women who challenge male dominance and is the law enforcement branch of patriarchy (Manne, 2017). After a lengthy period of having to address an Indigenous man’s behaviour, not only to me but other women in the university, I told him directly that he was 28

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a misogynist. Incidentally, one of my first experiences with this person involved his assertion to me while in my office with the door closed that we are in a man’s world by using an analogy of the “proverbial blowing in the wind”. This left me wondering, “What does he expect me to do with this statement? I don’t have a dick so clearly I could not be effective in the circumstance he was sharing with me about an institutional situation. How much more misogynist can this be?” Misogynist demonstrate hostility toward women when historical patriarchy is challenged (Manne, 2017). This opening scene with the most misogynist Indigenous male I have ever encountered set every stage for every interaction with him in the future. His continual behaviour toward me and other Indigenous women only worsened. Maybe calling him misogynist directly to his face was not the most tactful way to address his behaviour but it had gone on far too long and the university administration was little support. He raised his voice, leaned in, cut me off and asked, “Do you know what misogyny is? I love woman? Misogyny is….” I couldn’t hear the rest. I was stuck on him mansplaining misogyny. He then assaulted my leadership, my personality, and my position in community. He was trying to capitalize on any thread of underservingness I might have to leave me questioning myself as an ogichidaakwe. It didn’t work. It fueled me even more and brought the Indigenous women closer together. I know he audiotaped the communication without obtaining consent from me, so my only hope is that he can listen back to this recording at some point and recognize his mansplaining and verbal assault as misogyny.

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Act 2, Scene 3: Violence and Surveillance Behind the Colonial Curtain Surveillance for Indigenous women in leadership in the academy is compounded by so many layers. The surveillance comes through as continually questioning your leadership, your activities, your thoughts, your position in community, any authority you might have to function in the very senior leadership role that you occupy. This has been expressed by women who have resigned positions of senior leadership in the academy. When that impermeable colonial curtain interwoven with misogyny and patriarchy is drawn leaving the ogichidaakwe alone with the supposed team that she/they are to stand with, behaviours are amplified. This is where there is further stripping, violating and surveillance in a toxic administrative team. Surveillance accumulates on the person while the performative ally attempts to shape a more palatable Indian. Surveillance occurs through interruptions which are acts of violence toward Indigenous thought and experiences of the ogichidaakwe. This is beyond a simple ignoring of the agency and experience of the Indigenous woman, 2SLGBTQQIA 29

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– the fourth pathway that maintains colonial violence. These interruptions are normalized and often can be quite violent. My most memorable occurrence of surveillance of my words occurred when I repeated exactly what a male senior leader had said when the entire team would not support a collective Indigenous student driven request. Behind the curtain, this male senior leader made a statement that led to the denial of a request by the Indigenous students. It was a team decision to deny the students’ request. I had to go back to the Indigenous students to let them know the outcome. Subsequently, the students went to the media. When a few members of the administrative team, including myself, had to meet with our public relations because of the circumstance being exposed in the media, there was a denial of the team decision. When afforded the opportunity to speak I mentioned what was said at our team meeting and two white women cut me off simultaneously and aggressively denied the statement. The ogichidaakwe came through and I matched their verbal aggression and named who made the statement in the meeting. This was not just an attempt to ignore or silence me, but to gaslight me, having me question the very circumstances that had occurred. I know other ogichidaakwe in the academy can relate to these experiences of surveillance, these occurrences of violent acts of interruption and the active everyday erasure of Indigenous women. While the institutions create spaces in response to the TRC, these spaces are welldefined by the academy. Some institutions are more colonially violent than others and some are more aware of the coloniality that is foundational to the operation of the academy. Each has a different threshold of tolerance and they do not tell you what the threshold is (Anderson, 2019). There is tolerance for the palatable Indian, even some tolerance for the ogichidaakwe, but when you have reached that level of tolerance, the violent acts emerge.

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Scene 3: Final Scene At this present time, I believe efforts to decolonize academic institutions that are funded by government are futile but we can bring awareness and transparency to the colonial curtain. We can acknowledge the patriarchy and misogyny that is intricately woven within the colonial curtain. We can acknowledge ogichidaakwe. The stage of reconciliation needs to be replaced with a stage of truth. We need to stand in that truth long enough so that the pathways to colonial violence can be believed and understood. The final scene is marked by resignations, forced dismissals, leaves of absence, and continuation of silence while working diligently to support Indigenous peoples in the colonial academy. Ogichidaakwe leaders in the academy unapologetically share their experiences, if they feel safe to do so. We work collectively to bring change 30

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to academe. We do so by speaking truth, our truth, like ogichidaakwe artist Diana Hellson ‘Mamarudegyal’ from the Siksika Nation and West Indian from Saint Lucia states, “Misogyny is normal as fuck” and uses hip-hop to get men to “think twice about their actions” (Morgan, 2019, para 25). We are a collective, and our collective response on the performative stage of reconciliation matters. One person speaking out about colonial violence contributes to the collective ogichidaakwe voice. Those meant to speak out support the ogichidaakwe who are meant to quietly address the needs of Indigenous students and vice versa. Ogichidaakwe replenish with ceremony and with each other. Indigenous men make space for our voice, our being. Indigenous men hold other men accountable. Let’s imagine cutting the exotic puppet strings and shift the performative ally theatre and stage of reconciliation to a place of making space for wisdom that is based in truth telling, courage and bravery that is humbly expressed, and respect that is enmeshed in love. COLONIAL CURTAIN WOVEN WITH MISOGYNY AND PATRIARCHY OPENS

REFERENCES Anderson, M. (2019, February). Ten ways organizations get in their own way on “Indigenous achievement”. Presentation at the Indigenous Scholar Speaker Series, University of Manitoba. Retrieved from https://www.facebook. com/102112053294020/posts/are-you-interested-in-ten-ways-organizations-get-intheir-own-way-on-indigenous-/1050135298491686/

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Bishop Vital Grandin. (1875). The Diaries of Bishop Vital Grandin. 1875-1977: Volume 1. Author. Cameron, R. E. (2010). What are you in the dark? The transformative powers of manitouminasuc upon the identities of Anishinabeg in the Ontario Child Welfare System (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from University of Toronto TSpace https:// tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/26156/1/CAMERON_Rose_E_201011_ PhD_Thesis.pdf Fanon, F. (1968). The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Garcia, S. E. (2017, October 20). The woman who created #MeToo long before the hashtags. New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/ us/me-too-movement-tarana-burke.html

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Green, J. (2007). Making Space for Indigenous Feminism. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing. Lavallee, L. (2008). Balancing the medicine wheel through physical activity. Journal of Aboriginal Health, 4(1), 64–711. Retrieved from https://www.ryerson.ca/asbr/ asbr/files/Balancing%20the%20Medicine%20Wheel%20Through%20Physical%20 Activity.pdf Macleans. (2018, October 11). Why Indigenous visibility is part of the MacLean’s university rankings. MacLean’s. Retrieved from https://www.macleans.ca/education/ university-rankings/why-indigenous-visibility-is-part-of-the-macleans-universityrankings/ Manne, K. (2017). Down Girl. The Logic of Misogyny. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190604981.001.0001 Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG). (2019). Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Volume 1a. CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF. Retrieved from https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Final_ Report_Vol_1a-1.pdf Morgan, B. (2019, February 15). Bringing Indigenous hip-hop to the big screen – and fighting misogyny while she’s still at it. The Discourse. Retrieved from https:// www.thediscourse.ca/urban-nation/bringing-indigenous-hip-hop-to-the-big-screen Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (2015). Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Retrieved from http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf

ENDNOTE

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Indspire is a Canadian national Indigenous organization that recognizes Indigenous achievement.

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Chapter 3

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter: Community, Creativity, and Comedy Sharon Lauricella University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada

ABSTRACT

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The online arena is rife with mansplaining, harassment, and intimidation of women. Similarly, women in academia operate in a traditionally patriarchal, misogynistic environment. What happens when a female academic creates a vibrant online presence? This chapter is an autoethnographic account of the author’s experiences managing the public, online performance of a female scholar (@AcademicBatgirl) with the objective to create and cultivate community. She argues that in the online landscape, prosocial behaviour is essential in creating community and sustaining cohesion. She addresses the prosocial efects of humour, including examples of memes that she created and posted on Twitter. She also addresses pitfalls relative to student shaming that she recommends academics avoid in any online or ofine forum.

INTRODUCTION The best-known iteration of Gotham City’s Batgirl was played by iconic ballerina Yvonne Craig in the final season of the campy television series Batman. While parents in the sixties objected to what they feared was a homoerotic subtext of the program by means of the partnership between Batman and Robin, the introduction of Batgirl DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch003 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

was an attempt to add a feminine presence (certainly the purple and gold sparkly costume was of significant assistance in achieving this goal). By day, bespectacled and demure, the most recognized version of Batgirl possessed a doctoral degree and spent her days as a librarian in Gotham City’s Public Library. As evening set in and crimes abound, Batgirl donned her batsuit and, alongside her comrades Batman and Robin, served justice in the community. Void of any superpowers, Batgirl was a superhero solely by means of her physical and intellectual skills. Batgirl is therefore not unlike many academic women – most hold a Ph.D. and by day work in a publicly visible job, are surrounded by books, and (we expect) serve as morally upstanding examples in our society. After exiting classrooms and scholarly labs, academic women become the superheroes of their own families and their own personal lives; there are friends to support, partners to either collaborate with or defend themselves against, batlings to protect, and shrewd decisions to be made. For many women, not only their presence but also their embodied performance of womanhood (Butler, 1988) simply doesn’t fit in the academy. A recent debate about what female professors should (and should not) wear to teach and research was highly visible in social media (Flaherty, 2015). Dress up? Dress down? Lab coat or tweedy blazer with elbow patches? The academy is a longstanding example of a traditionally patriarchal and misogynistic culture for both faculty (Meyers, 2013) and students (National Union of Students, 2015). Similarly, the online landscape is also a treacherous one. There is lively debate in popular culture about the misogynistic, critical nature of women’s online behaviour such as the practice of taking “selfie” photographs (Tiidenberg, 2014; Tiidenberg & Gomez Cruz, 2015), the potential issues with taking and sending nudes (Ringrose, Harvey, Gill, and Livingstone, 2013) and a largely hostile culture for females in online gaming (Consalvo, 2012; Jenson & DeCastell, 2013). Not surprisingly, women are about twice as likely than men to report that they have been harassed online (Duggan, 2017). Where the academic and the online meet is arguably a loaded minefield for women. Yet still, in May, 2014, I threw open the saloon doors of social media and joined the potentially wild, wild landscape of Twitter via the avatar @AcademicBatgirl. Today, Dr. Academic Batgirl has nearly 30,000 followers and is one of the most significant voices in the academic social media community. Why Twitter? And why would I even contemplate doing this to myself? This chapter is an autoethnographic account of how social media provided me with the community I so deeply desired, and how online communities, particularly amongst academics, offer the opportunity for scholars to identify with a supportive group and engage in an encouraging, prosocial community.

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A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO PERFORM AS AN ACADEMIC ONLINE?

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Figure 1. ­

Any professional seeking recommendations for best practices and tips for incorporating the Twitter experience into their social media presence will find a vast array of advice (Morris, 2010; Schaefer, 2014). Academics looking to add more papers to their ever-growing stack of refereed journal articles to read will find a neverending list by means of following fellow scholars. Specific advice for using social media – and in particular, how Twitter can be used in the academic experience – is readily available (for example, Gulliver, 2012; Scoble, n.d.). The debate about what makes a “serious academic” (Gannon, 2016) aside, the perception of social media in academia is steadily moving from that of a mindless online time-waster to a professionally meaningful activity. Academics are coming to view social media as having the potential to build community (Baym, 1999; Veletsianos & Kimmons, 2012), facilitate contact between/amongst professionals, and build trust, collaboration, and mentorship (Murthy, Hastings, & Mawrie, 2014). Academics, ever the seekers of information, know better than to limit their academic presence to books and peer-reviewed journals, and have therefore embraced social media, and in particular Twitter, into the scholarly process (Green, 2015). This microblogging platform has shown to be helpful in communicating at academic conferences (Parra, Trattner, Gomez, Hurtado, Wen & Lin, 2016), and is an integral part of fostering a sense of community and support, particularly amongst graduate 35

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students (Bennett & Folley, 2014) and early career academics (Ferguson & Wheat, 2015). Studies have shown that activity on Twitter can build affect-based trust and meaningful collaboration even in traditionally conservative academic and professional areas dismissive toward the value of social media such as science (Murthy & Lewis, 2015; Murthy, Hastings, & Mawrie, 2014). For many academics, engagement with social media means that online and offline scholarly realities are not mutually exclusive. Scholarship indicates that there is a deserved focus on the interrelationship between online and offline worlds (Hine, 2008). urgenson (2011) argues that the online and offline “worlds” are not two different, distinct places. Rather, the two coexist in order to create what Jurgenson calls an “augmented reality” (2009). In other words, one’s participation and very presence in online and offline arenas allows for each to influence the other. This phenomenon was perhaps first observable in the online gaming arena (Dibbell, 1999; Pearce, 2009) and has been more recently observable in the building of online communities via social media such as Twitter (Himelboim, McCreery & Smith, 2013). As a member of an active Twitter community (in my case, the academic camaraderie and sometimes complainers, also known as #AcademicTwitter) I have the unique benefit of being a member of the community under investigation (Markham, 1998) and am able to reflect upon the unique academic Twitterverse.

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A WOMAN, AN AVATAR, AND THE ACADEMY An account of the web-based rise of @AcademicBatgirl is particularly meaningful because she is an academic superhero (read: not “heroine”) in two arenas – the academy and the computer-mediated – in which gender plays a significant role. Amid the walls of the Ivory Tower, the gender gap is very real. Full-time male faculty members still outnumber women by nearly 20 percent, and the overall average salary for women in higher education has, since the 1970s, continued to be sustained at significantly below the average for men (Curtis, 2011; Chen & Crown, 2019). Gender inequities also exist in leadership, the division of time spent in the teaching/research/service triumvirate, tenure-track versus non-tenure-track/ adjunct positions, and part-time versus full-time work. For example, gender biases have been identified in the perception of quality in scientific studies (KnoblochWesterwick, Glynn, & Huge, 2013), and a large-scale analysis revealed that men predominate in first author positions as well as authorship of sole-author papers in the academy (West, Jacquet, King, Correll, & Bergstrom, 2013). These inequities persist internationally (Catalyst, 2015) and are reported by both news outlets and, in a more critical manner, by the feminist, activist tweets posted by @AcademicBatgirl, and discussed in the Results of this chapter. 36

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

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Figure 2. ­

Academic Twitter does not necessarily reflect the gender-biased phenomena in the bricks-and-mortar academe. Of the top 25 twitter accounts that “every #Phd should follow” (onlinephdprogram.org), ten are women (nine are men, six are organizations unable to be classified by gender; race and sexual orientation are largely indiscernible given the complexities of online handles). The suggestion that women, in particular, are promoted via Twitter may be a result of the many-to-many nature of this social media tool. While Twitter operates such that individuals emerge as leaders - or helper-mentors - and gain a following, this does not imply that social media embodies the limited one-to-many broadcast model. Marwick & boyd (2010) argue that Twitter users imagine their audiences, and tweet with the “audience” in mind. However, in keeping with arguments by Baym (1999) and Jenkins (2005), Marwick & boyd further suggest that the Twitter audience is not characterized by passive consumption; rather, the audience is both active and engaged, as both individuals and groups work to create their own content. In other words, Twitter users both consume and produce. This dynamic allows for connection, dialogue, and clear avenues through which individuals communicate. It is this “networked audience” (Marwick & boyd, 2010) that sets Twitter apart from static blogs or websites, and allows for women, more specifically, to build relationships, share information, and both provide and receive support.

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A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

This networked audience often evolves into a sense of community. In their study of word usage on Twitter, Bryden, Funk & Jansen (2013) suggest that Twitter users form online communities. These communities share a specific vocation, hobby, political orientation, or ethnicity and can be characterized by their most significantly used words. Online communities have been similarly identified in discussion groups (Baym, 1999) and gaming (Boellstorff, 2008). Academics are a unique band, and the identification of an online academic community was (and still is) part of my experience in using Twitter.

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Figure 3. ­

I created @AcademicBatgirl after observing the flirtatious humour of @ ResearchMark, an online, academic version of Mark Wahlberg; a sexy professor, a clever and suave quantitative scholar. @Research Mark (and @AcademicBatgirl) are by definition internet memes. Contemporary usage of the term “internet meme” encompasses “digital content units with common characteristics, created with awareness of each other, and circulated, imitated, and transformed via the Internet by many users” (Shifman, 2013). This contemporary definition is an evolution of the foundational definition coined by Dawkins (1976): any idea, behaviour, or trend that has the ability to transmit from person to person. In current form and practice, memes can include videos or photos that are copied and varied, or in my case, iconic photographs augmented with humorous text. @ResearchMark makes every attempt to validate (statistical pun intended) women in the academy by being 38

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

flirtatious (“Hey research girl…”) or offering encouragement, oftentimes directed specifically to women. However, I found the flirtatiousness a bit off-putting (really, we have to go there?).

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Figure 4. ­

There was no strong female character with an online #AcademicTwitter presence, and with messages more directly relative to women in the academy (minus the flirtation). I could do that. And even more so, I wanted to do it. I saw this as a liberating opportunity to exercise my digital creativity; studies of online presence have also noted that online creativity is both rewarding (Boellstorff, 2008) and can be helpful to productivity (Pearce, 2009). @AcademicBatgirl made her online debut on 24 April 2014 by tweeting a photographic meme featuring Batgirl battling an unseen foe (in this case, end-ofterm grading) with the caption, “Starting another all night grading sesh. Bam! Pow!” It was by no means an award-winning academic meme (it was woefully boring by my currently advanced standards). Nevertheless, it began @AcademicBatgirl’s residency online, and established my presence as an academic meme-maker and helper-mentor on Twitter.

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A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

COMMUNITY, CREATIVITY, AND COMEDY The Scholarly Shared Struggle So what makes community form on Twitter, and what sustains it? And how do women contribute in particular? While there is contemporary research on the importance and helpfulness of community, as above, there is a dearth of literature on what actually makes online communities evolve and, more importantly, sustain themselves. In my experience, in addition to “finding” one another via the shared struggle, humour is part of what unites and sustains communities via Twitter. I have noted that rather than the ritualistic complaining about budgets or manuscripts, a vibrant sense of humour is particularly important in the academic community. The adage “misery loves company” can only last so long, particularly in an online forum. Though one rarely thinks of humour as a key element of the academic persona, in my experience, it is humour that has made the difference in my presence and sustenance online. Here I offer both observations of how the prosocial value of humour has served my social media presence, and how academics must avoid particular issues, no matter how potentially funny.

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Figure 5. ­

In its function as a symbolic gesture, humour affirms, reinforces, and/or challenges concepts and beliefs within society; because humour is, for the most part, expressed in the public sphere, it is an especially meaningful act or ritual (Case & Lippard, 2009, p. 242). McGhee (1976), for example, noted that one popular definition of “sense of humour” emphasizes the individual’s ability to laugh at shortcomings, to see the light side of things, or to laugh at one’s own expense. In this respect, according to Stillion & White (1976), women appear to have a better sense of humour than 40

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

men (p. 206). A sense of humour is particularly helpful in the academic community given the frequency with which scholars receive manuscript rejections, engage in the sometimes tedious drudgery of the research process, and the isolation in which many academics engage in their writing, grading, and course preparation. With a prosocial aim, I made every attempt to create my posts and memes in a genderneutral manner so that academics from a variety of backgrounds could relate. For example, the following meme identifies the quirky side of academics, and having a laugh at our own expense:

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Figure 6. ­

Most academics can relate to the attraction of a conference in a lovely (read: warm) location, and surely many have planned their conference-going accordingly. Further, the notion of writing – anything, rather than nothing – is relatable for those 41

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

of us who must produce as part of our scholarly expectations. Finally, it is wellknown that academics are magicians who turn caffeine into words, and the necessity of caffeine suggests that we ought to “live well” and consume quality beverages. Similarly, humour can be considered a coping mechanism (Hay, 2000, p. 726), whereby fantasy alternatives are presented in response to difficult and sometimes oppressive situations that, in my case, academics endure. Such fantasies offer temporary relief and a sense of camaraderie in that others (presumably, other academics) share their challenges. For example, most people – no matter their occupation – can relate to the “Sunday night scaries,” or the feeling of dread and anxiety upon realizing that the weekend is nearly over. To that end, I posted the following meme:

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Figure 7. ­

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A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

While Sunday nights are known for not being “prime time” on social media, the notion that this meme got any play at all speaks to the number of academics on Twitter on a Sunday evening – presumably to catch up on news or to connect with friends or colleagues. The notion of “Sunday night scaries” is well-known amongst educators at all levels, from those teaching pre-K to graduate seminars. In this meme, Academic Batgirl provides support to her colleague in an attempt to assuage his Sunday night blues. Here, Academic Batgirl shows her strength and leadership by attempting to soothe a struggling man. The internet – and social media in particular – is a particularly important venue in which participatory culture (Jenkins, 2005) permits producers and distributors of humour to express frustration and advice. This “frustration and advice” cycle is an integral element of my presence on Twitter, and the defining characteristic of my contribution to the #AcademicTwitter community. For example, encouragement by way of humour has worked in my aim to unify academics.

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Figure 8. ­

By way of example, Academic Batgirl’s advice to a seemingly despondent Batman takes on a quasi-chasting tone in this meme. She calls out her colleague relative to having a “languishing manuscript:” an article or book chapter that is long overdue, has been in various stages of draft for anywhere from months to even years, and has no hope of finding the light of day. Batgirl boasts that she discovered the 43

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

#getyourmanuscriptout hashtag; this hashtag was created by @raulpacheco (2012) to encourage academics to get their manuscripts out the door. This “crowdsourcing” of writing has worked in the academic community; it is a consistent reminder that others are getting their writing done and work is getting finished. This reminder and discourse can inspire others to do the same. One of the most popular hashtags in the #AcWri (academic writing) community, the #getyourmanuscriptout movement has mobilized academics all over the world to get their manuscripts off the laptop and under review.

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YOU HAVE BEEN BLOCKED: STUDENT SHAMING While self-deprecating humour can identify the “shared struggle” of life in academe, I strongly suggest that critical humour is best avoided, and most importantly, if it includes students. Although faculty are often exasperated with students not reading the syllabus, for example, I suggest that taking to social media to shame students is a nefarious undertaking. I argue that shaming students – and in particular doing so online and via social media – is detrimental to a positive academic culture. It places both students and faculty in a negative, unsupportive position. This is particularly important given that women more often than men take on the “emotional labour” of assisting students with crises or personal struggles (Guarino 2017). Students are not unique in being shamed online. Ronson (2015) identifies contemporary cases of online shaming, including the case of Justine Sacco, who posted a racist tweet while en route to Cape Town and lost her job at a New York City public relations firm in 2013 (she arguably also lost her professional future). Jonah Lehrer was outed for splicing pieces from other scholars’ work in Imagine: How Creativity Works (2012). Some shame scholars (e.g., Murphy & Kiffin-Petersen, 2017) suggest that public shaming could be helpful in that it forces the shamed individual to admit their wrongdoings, make reparations, and conform to social, economic, or cultural norms. It is nearly impossible to argue, however, that student shaming exhibits any prosocial effects. In some instances, I have seen faculty (either via anonymous accounts or even using their professional profiles), identify students as greedy customers clamoring for attention, calling out students for end of term gradegrubbing, or venting outbursts about students conversing in an overly familiar tone (see, for example, Worthen, 2017). There are posts calling out students for not being able to write, making grammar gaffes, and general lamenting about general student carelessness and laziness (e.g., “I don’t always ignore your emails, but when I do it’s because the answer is in the syllabus”). These posts get significant attention in the academic community, because even “serious academics” use social media 44

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

(Willingham, 2016). As a popular meme asks, “Y tho?” Why would faculty want to take to the online forum to shame students, when the student-faculty relationship is one that is (or at least should be) founded on trust, respect, and mentorship?

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Figure 9. ­

For example, most faculty can relate to students not reading the syllabus and/ or not following directions. I have dealt with same. I have found that the best way to address this is to meet students where they are in language that speaks to them rather than ridiculing them either on social media or face-to-face. I made the meme above, based on Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe,” and it never fails to make students laugh. This meme, rather than chastising students, reaches out to them in a humourous way so that they understand that the syllabus is important. The pop culture references humanizes my approach to the syllabus with a “power-with” rather than a “power-over” attitude. When I project this meme on the first day of class, it serves to meet students with humour and connection.1 If (and sadly, when) faculty identify and shame students on social media, I argue that the academic community suffers. For example, Worthen’s (2017) piece ridiculed students for communicating with faculty in an overly-casual manner. Faculty responses via social media rushed in, suggesting that the role of professors is to help students to learn, practice professionalism, and to understand how to adjust to new and different social situations; faculty response indicated little patience for Worthen’s privilege 45

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

and impatience. In a culture that promotes learning and critical thinking, particularly at a time in which students are in the important developmental period of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2000), public, online shaming can be particularly destructive. In truth, faculty are not immune to failing to follow directions; how many of us have submitted a manuscript with the wrong formatting or missed a deadline (multiple times!)? Surely faculty may think twice about casting stones from glass houses. Regardless of the anecdotal accounts of students who behave badly, taking to social media to shame students is unacceptable. When students are shamed online, the culture in academe has a very real potential to suffer. Creed, Hudson, Okhuysen and Smith-Crowe (2014) suggest that if and when leaders use episodic shaming in ways that demonstrate power, emphasize organizational norms, and deter problematic behaviors, this serves as a disincentive for professionals. For students, online episodic shaming by faculty can create a culture of power-over, intimidation, and fear. When this culture is shared amongst faculty and across institutions, a culture of support and academic development is unlikely. In this case, students may be likely to either repeat negative behaviors or simply leave the academy altogether, believing themselves deficient. No matter the bizarre nature of (and potential for water-cooler jokes to ensue from) receiving photos of x-rays to be excused from an exam, for example, faculty have the opportunity to redirect and educate students rather than shame them, particularly online.

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CONCLUSION Becoming part of the broader academic discourse in one’s field is an essential part of scholarly growth. However, establishing oneself as part of a community of academics and colleagues is not often accomplished by means of becoming well-known or publishing groundbreaking research (although some exceptions apply, such as @astrokatie, who is a well-recognized astrophysicist who shares her research in accessible ways online). Academic community, particularly online, is about recognizing oneself as part of a group of scholars who are united in frustration, support, and camaraderie. Once this sense of community is established, then it becomes safe, possible, and likely that scholarly interests are exchanged, connections made, and offline relationships emerge. I have seen this happen in my own experience on Twitter whereby I established friendships with authors of similar disciplines, then moved on to collaborating and even coauthoring. I suggest that social media has tremendous potential to shape and sustain the academic community. Faculty have found a meaningful support system particularly via Twitter, and specifically via the hashtag #AcademicTwitter. The role of women is particularly essential to cultivate, given that female academics are integral to looking 46

A Feminist Autoethography of Academic Performance on Twitter

after the “academic family” (Guarino 2017). Anonymous accounts are entertaining in their pithy comments about deadlines or stacks of grading, and faculty struggling with grant applications or everyone’s worst nightmare, Nasty Reviewer 2, can vent and find a support squad. Academic humor on social media ought to focus on issues such as the neverending battle with grading, frustration with writing deadlines, or downright loathing for learning management systems that inevitably crash – all rather than shaming students for what is very often normal developmental behavior. The academic climate, for both students and faculty, is a precarious one. I suggest that social media, and in particular Twitter, can be a safe space for academics of all levels to gather together via humour and support. And @AcademicBatgirl will help lead the way.

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Case, C. E., & Lippard, C. (2009). Humorous assaults on patriarchal ideology. Sociological Inquiry, 79(2), 240–255. doi:10.1111/j.1475-682X.2009.00282.x Catalyst. (2015, July 9). Quick take: Women in academia. New York: Catalyst. Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-academia Chen, J. J., & Crown, D. (2019). The gender pay gap in academia: Evidence from Ohio State University. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 101(5), 1337–1352. doi:10.1093/ajae/aaz017

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Consalvo, M. (2012). Confronting toxic gamer culture: A challenge for feminist game studies scholars. Ada: A Journal of Gender. New Media, and Technology, 1(1). doi:10.7264/N33X84KH Creed, D., Hudson, B., Okhuysen, G., & Smith-Crowe, K. (2014). Swimming in a sea of shame: Incorporating emotion into explanation of institutional reproduction and change. Academy of Management Review, 39(3), 275–301. doi:10.5465/ amr.2012.0074 Curtis, J. W. (2011). Persistent inequity: Gender and academic employment. Prepared for “New voices in pay equity,” American Association of University Professors. Retrieved from https://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/08E023AB-E6D8-4DBD-99A024E5EB73A760/0/persistent_inequity.pdf Dawkins, R. (1976). The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dibbell, J. (1999). My tiny life: Crime and passion in a virtual world. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Duggan, M. (2017, July 11). Online harassment 2017. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/07/11/online-harassment-2017/ Ferguson, H., & Wheat, K. L. (2015). Early career academic mentoring using Twitter: The case of #ECRchat. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(1), 3–13. doi:10.1080/1360080X.2014.991533 Flaherty, C. (2015, February 2). Student’s comment on female professor’s clothes prompts criticism. Times Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www. timeshighereducation.com/news/students-comment-on-female-professors-clothesprompts-criticism/2018283.article

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Gannon, K. (2016, August 5). I’ve got a serious problem with “serious academics.” The Tattooed Prof [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thetattooedprof. com/2016/08/05/ive-got-a-serious-problem-with-serious-academics/ Green, D. (2015). An antidote to futility: Why academics (and students) should take blogging/social media seriously. The Impact Blog: London School of Economics and Political Science. Retrieved from https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/ impactofsocialsciences/2015/10/26/why-academics-and-students-should-takeblogging-social-media-seriously/ Guarino, C., & Borden, V. M. H. (2017). Faculty service loads and gender: Are women taking care of the academic family? Research in Higher Education, 58(6), 672–694. doi:10.100711162-017-9454-2 48

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Gulliver, K. (2012, May 9). 10 commandments of Twitter for academics. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/10Commandments-of-Twitter-for/131813/ Hay, J. (2000). Functions of humor in the conversations of men and women. Journal of Pragmatics, 32(6), 709–742. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00069-7 Himelboim, I., McCreery, S., & Smith, M. (2013). Birds of a feather tweet together: Integrating network and content analyses to examine cross-ideology exposure on Twitter. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(2), 40–60. doi:10.1111/ jcc4.12001 Hine, C. (2008). Virtual ethnography: Modes, varieties, affordances. In N. Fielding, R. M. Lee, & G. Blank (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of online research method (pp. 257–270). Los Angeles: Sage. doi:10.4135/9780857020055.n14 Jenkins, H. (2005). Convergence culture. New York: New York University Press. Jenson, J., & DeCastell, S. (2013). Tipping points: Marginality, misogyny, and videogames. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 29(2), 72–85. Retrieved from https:// journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/viewFile/474/pdf Jurgenson, N. (2009, October 5). Towards theorizing an augmented reality. Cyborgology: The Society Pages. Retrieved from https://thesocietypages.org/ sociologylens/2009/10/05/towards-theorizing-an-augmented-reality/ Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Glynn, C. J., & Huge, M. (2013). The Matilda effect in science communication: An experiment on gender bias in publication quality perceptions and collaboration interest. Science Communication, 35(5), 603–625. doi:10.1177/1075547012472684 Lehrer, J. (2012). Imagine: How Creativity Works. Edinburgh: Canongate Books.

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Markham, A. (1998). Life online: Researching real experiences in virtual space. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Marwick, A. E., & boyd. (2010). I Tweet honestly, I Tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 13(1), 114–133. doi:10.1177/1461444810365313 Meyers, M. (2013). The war on academic women: Reflections on postfeminism in the neoliberal academy. The Journal of Communication Inquiry, 37(4), 274–283. doi:10.1177/0196859913505619

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Morris, T. (2010). All a Twitter: A personal and professional guide to social networking with Twitter. Indianapolis, IN: Que. Murphy, S. A., & Kiffin-Petersen, S. (2017). The exposed self: A multilevel model of shame and ethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 141(4), 657–675. doi:10.100710551-016-3185-8 Murthy, D., Hastings, C. M., & Mawrie, S. A. (2014). The use of social media to foster trust, mentorship, and collaboration in scientific organizations. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 34(5-6), 170–182. doi:10.1177/0270467615582196 Murthy, D., & Lewis, J. P. (2015). Social media, collaboration, and scientific organizations. The American Behavioral Scientist, 59(1), 149–171. doi:10.1177/0002764214540504 National Union of Students. (2015). Talk about it: NUS Women’s Department 2015 survey. Retrieved from https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nus/pages/144/ attachments/original/1454369041/Talk_about_it_Survey_Report.pdf?1454369041 OnlinePhDProgram.org. (n.d.). 101 Twitter accounts every #PhD should follow. Retrieved from https://onlinephdprogram.org/twitter-accounts/ Pacheco-Vega, R. (2012). Using the #ScholarSunday hashtag as a #FollowFriday for academics. Retrieved from http://www.raulpacheco.org/2012/09/scholarsunday/ Parra, D., Trattner, C., Gomez, D., Hurtado, M., Wen, X., & Lin, Y-R. (2016). Twitter in academic events: a study of temporal usage, communication, sentimental and topical patterns in 16 Computer Science conferences. Computer Communications, 73(B), 301-314. Pearce, C. (2009). Communities of play: Emergent cultures in multiplayer games and virtual worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. doi:10.7551/mitpress/8039.001.0001

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Ronson, J. (2015, February 12). How one stupid tweet ruined Justine Sacco’s life. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/ how-one-stupid-tweet-ruined-justine-saccos-life.html Scoble, J. (n.d.) Twitter for academics. Retrieved from https://onlineacademic. wordpress.com/social-media-for-academics/twitter-for-academics/ Shifman, L. (2013). Memes in digital culture. Cambridge: The MIT Press. doi:10.7551/ mitpress/9429.001.0001

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Stillion, J. M., & White, H. (1987). Feminist humor: Who appreciates it and why? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 11(2), 219–232. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.1987. tb00785.x Tiidenberg, K. (2014). Bringing sexy back: Reclaiming the body aesthetic via selfshooting. Cyberpsychology (Brno), 8(1), 3. doi:10.5817/CP2014-1-3 Tiidenberg, K., & Gomez Cruz, E. (2015). Selfies, image and the re-making of the body. Body & Society, 21(4), 1–26. doi:10.1177/1357034X15592465 Veletsianos, G., & Kimmons, R. (2012). Networked participatory scholarship: Emergent techno-cultural pressures toward open and digital scholarship in online networks. Computers & Education, 58(2), 766–774. doi:10.1016/j. compedu.2011.10.001 West, J. D., Jacquet, J., King, M. M., Correll, S. J., & Bergstrom, C. T. (2013). The role of gender in scholarly authorship. PLoS One, 8(7), e66212. doi:10.1371/journal. pone.0066212 PMID:23894278 Willingham, E. (2016, August 6). Yes, serious academics should absolutely use social media. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/ sites/emilywillingham/2016/08/06/serious-academics-should-use-socialmedia/#9312c544fb17 Worthen, M. (2017, May 13). U can’t talk to ur professor like this. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/sunday/ucant-talk-to-ur-professor-like-this.html

ENDNOTE

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1



One Twitter user suggested that this song and its pop culture reference was “too old” for contemporary students. I showed this meme in class as recently as December 2020, and all students recognized the reference. This is an evergreen pop culture reference and I suggest that perhaps the Twitter user suggesting that the meme was outdated is himself “too old.”

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Chapter 4

“I Didn’t Come to Play”:

Pasifika Women in the Academy Sereana Naepi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6067-9014 University of Auckland, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Pasifka women in the academy face many of the same challenges as other racialised women working in universities. At the intersection of race and gender, we experience the white and masculine imprints of higher education. These imprints lead to Pasifka women experiencing excess labour, infantilization, hyper-surveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility, and desirable diversity. In spite of this daily onslaught Pasifka, women continue to work and engage in higher education and the question needs to be asked: Why? This chapter explores these experiences and more importantly the motivations of Pasifka women to continue to engage with higher education in spite of the systemic exclusion they face.

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INTRODUCTION Universities are places where Pasifika peoples have traditionally been excluded and are now underserved, but also places where Pasifika peoples wish to be included and successful within the system. Pasifika people want universities to be places “that embrace all learners, esteem all knowledges and serve all communities” (Naepi, 2019a, p.230). Unfortunately, for Pasifika women, universities in New Zealand have a long way to go in order to achieve this goal. The education systems in Aotearoa New Zealand have consistently and historically under-served Pasifika peoples and as such change is needed (Boon et al. 2017; Chu et al., 2013; Finau, 2008; Hunter DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch004 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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“I Didn’t Come to Play”

et al. 2016; Kepa, 2011; Kidman & Chu, 2019; Leaupepe & Sauni, 2014; Mayeda et al., 2014; McDonald & Lipine, 2012; Naepi, 2019a; Porter-Samuels, 2013; Reynolds, 2016; Samu, 2006; Suaalii-Sauni, 2008; Teevale & Teu, 2018; Theodore et al. 2018). As someone who has experienced these spaces and places it became ever more urgent for me to talk to other Pasifika women about their experiences in universities. Initially the research presented in this chapter aimed to explore ways that Pasifika women engaged in change making at universities but it became clear during the process of the research that the Pasifika women wished to share why change was necessary. This chapter presents Pasifika women’s experiences of higher education that were gathered using masi methodology, a Pacific research methodology which centres Pacific women’s voices in the research (Naepi, 2019b) and talanoa, a Pacific relational narrative enquiry research method developed from Pacific people’s oratory traditions. (Farrelly & Nabobo-Baba, 2014; Naepi, 2019c; Otunuku, 2011; Prescott, 2008; Stewart-Withers, Sewabu & Richardson, 2017; Suaalii-Sauni & Fulu-Aiolupotea, 2014; Vaioleti, 2006). Farrelly and Nabobo-Baba noted that within talanoa knowledge is “found at the nexus of shared knowledge-sensation-emotion” (2014, p. 328). Talanoa and masi methodology combined to enable powerful moments of relationship and understanding in the research process. It is emotional to speak of experiences of exclusion, the stories shared invoke shared sensations and, in that moment, new knowledge is created. In total twenty-seven Pasifika women participated in the research and collectively represent 216 years of experience working in New Zealand universities. There were two phases to the research. The first was one on one talanoa and the second was community talanoa. This chapter will first outline some of the different ways in which women and racialized bodies experience universities before sharing the experiences of Pasifika women specifically. Then this chapter will explore why Pasifika women continue to engage in a system that actively works to exclude them. The talanoa are of strong Pasifika women who are making a difference in the institutions they work in. There is much to learn from their sharing about how racialized women not only experience but also respond to universities. It may be useful to engage in what Ahenakew (2016) termed sense-sensing instead of sense-making when reading and engaging with this chapter, after all it is through sense-sensing this knowledge was gained.

Becoming Pasifika I use the term Pasifika when discussing Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand as a way to differentiate between Pacific Peoples throughout the globe, and more specifically those still located within their Pacific home nations and Pacific Peoples 53

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“I Didn’t Come to Play”

within Aotearoa New Zealand. Pasifika is a socially constructed term (Samu, 2010) that the Tofamamao Working Party defined as “Pacific peoples in both local and global; genealogically, spiritually and culturally connected to the lands, the skies and seas of the Pacific region” (Tafoamamaoa Working Party in Airini, Anae, Mila-Schaff, Coxon, Mara and Sanga, 2010). Suaalii-Sauni noted that Pasifika is a Polynesian transliteration and “was coined and is invoked to make a deliberate point about self-determination” (2008, p.20). It is important to recognise that the term Pasifika encompasses many different ethnicities, languages, and cultural practices and it is a term whose exact definition is still debated amongst Pasifika peoples (Coxon, Foliaki & Mara, 1994; Māhina, 2008; Manuatu & Kepa, 2002; Samu, 2006, 2010; Suaalii-Sauni 2008). This continuous debate should not be read as problematic; instead, as Crocombe (1976), one of the first proponents of the term Pasifika, noted, Pasifika is a term that will grow in an organic environment and be open to change, modification, and amendment as a fluid concept. Pacific people had four waves of migrations to Aotearoa New Zealand beginning some twelve hundred years ago. These migration stories are important as they cement Pasifika as extended family to Māori and waves two to four are the ancestors of Pasifika in Aotearoa. The first wave of migration was that of settlement, when Eastern Pacific people explored and settled in Aotearoa and became tangata whenua. This first wave is important to the relationship between Māori (Tangata Whenua/ Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa) and Pasifika as it cemented Pasifika as extended family to Māori and created bonds and relationships through culture and genealogy in Te Moana Nuia Kiwa (greater Oceania kinship connections) (Health Research Council, 2014). Importantly this relationship further cements Pacific peoples’ acknowledgement, support and respect for Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Treaty of Waitangi) and recognition that Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the foundation for our relationship with Tangata Whenua. These kinship ties also mean that Pacific peoples support and recognise the Tangata Whenua status of New Zealand Māori and their right to exercise tino rangatiratanga (self-government). The second to third waves of migration are deeply tied to the European colonisation of the Pacific. One hundred and fifty years ago, Pacific peoples arrived in Aotearoa as trainee teachers, missionaries, sailors, and whalers in a second wave of migration. The third wave followed seventy years later when Pacific peoples who had served the colonial government as civil servants within the Pacific ‘territories’ or in the colonial armed forces were able to move to Aotearoa (Macpherson, Spoonley & Anae, 2001). The fourth migration, which occurred fifty years ago, was perhaps the most significant and is the migration story with which most people are familiar today. For the fourth migration, Pacific people migrated for economic reasons and found work in the manufacturing and service sectors in post-war Aotearoa (Fleras & Spoonley, 1999; Macpherson, Spoonley & Anae, 2001; Macpherson, 2004; Te Punga Sommerville, 2012; Naepi, 2018). 54

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GENDER AND HIGHER EDUCATION Gender affects how women experience working in universities as women experience what Alvesson (2012) terms a masculine imprint. A masculine imprint is evident in two ways; the first is a simple measurement tool, where men are over-represented throughout the institution (Fisher, 2007; Martin, 2000), particularly in leadership roles (Acker, 2012; 2014; Öhrn, Petra, Gustafsson, Lundahl, & Nyström, 2009) and as a result women appear out of place. The other imprint is the normalisation and rewarding of ‘masculine’ behaviours (Acker, 2012; Kandiko Howson, Coate & de St Croix, 2017; Morley, 2005) as opposed to the socially constructed and defined feminine traits such as the three Cs: care, concern, and connection (Martin, 2000). The first measurement tool is sometimes questioned due to the growing numbers of women in universities however, the performative culture of higher education means that masculine behaviour is still rife in universities (Martin, 2000; Öhrn, Petra, Gustafsson, Lundahl, & Nyström, 2009). One of the fallouts of the masculine imprint is that women perform excessive labour which is dictated by gender norms that is neither recognised or rewarded by universities. For instance, the expectation of emotional labour (three Cs) by women to take on the roles of nurturing students and supporting other faculty and staff during transitional (restructuring) phases (Acker, 2012; 2014; Acker & Wagner, 2017; Fisher, 2007; Mather, 1998). The second example is in the ‘housekeeping’ roles that women often take on such as serving on committees, preparing reports, and managing change (Acker, 2014; Fisher, 2007; Kandiko Howson, Coate & de St Croix, 2017; Pyke, 2011). This is labour that often the university does not value (Kandiko Howson, Coate, & de St Croix, 2017), but by women taking on this labour it frees up men to progress in their careers (Angervall & Beach, 2018). Women doing the “important tasks of giving academic direction and pursuing research” (Fisher, 2007, p. 507) can explain the under-representation of women in senior roles.

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RACE AND HIGHER EDUCATION The whiteness of universities continues to be critiqued (Ahmed, 2012; 2017; Antonio, 2002; Carey, 2016; Grosfoguel, 2012; 2013; James, 2012; Kidman & Chu, 2017; Mirza, 2006; 2015; Pilkington, 2013; Rollock, 2012; Tate & Baggulet, 2017; Wekker, 2016). Two significant contributions to this critique are from Puwar (2004) and Ahmed (2012). Nirmal Puwar (2004) explores how universities are a contested social space which have a culture of exclusion:

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Social spaces are not blank and open for anybody to occupy. Over time, through processes of historical sedimentation, certain types of bodies are designated as being the “natural” occupants of specific spaces…. Some bodies have the right to belong in certain locations, while others are marked out as trespassers who are in accordance with how both spaces and bodies are imagined, politically, historically and conceptually circumscribed as being “out of place” (p. 51). These out of place people are what Puwar (2004) termed ‘space invaders’ as a way to capture the experience of being a non-white person within universities. According to Puwar (2004) non-white bodies are made to feel as though they invade space through three mechanisms. The first is disorientation, where the bodies around us do a double-take when we enter a room. The second is infantilization, where people of colour are not expected to be capable of authority. The third is through hyper-surveillance, where when ‘given’ authority the institution (and the people within) are unforgiving of even small mistakes made by non-white people. This aligns with Pasifika people’s experiences of working within higher education as Wendt-Samu (2010) demonstrates in her reflection: “although we are experienced tertiary level educators, course developers/coordinators, and even administrators, most of us have some way to go before achieving full-acceptance by the academy as scholars and academics” (p. 3). Sara Ahmed noted the brick walls built from institutional habit that racialized bodies (space invaders) encounter when working in universities (2012). Important to this chapter are the bricks of desirable diversity, and expectations of intelligibility. Desirable diversity is created through the ‘politics of stranger making’: “how some and not others become strangers, how emotions of fear and hatred stick to certain bodies, how certain bodies become understood as the rightful occupants of certain spaces” (Ahenakew & Naepi, 2015, p. 2). As a result, one group of people is able to declare diversity desirable and then dictate what it is about diversity that is desirable (window dressing, performance, etc.) and what is not (questioning, transforming) (Ahenakew & Naepi, 2015). The expectation of intelligibility (Ahenakew & Naepi, 2015) is where in order to enact change diversity practitioners must use the language of the institution or be prepared to ‘switch’, dependent on the argument needed to leverage change (Ahmed, 2012). As a result, the work of diversity can reproduce institutional norms (Ahenakew & Naepi, 2015) as the language that is intelligible to the institution restricts what can be said (Martin, 2000).

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PASIFIKA WOMEN AT THE INTERSECTION OF RACE AND GENDER Pasifika women who work in higher education exist at the intersection of race and gender. This creates everyday experiences of excess labour, infantilization, hypersurveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility and desirable diversity.

Excess Labour Pasifika women experience excess labour, and they are also aware of the ramifications of this excess labour in contributing to the ongoing issue of senior Pasifika representation in New Zealand universities (Naepi, 2019a). In talanoa seven, a collaborator reflects on how Pasifika women provide emotional care for Pasifika students and how this has impacted the progression of Pasifika women through the academy. “I suppose, when there were more Pacific female academics around, there is a lot more love and nurturing around for students... …I think some of the other long-term ramifications is that we won’t be in senior roles. There’ll be less of us in senior roles, and associate professor roles, and professorial roles, and deanships”

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Pasifika women not only experience excessive labour as outlined by other scholars (Acker, 2012; 2014; 2017; Carmen, 2004; Fisher, 2007; Mather, 1998) but also build on the understanding of excessive labour beyond emotional labour (Acker, 2012; 2014; 2017; Carmen, 2004; Fisher, 2007; Mather, 1998) and housekeeping (Acker, 2014; Fisher, 2007; Kandiko Howson, Coate & de St Croix, 2017; Pyke, 2011) through the additional labour expected by their communities and in having to protect white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011). The excess labour that comes in the form of community expectations is not valued by the university and talanoa ten provides an excellent example of not only what this excess labour looks like but also the devaluing of it by universities: “every email is a request from a community member, or a post-graduate student, and I don’t want to say no, because you can’t do that to your own people, and so it’s always, ’Can you write me something? Can you speak at something? Can you come and supervise a student at another university?’… …there is service, but not as the way the university is defining service, but the way we see service around growing our people, about serving our people… …they don’t see it. I have got a full responsibility to community, to my bloodline. My ancestors are telling me to do this.”

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This type of excessive labour which is undervalued by universities contributes to Pasifika females not meeting other expectations of performance, which can hinder their ability to progress whilst other bodies progress on the backs of Pasifika women’s excess labour (Angervall & Beach, 2018). Pasifika women also contributed to the idea of excess labour by considering how their everyday reality includes protecting other people’s white fragility. In talanoa ten a collaborator offers insightful commentary about how just the act of going to morning tea can be an exhausting process given the number of filters they are currently engaging in order to ensure that white fragility is protected (DiAngelo, 2011). “I was talking, again, to my lovely colleague, who’s a good-looking white man. And he was talking about, something or other about, “Yes, it’s just great in the department. We can all just have such collegial relationships.” And I was thinking, “Do you know how many filters I’m running right now, to sit in this room with you?” But I can’t- What do I say? I can’t say, “Actually, it’s quite stressful for me to go to morning tea,” because people say stupid, ignorant stuff about poor people, and then look to me to confirm this is what brown people think… …It’s exhausting to manage all of these perceptions in a way that people feel safe around me, because it’s easy to make people scared. If I lost my temper, even once. Fifteen years in this department, I’ve never really given someone the swerve, as my mother-in-law would say. I’ve never done that, despite being mightily provoked. So, the energy that goes into presenting a face that people are comfortable with, the kind Pacific lady, is something that I don’t think - my male colleagues - it ever occurs to them that they would need to do that. It’s about whatever they think, no matter how rude it is”. Pasifika women not only experience the excess labour outlined by other genderbased critiques of the university (Acker, 2012; 2014; 2017; Carmen, 2004; Fisher, 2007; Mather, 1998) but they also experience excess labour simply by being Pasifika and a racialized body.

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Stranger Making Pasifika women experience stranger making in the academy. Pasifika women experience situations of exclusion through their presence being questioned or ignored. In community talanoa four a Pasifika woman reflected on an experience of being looked through: “He was so dismissive and so rude, and I just knew... You know, you see people and the way they behave and you go up and you introduce yourself and they just look past you. ‘Hello, I’m here. I’m here.” The collaborator’s “you just know” suggests that this is not a one-off experience for her; rather, she has learnt how to read the room and the people within, instinctively knowing who will act 58

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to make her a stranger. Pasifika women know that this process of stranger making disadvantages them and impacts how people engage with and see them within the academy as shown in talanoa seven: “I think most challenges are about visibility. Being seen in the academy or in the institution as a valid academic, and not as the angry savage or the native savage, you know? I think those are some of the romantic terminologies that are used. And that we actually have scholarship. That we have earned our rights and our place in the academy, rather than, I suppose, coming in on any sort of quota, or stuff like that. And that we’ve worked hard. We’ve worked hard to earn our position, and they’re not glamorous positions. I can’t say that Pacific education or Pacific studies, for example, are recognized as anything worth heading to in terms of a discipline of education, or other fields like that. And so, we’re often not asked for our opinions in committees, or to sit on specific positions”.

Infantilization and Hyper-Surveillance

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Pasifika women report experiencing hyper-surveillance in a number of ways. In talanoa ten a collaborator expresses infantilization by stating “sometimes people have difficulty seeing me as a leader”. Pasifika women are not seen as capable of leadership within New Zealand universities and therefore when they are in positions of leadership they are met with disbelief. Another experience of hyper-surveillance was discussed as pushback on institutional equity measures such as the one shared by the collaborator in talanoa ten: “I say, ‘Well can we look at our affirmative action space?’ And someone said to me last week, ‘Well, she’s already had quite a lot of affirmative action already.’ Is there a limit? Is it like a pie or something?”. Hypersurveillance can also be critical of non-western forms of engagement. In talanoa nine a collaborator experiences hyper-surveillance when their manager is critical of their time away from the office even though it is this time away that makes their job possible: “Often times, our manager used to go, “Why do you guys disappear so much?” in terms of we go to this meeting and go to that meeting. And that had taken him a lot of, time to figure out, we had to reiterate: relationships matters in the type of role that we do. “ This infantilizing and hyper surveillance of Pasifika through what they can access and when they should be present operate as ways to remind Pasifika women that they are space invaders, that they inhabit bodies that mark them as trespassers.

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Desirable Diversity Pasifika women experience the impact of desirable diversity in their everyday work. Pasifika women are only desirable in the institution if they fulfill positive expectations of what being a Pasifika woman is such as in talanoa ten where a collaborator reflects: “The thing is, everything I do, I have to do with a smile on my face because I’m Pacific and I have to be nice to everyone all the time… …So it’s like you have to do all of the same things, but you can’t ever lose your temper, you can’t ever cry, you can’t ever take offense.” Pasifika women also understand how when they challenge the university they are are no longer desirable such as in talanoa seven: “people who tow the line get promoted, or they sit on committees, or they become the professors in some respects. The people who antagonize the systems like ourselves, and push the boundaries, we’re seen as renegades, or we’re seen as the problems.” However, Pasifika women also challenge desirable diversity by refusing to participate in being a desirable body for the university to capitalise on as shown in talanoa eight:

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“Then one of the things I have done is resist the many, many requests to be profiled as a Pacific academic… … I just did not want to be absorbed by the institution, that’s what it was. Didn’t want to be absorbed by it. I was happy to be absorbed and be part of whatever this other group was, but I did not want to be absorbed by the university, and so that’s why I resisted it.” The quote above reveals that Pasifika women are aware that their bodies are desirable for the institution, but they also recognise that they have the power to reject this desirability by slowing the process of ‘absorption’ through refusal. Pasifika women experience the white and masculine imprint through excess labour, infantilization, hyper-surveillance, stranger making, expectations of intelligibility and desirable diversity. These daily experiences mean constantly pushing back against a system that is designed to exclude you. As shown in the literature (Ahmed, 2012; 2017; Mirza, 2015; Nabobo-Baba, 2013) engaging in an institution that is actively trying to reject you is tiring work that makes you sick. During the process of the research the community of Pasifika women who took part in this research lost an academic who was an anchor for many of the 60

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women. During talanoa and follow-up communication a number of collaborators shared reflections, questioning if working within the institution was what made her sick or if it made her illness progress faster. It was a moment of reflection for the community on how the current system of exclusion can ultimately harm us. In talanoa fourteen a collaborator reflects on how taxing the work of fighting a system is: “You know, it’s interesting to me that many of those who have held Pacific-specific leadership roles have needed to go into other roles at some point because of how taxing the warrior pose and work is. I can feel that in myself too, that from time to time, I need to have a good release, and just look after myself a bit more, get perspective.”

CONTINUING IN A SPACE THAT HARMS YOU The issues outlined above then raise the question of why Pasifika women choose to continue engaging within higher education. The tension between wishing to be within the university while also being excluded has been discussed by many academics (Angervall, 2018; Kandiko Howson, Coate, de St Croix, 2017; Martin, 2000; Strengers, Despret & Knutson, 2015;). When referring specifically to women’s experiences in the academy Strengers, Despret and Knutson stated that in order for there to be women’s thoughts in universities, we must be in the institution, and that “quite simply, this is the price that must be paid” (p. 30). The suggestion here is that women must simply learn how to hold the tension of existing within a structure which is designed to exclude them. However, for those of us who exist at the intersection of race and gender this suggestion is not viable, many of us enter the academy to change it not to simply exist within it. In talanoa fourteen a collaborator comments that:

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“I think about being us. I think I recognize that the university does its thing. I see the university as being able to be co-opted into some other bigger plan, and that what I need from a university is the space to be me.” Many Pasifika women saw existing within and changing the university as a choice that ultimately benefitted their communities. In community talanoa one when discussing existing within the university one collaborator reflected: “I’ve had someone, our Associate Dean Pacific saying things like, ‘We need you guys to be sitting at those tables where those conversations happen’, and for me, it was like that’s never going to happen, and then you think, but then you have to, you have to, because it’s not just you.” 61

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In talanoa nine, a Tongan collaborator shared how for her a key part of being Tongan within the university was tauhi va and how it was a core driver in her everyday actions: Tauhi is to nurture; is to look after. So, in terms of ‘tauhi va,’ it’s not just about saying hello… … Every single thing counts, and every single thing matters, because that’s part and parcel of who we are. Sometimes, we just see us as a big family, but we have different parts to play. And if we are able to make sure that our family is taken care of, and things are functioning well, that’s what we need to do. ‘Cause at the end of the day, we leave the university. Who do we have? We have each other. And for us, that matters most. It’s the relationship that we have with people.” A Samoan collaborator reflected in talanoa six that being a Samoan woman is about service through love: ’E taui le alofa i le alofa’ means: literal translation is ‘One reciprocates love with love’. I used it in the context of service. It is a Samoan ‘alaga upu’ proverb that is widely used within the realm of the church and faith. Service: you reciprocate and serve with reverence to others and your actions are with love. For service it is about giving of yourself - time and space (Va). It is about maintaining positive relationships by doing things for others.”

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The significance of these can also be intelligible through an English lens as shared in talanoa fourteen: “I don’t think that we can do higher education without relationships of all sorts. I’ll frame it in the positive. Higher education is about relationships. They get expressed in different ways, whether it’s people-to-people relationships, or institution-togovernment, or money-to-university, and being accountable for that, because being tax payers’ money, by-and-large. I have been helped by more relationships than I know in my career to date, and because of that, I feel a responsibility to be part of helpful relationships for others, too. I mean, I could just list off for the next half hour all the people who have helped me… … Then of course, we’ve got all the relationship that are outside the university, but unwittingly dragged in here as well: our husbands, our family members, our friends. It all hinges on relationships.”

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For Pasifika women the decision to continue to exist within a harmful system is ultimately about relationships to community and how Pasifika women can be of service to our communities while we work within universities. Unsurprisingly this also means that many Pasifika women draw strength from their communities in order to continue working within universities such as in talanoa nine: “The communities really, really help, because they rally behind you, so you can look at them as your foundation, or you can also look at them as like your cloak that hang around you, so they act as someone who provides warmth around you. Because there’ll be moments of doubt, there’ll be moments of uncertainty, there’ll be moments that you will question yourself. They’re around you, in terms of their love and support.” In community talanoa two, a collaborator shared how the families of those she works with and for are what keep her going through the difficult politics of transforming universities, noting “It’s the families that keeps me going, actually it’s the families practice, and the Indigenous families practice that actually keeps me going while I can deal with politics. We are a united group. Then we will be able to handle the politics whenever things happen, we all pull in together to be a strong force.”

CONCLUSION

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Pasifika women experience universities in New Zealand as hostile places that work to exclude them. I wish to conclude with a quote from talanoa ten, it is a long one but an important one, it touches on exclusion, the difficulty of fighting a system that operates to exclude you, the motivation for continuing the fight and finally a call to action for all Pasifika women. “And I’m not a great fit for the university. Well, I’m not usual. I’m atypical for the university. But I think what made me upset was just another message that was like, “Actually, you don’t fit here, you’re ... ” This sounds a bit dramatic. Things may be slightly more uphill. There’s going to be a head wind, basically is what this stuff says. And some things that people may take for granted, or that in fact may feel like running downhill for them, probably will have a bit of slope on for you, or might be a bit of a struggle.

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And at moments when I’m tired, there’s all this just sitting here. But on other days it’s like, “Well, I didn’t come to play. This is something I have to keep going and doing.” Because then who’s going to look after the people who are coming after me? If I go, then someone else has to do this whole road again. And that sucks. So as long as I can, I’ll hold the line, and talk to people, and say all sorts of inappropriate things about the university, and challenge the space, because it’s not a sacred space. It’s not a holy space. It’s an institution. It’s a company. It’s not going to care for us, in the way that our family or our culture is going to care for us…. … So, we’re allowed to challenge - and actually we’re probably remiss if we don’t - as Pacific women trying to fit in a non-Pacific, and somewhat non-women, world of academia” Pasifika women continue to work in universities that actively work to exclude us because we care for our communities and we will continue to challenge and call to account universities because at the end of the day we didn’t come to play.

Post-Script In sharing our stories, we redefine the narrative around not only Pasifika women but also New Zealand universities. This redefinition is necessary to interrupt the current brand management approach that is invested in selling universities as open and diverse places in spite of reported incidents of racism and exclusion. We must continue to share our stories of existing in these spaces in order to force universities to face the spaces they create and encourage meaningful dialogue and action towards change.

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Hunter, J., Hunter, R., Bills, T., Cheung, I., Hannant, B., Kritesh, K., & Lachaiya, R. (2016). Developing equity for Pāsifika learners within a New Zealand context: Attending to culture and values. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 51(2), 197–209. doi:10.100740841-016-0059-7 James, C. E. (2012). Strategies of engagement: How racialized faculty negotiate the university system. Canadian Ethnic Studies, 44(1), 133–152. doi:10.1353/ ces.2012.0007 Kandiko Howson, C. B., Coate, K., & de St Croix, T. (2017). Mid-career academic women and the prestige economy. Higher Education Research & Development, 1–16. Kepa, M. (2011). Languages and cultures: Learning and teaching betwixt worlds. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 4(1). 66

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Kidman, J., & Chu, C. (2017). Scholar Outsiders in the Neoliberal University: Transgressive Academic Labour in the Whitestream. New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, 52(1), 7–19. doi:10.100740841-017-0079-y Kidman, J., & Chu, C. (2019). “We’re not the hottest ethnicity”: Pacific scholars and the cultural politics of New Zealand universities. Globalisation, Societies and Education. Advance online publication. Leaupepe, M., & Sauni, S. (2014). Dreams, aspirations and challenges: Pasifika early childhood education within Aotearoa, New Zealand. International Journal for Cross-Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 5(3), 1711–1719. doi:10.20533/ ijcdse.2042.6364.2014.0239 Macpherson, C. (2004). From Pacific Islanders to Pacific people and beyond. Tangata tangata: The changing ethnic contours of New Zealand, 135-155. Macpherson, C., Anae, M., & Spoonley, P. (2001). Evolving identities of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Dunmore Press. Māhina, H. O. (2008). From vale (ignorance) to ‘ilo (knowledge) to poto (skill) the Tongan theory of ako (education): Theorising old problems anew. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 4(1), 67–96. doi:10.1177/117718010800400108 Manu’atu, L., & Kepa, M. (2002). Towards reconstituting the notion of study clinics. A Kakai Tonga Tu’a Community-based educational project. Invited presentation to the First National Pasifika Bilingual Education Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. Martin, J. R. (2000). Coming of age in academe: Rekindling women’s hopes and reforming the academy. Routledge.

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Mather, J. (1998). Fostering women’s full membership in the academy. Status of Women Supplement. CAUT Bulletin Insert, 45(4), 2. Mayeda, D. T., Keil, M., Dutton, H. D., & Ofamo’Oni, I. F. H. (2014). “You’ve Gotta Set a Precedent”: Māori and Pacific voices on student success in higher education. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 10(2), 165–179. doi:10.1177/117718011401000206 McDonald, L., & Lipine, T. (2012). Pasifika education policy, research and voices: Students on the road to tertiary success. New Zealand Annual Review of Education, 2011-2012(21). doi:10.26686/nzaroe.v21i0.4047 Mirza, H. S. (2006). Transcendence over diversity: Black women in the academy. Policy Futures in Education, 4(2), 101–113. doi:10.2304/pfie.2006.4.2.101 67

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Mirza, H. S. (2015). Decolonizing higher education: Black feminism and the intersectionality of race and gender. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 2015(7-8), 1–12. Morley, L. (2005). Opportunity or exploitation? Women and quality assurance in higher education. Gender and Education, 17(4), 411–429. doi:10.1080/09540250500145106 Naepi, S. (2018). Pacific Peoples, Feminisms and Higher Education. In R. Icaza, O. Rutazibwa, & S. de Jong (Eds.), Decolonization and Feminisms in Global Teaching and Learning. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781351128988-2 Naepi, S (2019a). Why isn’t my Professor Pasifika: A snapshot of the academic workforce in New Zealand Universities. Mai: A New Zealand Journal of Indigenous Scholarship, 8(2), 219-234. Naepi, S. (2019b). Masi Methodology: Centering Pacific Women’s voices in research. Alternative, 15(3), 234–242. doi:10.1177/1177180119876729 Naepi, S. (2019c). Pacific Research Methodologies. In G. Noblit (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. New York: Oxford University Press; doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.566 Öhrn, E., Petra, A., Gustafsson, J., Lundahl, L., & Nyström, E. (2009, March). Gender and career in academia. Paper presented at the NERA congress, Trondheim, Norway. Otunuku, M. A. (2011). How can talanoa be used effectively an indigenous research methodology with Tongan people? Pacific-Asian Education, 23(2), 43–52. Pilkington, A. (2013). The interacting dynamics of institutional racism in higher education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 16(2), 225–245. doi:10.1080/1361332 4.2011.646255 Porter-Samuels, T. (2013). Raising Pasifika Achievement: Teacher CulturalResponsiveness. Kairaranga, 14(2), 17–25.

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Prescott, S. M. (2008). Using Talanoa in Pacific business research in New Zealand: Experiences with Tongan entrepreneurs. Alternative. An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 4(1), 128–148. doi:10.1177/117718010800400111 Puwar, N. (2004). Space invaders: Race, gender and bodies out of place. Berg. Reynolds, M. (2016). Relating to Va: Re-viewing the concept of relationships in Pasifika education in Aotearoa New Zealand. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 12(2), 190–202. doi:10.20507/AlterNative.2016.12.2.7

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Rollock, N. (2012). Unspoken rules of engagement: Navigating racial microaggressions in the academic terrain. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education: QSE, 25(5), 517–532. doi:10.1080/09518398.2010.543433 Samu, T. W. (2006). The ‘Pasifika Umbrella’ and quality teaching: Understanding and responding to the diverse realities within. Waikato Journal of Education, 12(1). Samu, T.W. (2010). Pacific education: An Oceanic perspective. Mai Review, 2010(1). Stewart-Withers, R., Sewabu, K., & Richardson, S. (2017). Talanoa: A contemporary qualitative methodology for sport management. Sport Management Review, 20(1), 55–68. doi:10.1016/j.smr.2016.11.001 Suaalii‐Sauni, T., & Fulu‐Aiolupotea, S. M. (2014). Decolonising Pacific research, building Pacific research communities and developing Pacific research tools: The case of the talanoa and the faafaletui in Samoa. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 55(3), 331–344. doi:10.1111/apv.12061 Suaalii-Sauni, T. M. (2008). Critiquing Pasifika education at university. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 4(1), 14–23. doi:10.1177/117718010800400104 Tate, S. A., & Bagguley, P. (2017). Building the anti-racist university: Next steps. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 20(3), 289–299. doi:10.1080/13613324.2016.1260227 Te Punga Somerville, A. (2012). Once Were Pacific: Māori Connections to Oceania. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/ minnesota/9780816677566.001.0001 Teevale, T., & Teu, A. (2018). What Enabled and Disabled First-year Pacific Student Achievement at University? JANZSSA. Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association, 26(1), 3368. doi:10.30688/janzssa.2018.04 Vaioleti, T. M. (2006). Talanoa research methodology: A developing position on Pacific research. Waikato Journal of Education, 12, 21–34.

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Wekker, G. (2016). White innocence: Paradoxes of colonialism and race. Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822374565

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Chapter 5

A Pathway to “Becoming”:

Stories About Indigenization From One Indigenous Health Scholar Chantelle A. M. Richmond Western University, Canada

ABSTRACT

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In Canada, an exciting transformation has taken place within the context of Indigenous health research and scholarship. As Canadian universities strive to embrace processes of indigenization, the author takes the position that much can be learned from the Indigenous health experience. Drawing in large part from her own journey into Indigenous health scholarship, frst as a student and now as an academic leader, the goal of this chapter is to describe the author’s pathway “to becoming” an independent Indigenous health scholar. Herein she shares stories that describe how her pathway—and her continued learning as a researcher, teacher, and mentor—has been shaped by the powerful experience of being engaged in these Indigenous health training environments. She describes the important sense of belonging and success she achieved from learning in such indigenized environments, but also of the internal struggles she has experienced when attempting to bridge these powerful practices within the wider university context, where the same openness to indigenized ways of learning and doing has not been similarly embraced.

INTRODUCTION In Canada and around the world, an exciting transformation has taken place within the context of Indigenous health research and scholarship. Now more than ever, Indigenous DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch005 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

A Pathway to “Becoming”

people are not only participating, but taking leadership roles in research on matters of direct relevance to their health and well-being. Indigenous people are being trained to develop, lead and carry out a body of health research whose approach, ethical engagement and relevance for communities is globally unprecedented (Anderson and Cidro, 2019). Along with a few hundred other Indigenous scholars in Canada, my journey into academia coincided with this exciting transition. I effectively “grew up” in an academic context that looked considerably different from that which preceded our generation. As researchers in this new culture of Indigenous research, we were urged to do research on our own matters, in our own places, on our own time, and often with our own families and communities (Smith, 2013). Beginning in the early 2000’s, and supported in large part through major health training grants of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), this transition was propelled by the recognition that research can and must do more to be culturally and socially relevant to Indigenous health matters and community needs (Archibald, Jovel, McCormick, Vedan & Thira, 2006; Tobias, Richmond & Luginaah, 2013). As Canadian universities strive to embrace processes of indigenization, I take the position that much can be learned from the experiences of these health scholars who have been engaged, and are still engaged, in the transition occurring in Indigenous health training environments. Drawing in large part from my own journey into Indigenous health scholarship, first as a student and now as an academic leader, the goal of this chapter is to describe my pathway “to becoming” an independent health scholar. Herein I share stories that describe how my pathway and my continued learning as a researcher, teacher and mentor has been shaped by the powerful experience of being engaged in Indigenous health training environments. I describe the important sense of belonging and success I achieved from learning in these unique environments, but also of the internal struggles I have experienced when attempting to bridge these powerful practices within the wider university context, where the same openness to indigenized ways of learning and doing have not been similarly embraced.

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INDIGENIZATION IN CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES In June 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada released 94 Calls to Action, many of which were targeted specifically at Canada’s post secondary environments. Shortly thereafter, universities began answering the TRC’s Calls when university presidents and/or their leadership teams came together with Indigenous leaders, Indigenous student leaders, and Indigenous scholars at the University of Saskatchewan for a two-day forum to discuss how universities could respond to the many urgent calls (Universities Canada, 2015). This meeting 71

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A Pathway to “Becoming”

highlighted the institutional responsibilities of universities for fostering reconciliation on their campuses, including a number of systemic, social and ideological changes, such as making university campuses more inclusive and productive places for both Indigenous students and scholars. In the time since that critical meeting, many Canadian universities have begun to rise to the challenge of indigenizing their universities – albeit, in diverse and sometimes confusing ways. Based on surveys with Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic leaders across the country, Gaudry and Lorenz (2018) characterize university indigenizing efforts in Canada on a spectrum of three distinct categories, all of which they argue, universities should strive to achieve: 1) Indigenous inclusion; 2) reconciliation indigenization; and, 3) decolonial indigenization. Indigenous inclusion refers to increasing numbers of Indigenous faculty, staff, and students within the university community. In the middle, reconciliation indigenization is about power sharing within the academy, the goal being to reconcile Indigenous knowledges with the dominant (European) knowledges that have served largely as the foundation for Canadian universities. In reconciliation indigenization, Indigenous knowledge is recognized as valuable, relevant, and worthy of learning by Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Decolonial indigenization sits on the other end of the spectrum; this category is characterized by a structural reorganization of the university, wherein Indigenous people are in a position to self-determine pedagogy, curriculum, knowledge, language, budget, space and other matters concerning Indigenous people in the university environment. Reflecting on processes of indigenization from an Indigenous health perspective, I believe that in order for universities to be better, more culturally responsive places, there is a fundamental need to address the cultural and social distance between Indigenous communities and the university. To me, the most important starting place must be through relationship with Indigenous people – through contact, dialogue, listening, learning, and maybe eventually, understanding. In doing this, I would argue we can learn a lot from the concept of cultural safety, which considers the social and historical contexts of health and health care inequities. That is, how have modern and historic processes of environmental or cultural dispossession led to the health inequities we see in the Indigenous population? Originating in New Zealand in the field of nursing education, cultural safety has become an influential perspective in developing better health care for Indigenous people, as it supports the contextualisation of power imbalances between patients and their care givers, which can compromise the delivery of care (Ward, Branch & Fridkin, 2016). Applied to the wider university context, cultural safety is a concept that could be used to interpret the differences in power that exist among actors (e.g., administrators and faculty; faculty and students; Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples), and the ongoing colonial processes that perpetuate disparities, inequities, and racism among 72

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Indigenous peoples in the university context (Cote-Meek, 2014). When there is no room for dialogue between members of our universities and local community members, there can be no recognition of the unequal power nor of the role that the university structure has played in perpetuating colonialism into the modern context. The bulk of this chapter is written in storied format about my journey into academia. Building from Indigenous scholars who emphasize the importance of story telling methodology (Iseke, 2013; Kovach, 2009), I use story to share about some of my earliest influences, about the important transitions I have faced along the way, and of the internal conflicts I carry today as they relate to my own identity, learning, and role as an Anishinabe scholar. Here, I speak from my own place of knowing, and make no claims about anyone else’s journeys or perceptions. I make this statement as the experiences I share here are full of vulnerability and complexity, and yet still promise, optimism and a good deal of love and gratitude. I share these stories as a way to describe how, as an Indigenous scholar, I found sense of belonging in the university environment, and of the critical role the CIHR Indigenous health training environments played in supporting that belonging. The chapter concludes by recounting some of the key themes described in these stories, and with a return to the chapter’s opening discussion on indigenization in university environments.

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SITUATING MYSELF: FROM STUDENT TO LEADER I am an Anishinabe1 woman. My mother is Anishinabe and my father is a settler who was born and raised in Newfoundland. My parents met in Toronto and married in 1970. My two sisters and I were born in Toronto, where my family lived until 1981 when my parents made the decision to move to Northern Ontario, so we could be closer to my mother’s family, who lived in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg. When my mother married my father, she lost her status as an Indian woman. Because no one in our family was legally considered to have Indian status, we did not have the right to live on the reserve, and we made our home in the town of Marathon, Ontario. As children, my sisters and I fit well into life in the town of Marathon. With a population of about 5000, our town’s slogan was “built on paper and laced with gold,” a reference to the pulp and paper and gold mining industries that fuelled the town’s economic prosperity. Culturally, the population was composed mostly of settlers, Francophones, and Newfoundlanders. My sisters and I fit in mostly because we were smart and outgoing, and we all loved sports. As one of the few Native families, I would argue that our half-nativeness (and our therefore paler complexions) enabled us to be shielded from the full blow of racism that other fully-native children endured. In the 1980’s, a significant cultural revival took place along the North Shore of Lake Superior. The pow wow was revived and so were many of our Anishinabe 73

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A Pathway to “Becoming”

ceremonies and cultural celebrations. Though we did not live on reserve, we spent a good deal of time there. The sand dunes of the Mouth of the Pic were our play ground. We swam in the big lake, and spent a good deal of time on the land. We attended pow wows across Ontario and Minnesota and met many people on the pow wow trail. There are many smells and sensations that remind me wholeheartedly of that time in my life, of the people, the places we visited. The feeling of belonging. Fresh cut wood. Bush tea. Songs on the big drum. Late night fish fries. The sound of rain on a tarp. Jumping into the big lake. Rolling down the sand dunes. Fresh bannock. Boiling cedar. Foggy days. Sun-kissed faces. My grandmother Adeline was our matriarch. She formed the centre of the family, and all of our family gatherings revolved around her. Though my mother did not grow up in ceremony, she and my father committed strongly to a ceremonial way of life. These teachings centred our family around patterns of being in the world – of knowing our place in the world, and how to re-centre ourselves when needed. We were fortunate (and are still fortunate) to have access to the teachers and medicines required when we need them. Living with and near these special people and knowledges are great comforts in my life. They form a considerable part of who I am, and it was not until many years later that I came to realise how much I took my connection to the land, and to that place, for granted. In 1997, I moved from my small town in Northwestern Ontario to Hamilton Ontario, where I began an undergraduate degree in Geography and Environmental Studies at McMaster University (also known as Mac). The transition was both exciting and challenging. It was exciting to move into a residence building that housed more than 500 students (for reference, my former high school had only about 400 students!). At Mac, I lived independently for the first time in my life and was responsible – with the help of my Jewish Torontonian roommate – for eating proper meals, going to bed at a reasonable time, and figuring out how to be an independent learner. These were issues all of the students around me were facing. What made the transition more challenging for me was the fact that there were very few people from Northern Ontario (only three, including me), and even less Native people (only me). By this time in my life however, I had become well accustomed to the necessary transitioning between native and non-native worlds and was able to recognize and respond to the various cultural, social and spiritual differences between them. I was less prepared for the fact that I could not be with “my people” as I always had. At best, it could take 12 hours by car to travel home. By bus it was about 18 hours. By plane, bus, and car, the travel time was still about eight hours. I joked with my international friends that they could get home in less time than I could. Still, I would travel home as often as I could. I missed my family greatly and spent a lot of time on the phone, and on email (a new thing in 1997!).

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A Pathway to “Becoming”

My undergraduate degree went by in a flash. The first few years were a major learning curve. Around the time I was in my third year – having barely survived economics, calculus and statistics – my academic universe seemed to align. I began to see the cumulative growth and connectedness of concepts and ideas within and across the various courses I was taking. There was considerable attention in my degree on the environment and its impact for society. Important concepts like interconnection, sustainability, preserving for the future – I began to see the repeat across my courses. Surprising to me however, was the failure of my program to identify the native experience of environmental change, nor of native knowledge about the land, or native responses to environmental change. Heading into my fourth year, I made the important decision to use my undergraduate thesis as a place to learn about Indigenous health and the environment. Using Geographic Information Systems, I mapped the spatial and geographic distribution of methylmercury exposure among Indigenous communities in Canada from 1960 to 1985. This work drew from data collected over a thirty-year period by Health Canada’s Medical Services Branch, and supported a visual representation of the contamination events that have plagued many First Nation and Inuit communities, with the greatest impact among the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation and Whitedog First Nation, for whom this issue persists today. As a means of contextualizing the long-term patterns and resulting health impacts in these communities, I learned about dietary change, the loss of livelihood, and the creation of dependence by First Nation communities on the federal government. I learned about the ways in which historic processes of colonialism and environmental dispossession can extend across generations – through genetics, behaviour, cultural change. This learning shocked me, saddened me, and made me angry. But it was familiar. It reminded me of the environmental disaster that took place in my own community, when the tailings line of one of the nearby gold mines burst and contaminated Biigtigong’s drinking water supply, and left the community dependent on bottled water for many years afterward. In 2001, I went on to do a Master’s degree. I studied with a Kwakwaka’wakw community in British Columbia to better understand local perceptions of fish farming. But in the end, what I learned about was the people’s love of the salmon. I was able to explore their traditional territory by kayak, to head up the Nimpkish River and see the places this beautiful community described as “their kitchen cupboards.” But again, there was a similar story of loss, heartache and of people who had, through the control of others, witnessed prolific change in their community. There was cultural change, disruption to native lives and traditions. People and traditions were made illegal. Families were torn apart by colonial law. Experiences of dispossession were repeated – different lands, different people, but similar horrible processes of dispossession. 75

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A Pathway to “Becoming”

In 2003, I started my PhD at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. To this point, the learning trajectory I was on had been a culturally insular one. While I was seeking research opportunities that took me into Indigenous communities – as described above – the truth was that I had little contact with Indigenous faculty advisors, Indigenous mentors or Indigenous graduate students. This was all about to change. The changes that took place during the course of my PhD and beyond fundamentally transformed the way I learned and interacted as an Indigenous scholar. At that time in Canada, the CIHR’s Institute for Aboriginal Peoples’ Health (IAPH) was nearing its second birthday (Reading and Nowgesic, 2002). Today the IAPH has been renamed the Institute for Indigenous People’s Health (IIPH) and it remains the only federal funding organization focussed on Indigenous health in the world. Perhaps the most important legacy of the CIHR to Indigenous health research has been its strategic decision to fund the Aboriginal Capacity and Development Research Environments (ACADREs: 2002-2007), followed by the Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research (NEAHRs: 2007-2014), and the Indigenous Mentorship Network Program (IMNP: 2017-2022). With the greater objective of training a new generation of Indigenous health scholars, and secondarily to develop research capacity to tackle the greatest Indigenous health problems, these health training programs were multi-year, multi-million-dollar investments in Indigenous health training and research. Several centres were funded across the country; approximately 40% of the annual budgets of these programs were targeted specifically for trainee development through scholarships, fellowships and small research grants. A fundamentally important piece of these health training programs was the development of the National Gathering of Graduate Students (NGGS). Held for the first time at the University of British Columbia in March 2001, the NGGS is an annual meeting that brings together Indigenous graduate students from across the country to support capacity building, to offer opportunities to share and learn from one another’s research, and most importantly, to foster a sense of collective belonging. I found the NGGS to be one of the most impactful pieces of my doctoral training. At the time, I did not realise just how lonely I was – nor how incomplete my training was – until I attended my first NGGS. Up until this point, I had become accustomed to sharing pieces of me as they fit the people and environments surrounding me. I had come to internalize the idea that my Indigeneity was a separable part of me, something I could take on and off as the situation favoured – often necessitated. It was exhausting to do this constantly. It was during my first NGGS that I found myself able to relax, to allow myself to feel and see the world with my whole self, and to engage in a familiar sense of humour (and emotion) that was not possible at McGill. I can distinctly remember walking into First Nations University of Canada. I was struck first and foremost by the building, and secondly by the vast numbers 76

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of Native people. There were so many brown people! Then there was the drum. Standing in the opening procession of the NGGS, I was overcome when songs were sung on the big drum. In our academic sessions, we were encouraged to speak about ourselves – to situate ourselves in our research. I can recall tears of both happiness and frustration that as native scholars we were so rarely afforded opportunities to be our true selves. And it wasn’t just me who felt this way. In an evaluative study of the health training program completed in 2014, awardees identified these programs as critical to their educational success as Indigenous learners (Richmond et al. 2013). In addition to providing the financial means for trainees to support their lives and families while in school, the programs provided an important sense of belonging for this new cohort of Indigenous health trainees. Trainees also described these programs, and the various activities including the NGGS, as foundational for providing access to high quality mentors and cultural opportunities that were not available in their home programs or institutions (Richmond et al., (2013). Perhaps most critically however, interviewees discussed the nature by which the ACADREs and NEAHRs had facilitated access to various resources (e.g. cultural, social, and financial) and flexibility required to engage in research with their own communities in ways that made sense to them. Trainees were emphatic about the transformative means by which these programs had supported them with the time, space and resources they needed to learn, see and personally experience research through Indigenous ways of knowing and doing (Richmond et al. 2013). This represented a fundamentally important turning point in the Canadian health research landscape. It empowered me greatly to know that I had found a place where I could be myself.

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SHIFTING FROM TRAINEE TO PROFESSOR From 2002 to 2015, hundreds of Indigenous and allied scholars were learning to lead, develop and carry out Indigenous health research in respectful, ethical ways. The transformative impact on research philosophy, ethical standards, community engagement that these programs developed cannot be overstated. I am so grateful to have been a part of this amazing and transformative cohort of learners. In 2007, I finished my PhD. For a year or so I entertained the idea of heading to South Australia for a postdoctoral fellowship on a CIHR Global health fellowship. Instead, I stayed in Canada and got married to my then fiance (now husband of 12 years). I transferred the fellowship to the University of Toronto and began a faculty position a year later at Western University.

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The transition from student to postdoc to faculty member was big wake up call. As a PhD student, I was afforded considerable time and space to think and learn. I was well supported in my learning and felt like I knew where I belonged. As a new faculty member however, the flexibility of 100% research time was madly interrupted by the reality of teaching and service demands. But it was not just the addition of these other dimensions of workload that challenged my transition into professorhood, it was the harsh reality that the cocooned experience of the Indigenous health training environments had not spilled widely over to the wider Canadian university context. In 2008, Indigenization was a newly developing concept and its meaning and application were not only poorly understood, but often resisted. Below, I share about how I navigated processes of indigenization, of the mistakes I have made, and of the wider tensions I have experienced in this transition.

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MAKING SPACE FOR OTHER WAYS OF KNOWING AND DOING In the university context, learning occurs almost exclusively on the university campus – in lecture halls, study rooms, libraries, offices. In the Indigenous context, learning is generally considered a process that occurs through experience and interaction, sometimes on the land, sometimes with other people. If we are truly concerned with addressing and learning about Indigenous (health) concepts, we must make adequate space for Indigenous knowledge keepers and Indigenous knowledge. Indigenous knowledge refers to the social and spiritual ways in which people relate to their greater ecosystems, and to one another (LaDuke, 1999). In the Anishinabe knowledge system, for example, humans are considered part of a larger system of animate and inanimate beings that extend across social (e.g. human), natural (e.g. environmental) and metaphysical (e.g. the spiritual) dimensions. Anishinabe identity, morals and every-day practices are shaped in important ways by one’s connections and obligations to people, nature and the spiritual. Anishinabe ideas of ‘the good life’ or minobiimadiziwin acknowledge and celebrate these varying relationships, which are maintained and shared through various cultural and spiritual practices and protocols. Bringing these knowledges from the community into the university space is not as easy as transporting a person from point A to point B. It is about being thoughtful, careful, and deliberate about creating culturally safe spaces for that knowledge to be shared. It requires communication and considerable planning ahead of time to make sure that there is adequate synergy between learners and teachers, and that the learning space can accommodate the needs required for this to happen in a safe, productive way. I share an example of my experience. During an undergraduate course I was teaching, I brought a guest lecturer into my classroom to speak about her engagement in the events at Standing Rock. Prior 78

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to her visit, we spoke about the course objectives and she told me generally about her plan for the lecture. I was excited for the visit and could imagine how much my students could learn from this woman who had so much real-world experience to share. On the day of the visit, I met my guest lecturer in the parking lot, and I could see that she had brought her medicine bundle with her. Immediately I was struck – both with panic and complete foolishness – that I had not considered that she might light her medicines. In our discussions beforehand, it did not occur to me to ask if there was anything she might need, outside of the typical audio/visual support, which we have come to expect in this learning environment. As we arrived in the classroom (located in the basement of the Physics Building of all places!), I could see my guest preparing her altar, with all of her sacred items, including a smudge bowl, medicines and matches. The conflict rising in my heart and mind was palpable. While our university does have a smudging policy, it is necessary to contact campus security at least 24 hours in advance so they can check the sensitivity of fire alarms, and notify those in the area that they can expect smoke in case of allergies and to allay any other concerns. At this stage, it was too late to contact Campus Security, and asking my guest not to light her medicines was not optional. Not only would that have been very disrespectful, such an act – in my opinion – would be paradoxical to the very reason I invited her in the first place. I was torn. As our guest speaker began her presentation, the first thing she did was introduce us to the items on her altar. It was around this time that our speaker admitted how nervous she was, and how she decided at the last minute to bring her medicine bundle with her as these medicines give her courage and bravery to share. Then she lit her medicines and proceeded to smudge herself. As I looked around the classroom, I could see that my students – a collection of Indigenous and many more non-Indigenous students – were enthralled with what was happening. Rather than listening to me present theory and learning about very complicated histories of environmental and cultural change, before their very eyes, sat this kind and generous woman who so graciously shared her knowledge and journey, some of it funny, some of it painful, but all of it real and relevant, and relatable for the course I was teaching. And as much as I tried to soak in this wonderful moment of sharing, I was completely preoccupied with the fact that her lit medicines were creating an awful lot of smoke! Would we get into trouble? Would the fire alarm go off? Should I go open the window? As I sat in the classroom that day, my eyes were transfixed on the door, as I waited for someone to come in and tell us that we were not allowed to be doing what we were doing. In the end, no one came to the door. The fire alarm did not go off. None of my students suffered an allergic reaction to the smoke. The students loved the presentation and encouraged me to bring her back again.

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LEARNING WITH HEART AND MIND Engaging with Indigenous knowledge, and making appropriate learning spaces requires us to tune into learning with our mind and heart. Like many of you reading these pages, perhaps you have been called to your scholarship as a result of something you’ve witnessed or experienced, or because of an event that has touched your life. I have yet to meet an Indigenous student or scholar who comes to their scholarship purely out of curiosity. Particularly at the graduate level, most are called to this work because of who they are as Indigenous peoples. Some see their scholarship as a means of healing, whether it is their own, or because they see the potential of the work they are doing as important for the overall well-being of their community. All are motivated by the inequity they witness. In academia, we are not often encouraged to think about how our engagement in research will make us feel. We are taught to think about theoretical and methodological implications. How will this work impact policy or structure? We are not taught to think about how research affects us on a human level, nor how our own experience can drive the research questions we ask. The more I am immersed in Indigenous scholarship, the more I have come to realise that the approach to doing this work is in fact laden with feeling, compassion, and heart. And to borrow from Wilson (2008), in the development of relationships with those we work with, we are necessarily engaging in a type of ceremony. In February 2017, Ontario’s Indigenous Mentorship Network held a workshop for Indigenous undergraduate students considering a pathway to graduate school. Our first day opened with an introduction to the network and its opportunities. As leader of the IMN, I introduced myself and my pathway into Indigenous health scholarship. I talked about the exciting places I had been, and the wonderful learning I had done. I talked about the studies I had participated in, the travel, and the publications. But I also talked about the loneliness I felt as a graduate student, of the exclusion I had felt at times. I talked of the need to compartmentalize myself across the Indigenous and non-Indigenous parts of my life. I told them about my great relief and sincere gratitude to have found the ACADRE program – about how it felt like a wonderful, familiar homecoming. I told them about how simply going to the national gatherings, and being in that space with Indigenous people, made me emotional to the point that I cried – with happiness, with belonging, with relief for that place. I loved the idea that Indigenous and allied scholars had dreamed up a program that was meant entirely to support me, as a native person, to do the work I needed to do in the way I needed to do it. I got emotional as I told them how much I cared about them. About how I hoped they could enjoy a future in scholarship where they did not have to slip in and out of their Indigeneity, where they could freely be themselves. Most of all, I told them I hoped that they could study the topics they wanted, and that they could 80

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learn and do things in the ways that made sense to them, and be fully supported in doing that work. As my introduction ended, each student took their turn to talk about who they were and what they imagined for themselves. What had started as introductions very quickly evolved into a sharing circle. We had engaged in ceremony together, with all of the feelings, emotions, and heart that you would expect.

CREATING INTENTIONAL SPACES OF BELONGING Fostering good relationships requires being intentional about creating inclusive spaces. The act of bringing Indigenous learners together in an intentional way can be very impactful. A few years back, a colleague of mine asked me “what does it take to make a good learning space for Indigenous people?” With no thought, I said “Simple. You have to show up. You have to be there.” My colleague went quiet and said “Really? Just show up? No need to worry about quality or timelines, or the structure?” And then I started thinking to myself about what interactions had been most meaningful for me over the years. To me, the places where I have learned the most are the places and spaces where I have felt belonging. Where I was welcomed into a place. Where I could see elements of myself reflected back at me. Where my ideas were accepted and treated in a respectful way – even when they were challenged. These were places my mentors showed up, day after day, and helped me see that I could succeed when the odds seemed stacked against me. To have that intentional space with other Indigenous people, to know that there was a consistency in their capabilities, was both a gift and a structure. It was a social structure that has, in very few cases, existed in our universities.

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MEASURES OF TIME AND SUCCESS LOOK DIFFERENT It must be acknowledged that the nature of community-based research is an inherently long process. Whether you are working with genetic mapping, oral histories or traditional medicines, the processes by which a researcher engages in this work can take considerable time, as it generally requires significant investments in relationship building and a relational ethics process. This process can delay the traditional metrics by which academic success is measured, and the impact of “time taken” can have significant implications for graduate students who aim to study and complete their degrees within the “normal” timeframe of a Masters (2 years) or PhD (4-5 years), or for new faculty who are establishing research relationships with communities and for whom that process can significantly delay the time it takes to get to the publication stage. 81

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In the same way that measures of time may vary in Indigenous research, so too can concepts of “success” vary in contrast to traditional academic ones. In typical academic terms for example, success generally looks like advancement; it may refer to upward movement of individuals in the academic hierarchy, or the specializing of individuals in knowledge systems. In the Indigenous context, measures of success more often reflect processes that can support community goals or the strengthening of relationships. As a new academic, one of my very first projects was with my own community (Biigtigong Nishnaabeg) and a neighbouring community (Batchewana First Nation), which culminated in the creation of a community-based film (Richmond, 2016). As we were finalizing the film, there were visits with the communities to make sure it accurately reflected the messages intended to be shared by the communities. In each community, we had viewings of the film as well as sharing circles and other informal opportunities to talk about the film. On the final day of viewings in my home community, the Elders insisted on a sunrise ceremony as part of our film debriefing. Rather than meeting in the community hall, we met at the mouth of the Biigtig (Pic River) – a very important and sacred place in our community. We sat on the earth. We sang songs. We engaged in ceremony with the Elders. For me especially, the privilege and honour of having this collective research relationship recognized through this ceremonial protocol was very meaningful, and it is a form of “success” that I have since come to understand not only as reward for research well done, but also as responsibility to continue to use these gifts in a respectful way. From that moment on, I became part of the community on a deeper level and our relational context gained new dimension.

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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR INDIGENIZATION? In Canada over the past twenty years, we have witnessed a revolution in the way Indigenous health scholarship is done. Paradoxical to the way Indigenous health research has been done in the past – “on communities” and largely by non-Indigenous people – my colleagues and I were trained within a research culture that nurtured, and financially supported us to learn and act in self-determining ways. We have developed, and are continuing to develop, a base of expertise in applied Indigenous health scholarship, with the technical, academic and culturally appropriate skills required therein. In doing this work, we actively connect with community to be responsive to our own needs as Indigenous peoples. We are using research as a tool to heal our own and our collective traumas. We are witnessing the reclamation and resurgence of our own ways – including Indigenous and decolonizing methodologies, and wide engagement with Indigenous Knowledge and other methodologies that 82

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engage Indigenous communities in ways like never before. This new generation of scholars has steadfastly embraced the concept of relational accountability as its guiding principle. To me, this is indigenized research. Related to university indigenization efforts, what can academic leaders learn from what I have shared here? In my transition from student to scholar, and particularly so in the past decade, one of the persistent experiences I have endured relates to the ongoing internal conflict I have encountered when attempting to bring Indigenous knowledge and practice into the university, and the exhausting emotional labour this entails. Because our universities are so steeped in colonial ways of knowing and doing, our collective attempts to bridge Indigenous knowledges and ways of doing into these places are unfortunately not a straightforward or easy process. This bears true for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the university community. We are all in a transition that is uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable because we are unsettling normative behaviours and cultural beliefs that have prevailed powerfully for a very long time. For many in the university setting, this transition will involve unlearning, thinking in new and/or different ways, and to opening minds to other ways of knowing, doing and understanding the world. For me, as an Indigenous scholar, it is about having both the bravery and endurance to exert my beliefs, understandings and ethical principles in a place where – until recently – they have not been acknowledged nor welcomed. A second persistent theme in this chapter is that of relationality – to people, places, time, space, the land, to one another – and of the ways these dimensions of relationality can support or deny Indigenous belonging. Universities in Canada, and around the world, stand as places of higher learning – where expertise is fostered, skills developed, degrees achieved, and indeed, this work happens because many people and resources come together to support a structure of learning. But what cultural norms, scientific endeavors, historical contexts, and modes of learning underpin this structure? To what extent have Indigenous voices, ideas, and perspectives supported the creation of this structure? In most cases, the answer will be very few. It bears worth reminding that until 1950 in Canada, Indigenous peoples were not capable of pursuing a university education without first enfranchising. Like my mother, who (unknowingly) enfranchised when she married my father, young Indigenous people in Canada – for many years, had to choose between their cultural identity as Indigenous peoples versus post-secondary education. Universities represent not only places of higher learning, but they also represent an important piece of Canadian colonialism. While important changes are taking place in our universities, significantly more is required to make our learning environments more inclusive and better places for Indigenous peoples – and for all people. But the drive to indigenize our universities should not be considered a “race.” This is not fast work. Rather, the work before us

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requires that we pay tremendous attention to our relationality, as people first, and secondly as members of our university communities. Canada’s history of colonization powerfully shapes the present structure of our universities (Cote-Meek, 2014). The experience of colonialism is a complicated shared reality that we all – Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – must confront and reflect on in order to make for a brighter and more inclusive future for all Canadians. If the ultimate goal of indigenization is to dismantle the colonial power of the university over Indigenous peoples and communities, as a very important starting point, we need to do a better job at relating to one another (Gaudry and Lorenz, 2018). We need to listen, and do our very best to hear the perspectives of Indigenous people and their perceptions about the university, and about how we might possibly make it a more welcoming and supportive environment to pursue our shared goals of indigenization. My hope is that the learning, experiences and challenges I have shared here can serve as a place to continue this relationship building.

REFERENCES Anderson, K., & Cidro, J. (2019). Decades of Doing: Indigenous Women Academics Reflect on the Practices of Community-Based Health Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics; JERHRE, 14(3), 1556264619835707. doi:10.1177/1556264619835707 PMID:31018813 Archibald, J. A., Jovel, E., McCormick, R., Vedan, R., & Thira, D. (2006). Creating transformative Aboriginal health research: The BC ACADRE at three years. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 29(1), 4. Cote-Meek, S. (2014). Colonized classrooms: Racism, trauma and resistance in post-secondary education. Fernwood Publishing.

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Gaudry, A., & Lorenz, D. (2018). Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: Navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 14(3), 218–227. doi:10.1177/1177180118785382 Iseke, J. (2013). Indigenous storytelling as research. International Review of Qualitative Research, 6(4), 559–577. doi:10.1525/irqr.2013.6.4.559 Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. LaDuke, W. (1994). Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Environmental Futures. Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy, 127–148. 84

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Louis, R. P. (2007). Can you hear us now? Voices from the margin: Using indigenous methodologies in geographic research. Geographical Research, 45(2), 130–139. doi:10.1111/j.1745-5871.2007.00443.x Reading, J., & Nowgesic, E. (2002). Improving the health of future generations: The Canadian institutes of health research institute of Aboriginal peoples’ health. American Journal of Public Health, 92(9), 1396–1400. doi:10.2105/AJPH.92.9.1396 PMID:12197963 Richmond, C. (2016). Applying decolonizing methodologies in environment-health research: a community-based film project with Anishinabe communities. In Practicing qualitative methods in health geographies (pp. 173–186). Routledge. Richmond, C., Martin, D., Dean, L., Castleden, H., & Marsden, N. (2013). Transformative networks: How ACADRE/NEAHR support for graduate students has impacted aboriginal health research in Canada. Academic Press. Smith, L. T. (2013). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Zed Books Ltd. Tobias, J. K., Richmond, C. A., & Luginaah, I. (2013). Community-based participatory research (CBPR) with indigenous communities: Producing respectful and reciprocal research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics; JERHRE, 8(2), 129–140. doi:10.1525/jer.2013.8.2.129 PMID:23651937 Universities Canada. (2015). Universities Canada principles on Indigenous Education. Available: https://www.univcan.ca/media-room/media-releases/universities-canadaprinciples-on-indigenous-education/ Ward, C., Branch, C., & Fridkin, A. (2016). What is Indigenous cultural safety—And why should I care about it. Visions Journal, 11(4), 29.

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Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Winnipeg: Fernwood.

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ENDNOTE

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1



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In this chapter, I write in interchangeable ways using various terms, including Indigenous, First Nation, Native, and Anishinabe to describe myself. “Indigenous” is a term that recognizes people who are Indigenous to a place prior to colonization – this is a globally unifying term. The Canadian Constitution acknowledges the Metis, Inuit and First Nations people as those who are Indigenous to the lands upon which Canada sits. I use the terms First Nation and Native interchangeably as this is the Indigenous cultural group I belong to. The Anishinabe people are First Nation or Native people who are speakers of the Anishinabemoen language.

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Chapter 6

The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes Lindsey Darvin State University of New York College at Cortland, USA Elizabeth H. Demara Monmouth College, USA

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ABSTRACT The objective of this chapter is to provide a more thorough understanding of the current United States intercollegiate athletics model that includes competitive sport opportunities within its system of higher education, the history and emergence of women in sport within higher education, the experiences of women leaders within intercollegiate sport, and future women sport participant and leader empowerment initiatives within higher education. While women were provided opportunities to compete in sport competitively within higher education at a much later date than their men counterparts, the signifcant impact of athletic participation for women and girls at this level has been established within the previous research. Most notably, women and girls with past sport participation experience at the college level have been found to represent a high proportion of women in leadership roles across a variety of industry segments. These insights provide signifcant evidence of the importance of equitable access to sport participation within the higher education model.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch006 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes

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INTRODUCTION Historically, the United States is largely alone in its present model of including competitive athletic opportunities within the higher education structure for both men and women. While women were provided these opportunities to compete competitively within higher education at a much later date than their men counterparts, the positive impacts of athletic participation for women at this level has been established within the previous research. Most notably, women and girls with past sport participation experience at the college level have been found to represent a high proportion of women in leadership roles across a variety of industry segments (ESPNW, 2014). Beyond that, research has further indicated that women sport administrator and coach role models are important components of driving higher rates of women participants and sport employees throughout the industry (Hancock & Hums, 2016). These insights provide significant evidence of the importance of equitable access to sport participation within the higher education model and the sustained empowerment of women and girls within this space. While women and girls are now more highly represented as athletic participants in higher education, women athletic administrators and coaches are underrepresented in this same environment. Participation levels of girls and women in sport after the passage of Title IX in 1972 (a United States federal policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex within activities hosted by federally funded institutions) skyrocketed by roughly 1000%, while the proportion of women coaches at the college level fell to 43% and has since remained stagnant (Lapchick, 2018). Women sport administrators at the intercollegiate level are also highly underrepresented. These proportions are largely due to the shift in governance of women sport programs during the early 1980’s. While the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (established in 1906) currently stands as the major governing body of intercollegiate sport for women, women were not provided an opportunity to compete within this organization until 1982. Prior to the NCAA inclusion of women teams, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) provided governance and championship sponsorship for women programs. The NCAA takeover of the AIAW proved to be detrimental to the representation of women sport leaders throughout higher education, as the proportion of women administrators and coaches decreased following this governance change. As such, the experiences and future empowerment of women sport employees throughout United States higher education environments are important considerations. This chapter will detail the barriers faced by women sport employees and participants throughout higher education, while providing insight into the future trends that may assist in generating equitable access, opportunity, representation, and future empowerment.

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THE UNITED STATES INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS MODEL The Intercollegiate Athletics model in the United States has evolved over the past century from a male only, student-run approach, into a coed, multi-billion-dollar industry. In the mid 19th century, male undergraduate students began teams and organized competitions against other institutions. As competition and rivalries intensified, these schools began to see value in the visibility that successful teams could bring to their school, and subsequently increase the academic prestige of their institutions (Washington & Ventresca, 2004). American football quickly became the premier sport for intercollegiate competition and it played a critical role in the foundation of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) in 1906. While the NCAA has become the largest governing body of higher education athletic endeavors in the United States, with roughly 500,000 student-athletes, additional governing bodies exist within the intercollegiate athletics system. The second largest governing body, The National Junior College Athletics Association (NJCAA) was formed in 1938 by 13 two-year institutions after the NCAA rejected their petition to compete in the NCAA Track & Field National Championships. The NJCAA has since grown to sponsor 25 sports and like the NCAA, members are classified among three divisions. The NJCAA member institutions are divided into geographical regions, and again split into divisions based on scholarship models, much like the NCAA. Across all divisions, the NJCAA hosts 47 championships annually and sees over 22,000 athletes compete nation-wide. The third largest governing body in terms of member institutions, and second largest in terms of student-athlete participation, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), began to form after a 1937 basketball tournament. The National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB) formed in 1940 and evolved into the NAIA in 1952 with the sponsorship of championships in golf, tennis and track and field. In 1953, one year after its foundation, the NAIA became the first collegiate athletics association in the country to invite historically black institutions to become members. Today, the NAIA sponsors 26 championship sports, 3 invitational sports and 1 emerging sport, with over 65,000 student-athletes participating among 250-member institutions. Like the NCAA, the NAIA promotes student-athlete wellbeing and competition but it also puts a major emphasis on financial viability for member institutions.

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THE HISTORY AND EMERGENCE OF WOMEN IN U.S. INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORT While the structure of intercollegiate sport development for men was relatively fluid, the path towards intercollegiate athletic opportunities for women in the United States was a tumultuous one. Until all-women’s colleges began to emerge in the mid 1800’s, women were excluded from opportunities in higher educational as both students and student-athletes. These all-women institutions were not only some of the first to provide opportunities for women to attend college in the United States, they were also the first to provide women with an opportunity to compete in sport events and intercollegiate athletics. At the earliest stages of college sport for women, competitions included intramural, club, and sorority matches, in addition to ‘play days’. Play days were comprised of specific dates each academic year when women competed in sporting events against students and teams from within their own institutions. Due to societal events (e.g. the great depression, World War II) and additional barriers, this structure of sport for women at the college level remained largely intact until the mid 1960’s. By 1966, a Commission on Intercollegiate Sports for Women (CISW) was formed to assist in conducting intercollegiate competitions for women. The CISW was renamed the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) in 1967, and the women’s movement in sport was rapidly moving toward a status more in line with men’s athletics. Over time, women wanted an institutional membership organization similar to the NCAA and the CIAW was replaced by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1971. Following these initiatives, governance, representation advances, and the passage of Title IX in 1972, women’s participation in intercollegiate athletics had increased roughly 550% by the 2015 NCAA athletic season (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). While the participation numbers of women student-athletes at the intercollegiate level of sport competition have continued to increase since 1972, the proportion of women administrators and coaches has remained low and stagnant over the same time period. An important and often untold story within the scope of women and the emergence of intercollegiate sport is the history of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the impact of Title IX (a U.S. federal policy requiring equal opportunities regardless of sex within institutions receiving federal funding) throughout the early 1980’s. Two significant occurrences collided throughout the 1970’s and the early 1980’s that reshaped the landscape of sport leadership representation in recent decades. First, the formation of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1971 afforded widespread governance and oversight for women’s intercollegiate athletic programs across the country. During the time of AIAW governance and 90

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oversight of intercollegiate sport for women, many administrators and coaches of women’s intercollegiate programs were aware of the corruption that had long plagued men’s athletic teams and sought to keep women’s athletics from suffering the same fate of commercialism (Wilson & Burke, 2013). Instead, the AIWA focused more so on the female student-athlete’s education, rather than an overemphasis on athletic performance, and subsequently rejected the win at all costs paradigm that has long plagued the NCAA (Wilson & Burke, 2013). This emphasis placed on amateurism and aligning women’s sport programs within the academic mission of the university or college began as early as the mid 1900’s. The second occurrence during this time period was the passage of Title IX in 1972. According to Bell (2007), if Title IX was going to elevate women athletes to the same status as men, its financial assets and political power were threatened. The NCAA was concerned that their organization would no longer serve as the dominant and controlling body of intercollegiate sport. As such, the NCAA sought first to limit the power of Title IX over athletics and thus the opportunities for women athletes through legal action. When this was not successful, the NCAA decided that the most appropriate way to limit the resources that would now be spread among male and female athletic programs was to gain authority over women’s sports. This was accomplished via means of a takeover of the AIAW. The NCAA offered incentives that, at the time, the AIAW could not match. For example, the NCAA offered to host women’s championships and (a) pay all expenses for teams competing, (b) eliminate an added membership fee to add women’s programs, (c) create financial aid, recruitment, and eligibility rules that were the same for women as for men, and (d) guarantee more television and media coverage of women’s events (Bell, 2007). The NCAA then created a women’s committee in order to finalize and pursue women’s programs. The formation of this committee was significant because throughout the course of NCAA governance, the organization had displayed zero interest in taking responsibility for women’s sports (Bell, 2007). Therefore, the elimination of the AIAW commenced, and the NCAA obtained full control of women’s programs in 1983. Prior to the NCAA takeover of the AIAW, women accounted for roughly 90% of intercollegiate sport coaches of women’s programs. Following the actions taken by the NCAA, higher education institutions hosting both men’s and women’s sport programs began to merge their once separate male and female run athletic departments to cut back on costs. A consequence of these intercollegiate athletic department mergers on campuses across the country was the elimination of many women athletic coaches and administrators. In many instances, the male intercollegiate administrators for the men’s programs were provided an opportunity to not only maintain their roles but expand them as well once they were assigned to oversee the women’s programs as well. Many women administrators, assistant coaches, and athletic trainers lost their positions within these newly merged intercollegiate athletic departments. Additionally, 91

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once women’s intercollegiate sports programs were governed and supported by the NCAA, the coaching roles associated with these teams became more prestigious. As a result, men began applying for and obtaining roles as head coaches of women’s programs, leading to the current underrepresentation of women as head coaches of women’s intercollegiate sports teams at roughly 40 percent.

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WOMEN AND SPORT ROLES IN HIGHER EDUCATION Proportionally speaking, women are underrepresented throughout sport industry leadership at two highly visible positions, the athletic director role and the head coach role (Lapchick, 2018). The underrepresentation of women as intercollegiate athletic directors is highly significant based on previous findings which indicate that the gender of the athletic director often corresponds to the gender breakdown of head coaches within a particular intercollegiate athletic department (Whisenant, 2008). This phenomenon is referred to as homologous reproduction. Homologous reproduction theory suggests that a dominant group within an organization will strive to carefully guard power and privilege by systematically reproducing themselves in their own image. This phenomenon is often highly noticeable within male-dominated fields, such as intercollegiate sport, as it serves to safeguard privilege and in turn provides comfort to the hiring manager (Darvin & Sagas, 2017a). Beyond processes of homologous reproduction and the influences that the practice has over the gender composition of athletic departments, the presence of hegemonic masculinity has also been significant as it has influenced the levels at which female leaders are represented (Whisenant, 2008). As a hegemonic institution, sport often naturalizes men’s power and privilege over women. As a result, women are found in higher proportions within what are considered to be more feminine roles (e.g., lower level coaching, lower level administration), while men maintain the majority of leadership positions in coaching (e.g., head coach) and administration (e.g., athletic director). Women intercollegiate sport leaders are also more highly represented at the lower levels of NCAA competition (e.g. Division III) which are less publicized and do not see the same revenue generation as the highly prestigious Division I level of competition (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014). Specifically, female athletic directors are represented in the highest proportions at the NCAA division III level (31.1%), followed by NCAA division II (18.3%), and women are represented at the lowest rate within the highest NCAA division, division I (10.5%) (Lapchick, 2018). Women represent the highest proportion of athletic administers for the lowest level of NCAA competition (division III) at 51.3%, followed by division II at 40.9%, but once again are represented at the lowest proportion within the most competitive and visible NCAA division (division I) at 31.4% (Lapchick, 2018). 92

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THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN WITHIN INTERCOLLEGIATE SPORT

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Sport as a Masculine Space Male-dominated industries such as sport often favor men over women in both culture and structure and processes of discrimination, stereotyping, and objectification maintain the subordinate status of women within the industry (Burton, 2015; Darvin & Sagas, 2017b). While sport organizations have shown a history of adopting equitable policy (i.e. Title IX), these policies largely lack the ability to establish a cultural shift in organizational diversity values. The result of a masculine organizational culture is often negative for women, and institutionalized marginalization of women is rampant throughout the sport industry (Walker Schaeperkoetter, & Darvin, 2017). Further, sport organizations that do adopt gender equitable policies are often doing so in an effort to adhere to a politically correct public image and navigate funding loopholes. Athletic department and university mission statements that support diversity and inclusion often do not shift the culture and serve only to assist institutions in avoiding legal repercussions. Overall, the sport industry tends to favor a more masculine culture in terms of organizational makeup (Walker et al., 2017). Previous research has suggested that gender stereotypes often contribute to access and treatment discrimination, thus compounding the masculine culture of sport as an institutionalized process (Wells & Hancock, 2017). Specifically, these forms of discrimination suggest that the ‘old boys network’, or exclusive networks in general, prevent certain individuals (i.e. women) from entering the field (Burton, 2015). These networks have also been found to impact the specific jobs that are accessible to women. For example, while men are given access to head coaching positions for both men’s and women’s teams, women are only given a majority of opportunities to lead women’s teams (Walker & Sartore-Baldwin, 2013). Of the rationale that exists as an attempt to explain the lack of accessibility of head coaching roles, historical contexts are crucially important in setting the stage. Organizational decisions within intercollegiate sport have significantly influenced the current state of sport coaching. One underlying issue within athletics department culture is a lack of respect for female athletes, female coaches, and women’s teams in general among some male coaches, administrators and athletes. The belief that female athletes and women’s teams are inferior to men is common in intercollegiate athletics departments and can be discouraging to women who aspire to work or are currently working in athletics (Wells & Hancock, 2017). Some men have described watching women’s sports as boring, slow, etc. and have said that they prefer to watch the men’s sport because of the increased pace and physicality. It is especially surprising to hear these remarks from males who coach women’s sports. Often times, these sexist comments come in 93

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the form of micro-aggressions and initially go unnoticed but become more apparent over time. More overt sexist comments can be categorized as macro-aggressions and are noticed immediately (Darvin & Sagas, 2017b). “Locker room talk” is rampant among men in intercollegiate athletics, and inappropriate comments about women can be overheard in office conversations, department meetings and in social settings with department members. Comments about the physical characteristics and attributes of female athletes overshadow discussions of their athletics performance. There are expectations within all institutions that require coaches to act appropriately with their student-athletes, opponents, staff and officials both on and off the playing surface. There is a double standard, however, for female coaches that exists across all sports, and within many other working environments. When a male coach gets fired up during a game, or gets into it with an official, he is considered “passionate” or “animated.” But if you put a female coach into the same scenario, she is perceived as “emotional” or “unstable.” This double standard puts an unfair pressure on female coaches and holds them to a different standard than their male counterparts, despite being in the same role.

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Role Incongruity In alignment with the cultural constraints women athletes and sport employees face within this industry segment, women also encounter a presumed incongruity or ‘lack of fit’ in particular roles based on the stereotypical characteristics associated with the sport industry. Said differently, women are often excluded from sport industry roles due to a perceived ‘lack of fit’ with the characteristics stereotypically assumed as essential to success in a male-dominate workplace. Sport leadership roles are considered to be those that require more agentic personalities, which are often stereotypically associated with men. Women are stereotypically assumed to maintain traits that are more communal, rather than assertive, leading to the assumption that women lack the skill set and behavioral characteristics to succeed in this industry. There are several theoretical frameworks that are frequently used to examine the underrepresentation of women and subsequent gender discrimination experience by women in intercollegiate sport such as Role Congruity Theory (RCT). RCT details the incongruity between the expectations of women in leadership roles and the expectations about leadership roles (Eagly & Karau, 2002). While women within the sport industry have recently experienced increased success in obtaining positions of power, the impact of the factors associated with RCT may discourage future women from aspiring towards these roles (Eagly & Carli, 2007). For example, when a stereotyped individual seeks to obtain an incongruent social role, this inconsistency will often lower the evaluation of that individual. Biases associated with RCT have also been linked to potential instances of derailment for 94

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women in intercollegiate sport environments. When leaders are asked about the derailment potential of their managers, women are often rated as more likely than men to derail later in their careers. These findings further suggest that based on the assumption that women will derail more frequently, leaders and mentors tend to withdrawal their support of these individuals. This process is especially damaging to women as it would appear men maintain the ability to receive more significant levels of mentorship and network assistance throughout their career progression. Therefore, the damaging outcomes based on the assumptions associated with RCT may not only influence current women leaders, but aspiring women leaders as well.

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The Leaking Pipeline While the masculine identity of sport, along with a perceived lack of fit have been pervasive barriers for women throughout the intercollegiate sport industry, additional barriers related to a leaking pipeline of intercollegiate women sport leadership candidates have recently emerged (e.g. Darvin, 2020). The leaking pipeline refers to women sport employees who, based on a variety of industry barriers, engage in occupational turnover prior to reaching a leadership position. Through conversations with a variety of former National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women assistant coaches, these emergent barriers include the likes of destructive leadership experiences, ethical dilemmas, and a winning at all costs culture within intercollegiate sport (Darvin, 2020). These women all engaged in a process known as voluntary occupation turnover, which refers to one’s individual decision to leave an entire occupational segment without being forced to quit or asked to retire. This phenomenon is detrimental to combating the underrepresentation of women in sport leadership roles and women assistant coaches who have left the assistant coach occupation contribute to the pipeline leak (Hancock & Hums, 2016). Specifically, an underrepresentation of women occupying entry level sport industry roles (i.e. assistant coach) generates a shortage of women with the experiences necessary to one day obtain a leadership position within that same occupation (e.g. Hancock & Hums, 2016). As detailed in Darvin (2020), these former NCAA women assistant coaches described the experiences they maintained within the occupation of assistant coach and the circumstances that contributed to their voluntary departures. The recollections included their experiences with fellow coaches, recruiting procedures of prospective student-athletes, and the leadership style of their head coach. At times, these experiences were described as unethical or immoral, and the participants indicated that the actions of others or the processes/duties required of them challenged their own values and belief systems. For example, the women described phone conversations with 14-year-old girls seeking their commitment to their program/university roughly 95

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The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes

four years out from their freshman year. Additionally, many of the assistant coaches were required to become friendly with the players on their team at the direction of their head coach. The objective of this relationship was to keep a closer eye on the student-athletes and learn additional aspects about their personal lives to ensure their sporting activities remained their top priority. Finally, several of the former NCAA women assistant coaches discussed the degrading behaviors of their head coaches. Often, the head coach would curse or scream at the players if they did not perform up to that coach’s standards. At times, these comments were targeted attacks on a player’s weight or fitness level. Overall, these former NCAA assistant coaches felt that the student-athlete were used as resources for the personal and professional gain of the coaching staff members. As a result, these women could not envision themselves as head coaches or sustaining a career in this occupation. The work of Darvin (2020) is the first study to explicitly outline unethical or immoral cultures within sport coaching as a barrier to career progression and leadership attainment. That being said, previous connections have also been drawn, albeit to a lesser extent, between the winning at all cost’s paradigm, controlling coach behaviors, and narcissistic tendencies with a halt in career progression for certain individuals (Burton & Leberman, 2017; Gearity, 2010). More specifically, previous research outside of higher education and intercollegiate sport literature has determined that women tend to value life-success more highly than work success when compared with their men counterparts (Emslie & Hunt, 2009). That finding, in connection with the winning at all costs culture that plagues the sport industry, suggests that the values associated with winning in intercollegiate sport may not relate as well with those of women employees. Based on the experiences of these women, it would appear that they did not wish to actively participate within an environment that required unethical or immoral actions for the sake of winning. Surprisingly, the women did not detail experiences that align with the more traditional barriers faced by women sport employees such as stereotyping, work-family balance, or the masculine culture of sport environments. Instead, their decision to voluntarily exist the career of assistant coach was based largely on the win at all cost’s philosophy as well as the destructive and unethical behaviors of their colleagues. Largely, these unethical behaviors centered around fellow coach interactions with current student-athletes on their team as well as prospective students-athletes that they were recruiting. The former women assistant coaches detailed the degrading mannerisms of the head coach they worked for and the controlling tactics these head coaches utilized. Based on these conversations with former NCAA women assistant coaches, it would appear that an individual can be incongruent with a particular sport industry role based on a misalignment with the ethical climate of that organization or program. This newly developed barrier for women maintaining entry-level sport

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industry roles suggests that the leaking pipeline of leadership candidates may continue if the culture of sport is not somehow corrected.

THE FUTURE OF WOMEN EMPOWERMENT INITIATIVES WITHIN HIGHER EDUCATION ATHLETICS In an effort to increase the proportion of women in intercollegiate athletics, and in order to overcome the institutionalized biases women will likely face within this field, the awareness of several observations and initiatives are of critical importance. Specifically, analyses have determined, (1) that women maintain higher proportions of successful leadership competencies when compared to their male counterparts, (2) that men are not outperforming women in sport leadership roles, and (3) that industry initiatives outside of sport point to the importance and success of sponsorship to advance and recruit women within male-dominated fields. Taken together, if sport organizations prioritize these findings and initiatives, a future trend of empowerment for women in higher education athletics will undoubtedly emerge.

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The Female Leadership Advantage To begin, the stereotyping and lack of fit associations faced by women employees within the intercollegiate level of sport are not only unfounded but have been objectively refuted. In a study of head coach effectiveness, researchers examined the development and productivity of individual players as a function of head coach gender for NCAA women’s basketball and within the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) (Darvin, Pegoraro, & Berri, 2018). Findings indicated that male head coaches were not outperforming their female counterparts in the individual development of players. Instead, other variables such as the age of player and the players athletic position had a statistically significant impact on the productivity of that athlete. This study therefore provides objective evidence that men should not be seen as a more ‘natural fit’ in sport leadership roles. Beyond objective evidence, analyses aimed at determining which qualities subordinates prefer in a leader often align more frequently with women. Specifically, there are a variety of important leadership attributes that women may exhibit in higher quantities than their male counterparts. Previous research has determined that female leaders are: (1) more likely to utilize transformational leadership styles, such as motivating others by transforming individual interests into group goals, (2) tend to use more interactive leadership styles through their encouragement of participation, by sharing power and information, and through enhancing employee self-worth, (3) more likely to attribute their power to their interpersonal skill set not 97

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to organizational status, (4) often found to believe that their employees perform best if they feel good about themselves and their work and subsequently attempt to create situations that contribute to those feelings, and (5) more likely to put forth efforts to make their employees feel a part of the organization (Rosener, 1990). While women leaders have been found to maintain these qualities at higher rates than their male counterparts, men leaders have been found to (1) adopt transactional leadership styles and often are more likely to exchange rewards/punishments based on employee performance, and (2) utilize the power that originates from the organization and formal authority (Rosener, 1990). The differences within these leadership qualities for men and women may suggest that women actually maintain a higher rate of the attributes that are favored by employees than their male counterparts. Specifically, previous research has indicated that transformational leadership generally has a positive effect on organizational outcomes such as perceived leader effectiveness, job satisfaction, extra effort, altruistic behavior, and effective commitment (Burton & Peachy, 2009). Given that women have been found to exhibit transformational leadership styles more frequently than their male counterparts, the lack of female leaders may hinder organizational advancement. Specific to employee satisfaction rates, women leaders are also found to exceed men in the areas of (1) working out compromises, (2) being honest and ethical, (3) providing fair pay/benefits, and (4) mentoring employees (Pew, 2016). In a 2014 study conducted by Sherwin (2014) of roughly 16,000 leaders, both male and female, employees were asked to rate their supervisor’s skill set and overall effectiveness. Findings indicated that with over 200,000 responses, female leaders were found to have a greater rate (54.5%) of leadership effectiveness when compared to their male counterpart (51.8%). A comparison of a 16-item leadership competency scale with that same sample found that women are scored higher for 12 of the 16 competencies and 10 of these differences were statistically significant. Women leaders were found to be outperforming their male counterparts at a statistically significant level in the following leadership competencies: (1) takes initiative, (2) displays high integrity and honesty, (3) drives for results, (4) practices self-development, (5) develops others, (6) inspires and motivates others, (7) builds relationships, (8) collaboration and teamwork, (9) champions change, and (10) establishes stretch goals (Sherwin, 2014). Women leaders, although not statistically significant, were also found to exceed the rankings of their male counterparts in the following leadership competencies: (1) connects the group to the outside world, and (2) innovates (Sherwin, 2014). Additionally, findings within this same sample indicated that as women move up the management and leadership chain, the more positively they are perceived and ranked compared to their male counterparts. Specifically, women leaders outranked men at the middle manager level (W = 55%, M = 51%), the senior manager level (W = 56%, M = 50%), and the executive management level (W = 57%, M = 52%) (Sherwin, 98

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The Emergence, Experiences, and Empowerment of Women Administrators, Coaches, and Athletes

2014). Finally, women maintain higher levels of blood flow and activity within the prefrontal cortex than do men. This biological difference largely substantiates the claims that women tend to be higher in attributes such as emotional intelligence, empathy, intuition, collaboration, self-control, and showing appropriate concern. These previous findings may also be associated with contemporary views of good leadership, which often indicates the importance of teamwork and collaboration, as well as an emphasis placed on a leader’s ability to empower, support, and encourage workers (Eagly & Carli, 2003). These practices have more frequently been associated with the leadership styles of women as they are more likely to express their dominance and assertiveness through group-oriented behaviors that tend to facilitate the work of others. Specifically, previous research has found that women often share the limelight with those whom they are leading, while also assisting them in developing their talents more consistently and more frequently than their male counterparts (Eagly & Carli, 2007). Men within roles of leadership on the other hand, are more prone to assertive behaviors that often promote oneself over those that they are leading (Carli & Eagly, 2001). Similarly, there are additional differences in terms of how men and women leaders rank regarding attributes such as dominance, assertiveness, and competitiveness. For example, men tend to score higher in these three attributes and generally assert themselves and their power in forceful or controlling manners, while female leaders tend to assert themselves in a manner that acknowledges the rights of those they are leading. In the direct interest of organizations, women leaders, more often than men, disapprove of unethical business practices (e.g. the use of insider information) and women are less accepting than their male counterparts of unscrupulous negotiating tactics. For example, women more frequently disapprove of processes such as misrepresenting facts, feigning friendship to gain information, and making promises with no intention of honoring them (Eagly & Carli, 2007). These findings that claim women may maintain higher levels of morality and ethical behavior in leadership are consistent with the prevalence of female whistle-blowers who have exposed major ethical violations throughout the United States, such as the Enron case and countless Title IX suits. In additional analyses, findings often indicate vast similarities between men and women in terms of the personality traits considered essential to success. Extraversion, a psychological trait defined by political skill, a need for power, emotional intelligence, and empathy, most consistently predicts effective leadership (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004). This psychological trait has been found to exist in approximately the same level in men and women with differences emerging based on specific components. Specific components of extroversion do indicate a slight advantage for women for qualities of warmth, positive emotions, gregariousness, and activity. Additional advantages have been found among women leaders in terms of social 99

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skills associated with leadership effectiveness, specifically amongst one’s ability to communicate non-verbally (Hall, 2006).

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Sponsorship of Women While women maintain higher rates of preferred leadership characteristics, the emergence and advancement of women in intercollegiate sport will be largely reliant on sponsorship opportunities (Darvin, Taylor, & Wells, 2019). For female student-athletes, sponsorship has been found to directly influence the successful emergence of minority women (Darvin, Cintron, & Hancock, 2017). Specifically, through an exploration of the sport careers of Latina student-athletes, who are grossly underrepresented in NCAA sport, findings indicated that these women credited their intercollegiate scholarship opportunities with the sponsorship they experienced throughout their athletic careers (Darvin et al., 2017). The act of sponsorship has similarly been found to influence the advancement of women within their career progression, but a discrepancy of sponsorship opportunities for women currently exists in the sport industry. Instead of sponsorship, women sport employees are more likely to receive mentorship in this space. While mentoring relationships are important to the professional development of individuals, sponsorship allows those supporters to play an integral role in the career attainment of their protégée. While sponsorship may not be able to alter the tangible qualifications of the protégée, such as an individual’s educational background, it can assist them in securing new projects, positions, or promotions. According to Ibarra and colleagues (2010), sponsors, as opposed to mentors, will go beyond simply giving feedback and advice as they advocate for their protégés. Instead, sponsors will expose their protégés to careers (i.e., interests) they never knew were options. Sponsors also work to enhance a protégé’s self-efficacy and will likely break down gender stereotypes associated with certain positions for that individual. For example, outside of the sport industry, organizations have noted the importance of sponsorship to advance women candidates. Deutsche Bank, Unilever, Sodexo, and IBM Europe have each established sponsorship programing in order to facilitate the promotion of high-potential women (Ibarra, Carter, & Silvia, 2010). Specifically, Deutsche Bank created a sponsorship program aimed at assigning more women to critical posts, pairing entry level employees with executive committee members to increase their exposure to committees, and worked to ensure the women had influential advocates for promotion. As a result of these sponsorship initiatives, one-third of the women participants were in higher level roles than they had held during a previous year, another third was deemed ready for higher level positions by senior management and HR, and the final third were deemed ready to take on broader responsibilities (Ibarra et al, 2010). 100

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In the intercollegiate sport industry, men maintain greater access to sponsors and powerful networks than do women. Therefore, the manner by which women are provided entry and advancement in the intercollegiate sport field needs to emerge to match the success seen in other industry segments. When women do receive distinct forms of sponsorship, these can greatly assist with the initial career aspirations to enter the sport industry, and consistent sponsorship can often lead to a sustained career in the field (Darvin et al., 2019). If these forms of sponsorship do not develop for women in sport, athletic departments will likely need to turn to more robust hiring and search committee practices to ensure women candidates apply for their open positions. Given that, nationwide, there is a shortage of women in coaching at the collegiate level, it is important for institutions to make the commitment to hire women in coaching and administrative roles. The visibility of female role models within athletics departments can have a positive impact on student-athletes and young female coaches alike (Wells & Hancock, 2017).

CONCLUSION

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The emergence and empowerment of women athletes, coaches, and administrators within the intercollegiate sport space will greatly depend on continuous efforts to overcome institutionalized barriers in this male-dominated environment. While the historical development of intercollegiate sport opportunities for women athletes has emerged over time, the proportions of women coaches and administrators at this level have stalled. That being said, based on recent findings and new trends the future is bright for women in this space. For example, the leadership styles of women have been found to be more effective than their male counterparts and men have not been found to outperform women in intercollegiate leadership roles. Through the implementation of new initiatives, such as sponsorship programming, women employees will likely emerge in higher rates across intercollegiate sport organizations.

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Darvin, L., Pegoraro, A., & Berri, D. (2018). Are men better leaders? An investigation of head coaches’ gender and individual players’ performance in amateur and professional women’s basketball. Sex Roles, 78(7-8), 455–466. doi:10.100711199017-0815-2 Darvin, L., & Sagas, M. (2017a). An Examination of Homologous Reproduction in the Representation of Assistant Coaches of Women’s Teams: A 10-Year Update. Gender Issues, 34(2), 171–185. doi:10.100712147-016-9169-2 Darvin, L., & Sagas, M. (2017b). Objectification in Sport Media: Influences on a Future Women’s Sporting Event. International Journal of Sport Communication, 10(2), 178–195. doi:10.1123/IJSC.2017-0022

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Darvin, L., Taylor, E., & Wells, J. (2019). Get in the Game through a Sponsor: Initial Career Ambitions of Former Women Assistant Coaches. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics. Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2003). The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 807–834. doi:10.1016/j. leaqua.2003.09.004 Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2007). Women and the labyrinth of leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85(9), 62. PMID:17886484 Eagly, A. H., & Karau, S. J. (2002). Role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders. Psychological Review, 109(3), 573–598. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.109.3.573 PMID:12088246 Emslie, C., & Hunt, K. (2009). ‘Live to Work’or ’Work to Live’? A Qualitative Study of Gender and Work–life Balance among Men and Women in Mid‐life. Gender, Work and Organization, 16(1), 151–172. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00434.x Gearity, B. T. (2010). Effective Coaching: The Winning Discourse or Educational Foundations? Journal of Coaching Education, 3(1), 69–89. doi:10.1123/jce.3.1.69 Hall, H. K. (2006). Perfectionism: A hallmark quality of world class performers, or a psychological impediment to athletic development. Essential Processes for Attaining Peak Performance, 1(7), 178-211. Hancock, M. G., & Hums, M. A. (2016). A “leaky pipeline”?: Factors affecting the career development of senior-level female administrators in NCAA Division I athletic departments. Sport Management Review, 19(2), 198–210. doi:10.1016/j. smr.2015.04.004

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Hult, J. S. (1994). The story of women’s athletics: Manipulating a dream 18901985. In D. M. Costa & S. R. Guthrie (Eds.), Women and sport: Interdisciplinary perspectives (pp. 83–107). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. Ibarra, H., Carter, N., & Silva, C. (2010). Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2010/09/ why-men-still-get-more-promotions-than-women Lapchick, R. (2018). Gender report Card: 2018 International Sports Report Card on Women in Leadership Roles. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, University of Central Florida. Retrieved from www. tidesport. org/womensleadershipin-international-sports. html

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Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2008). Emotional intelligence: New ability or eclectic traits? The American Psychologist, 63(6), 503–517. doi:10.1037/0003066X.63.6.503 PMID:18793038 Rosener, J. B. (1990). Ways women lead. Harvard Business Review, 68(6), 119–125. PMID:10107957 Sherwin, B. (2014). Why women are more effective leaders than men. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/study-women-are-better-leaders-2014-1 Walker, N. A., & Sartore-Baldwin, M. L. (2013). Hegemonic masculinity and the institutionalized bias toward women in men’s collegiate basketball: What do men think? Journal of Sport Management, 27(4), 303–315. doi:10.1123/jsm.27.4.303 Walker, N. A., Schaeperkoetter, C., & Darvin, L. (2017). Institutionalized practices in sport leadership. In L. J. Burton & S. Leberman (Eds.), Women in Sport Leadership: Research and practice for change (pp. 33–46). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315542775-3 Washington, M., & Ventresca, M. J. (2004). How organizations change: The role of institutional support mechanisms in the incorporation of higher education visibility strategies, 1874– 1995. Organization Science, 15(1), 82–97. doi:10.1287/ orsc.1030.0057 Wells, J. E., & Hancock, M. G. (2017). Networking, mentoring, sponsoring: Strategies to support women in sport leadership. In L. J. Burton & S. Leberman (Eds.), Women in sport leadership: Research and practice for change (pp. 130–147). Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315542775-9 Whisenant, W. A. (2008). Sustaining male dominance in interscholastic athletics: A case of homologous reproduction… or not? Sex Roles, 58(11-12), 768–775. doi:10.100711199-008-9397-3

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Wilson, M. J., & Burke, K. L. (2013). NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Coaching Contracts: A Comparative Analysis of Incentives for Athletic and Academic Team Performance Between 2009 and 2012. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 6, 81-95.

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Chapter 7

Indigenous Killjoys Negotiating the Labyrinth of Dis/Mistrust Bronwyn Carlson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3825-743X Macquarie University, Australia

ABSTRACT Indigenous scholars often feel like they have to do better and be better to ft in the academy. The sense of being an imposer is an emotion that is familiar to many. Indigenous women particularly become very accustomed to the gendered and racialized codes of academia. Raising the issue positions Indigenous women as killjoys – always demanding more than they are entitled. Indigenous scholars bring a lot to the academy and can draw on millennia of Indigenous knowledge as they negotiate a labyrinth of dis/mistrust in the system. Despite this, they will prevail as scholars of substance and worth.

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INTRODUCTION After being awarded a PhD in 2012 I was subsequently offered my first full-time permanent position at a university. Like many Indigenous women in the sector, I was the first person in my family to attend university. I had started studying as a mature aged student, in my mid-30s with 4 children in tow. My experience of school had been marred by the low expectations that were applied to me as an Aboriginal person and I left before I could graduate with any formal high school qualifications. In one instance, I was instructed by the principal of the high school I was attending, to think DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch007 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Indigenous Killjoys Negotiating the Labyrinth of Dis/Mistrust

about a career as a cleaner. There were no expectations that an Aboriginal student would or could aspire to anything other than domestic work. There is of course nothing wrong with being a cleaner. My issue with this instruction was that it was given as the only aspiration I should hold. It is by sheer luck that I even went to university. I was doing some family history research when I ended up at the Indigenous support unit on campus at the University of Wollongong, talking to an Indigenous student support officer, who suggested I should apply to come to university. As an undergraduate, I experienced the lack of confidence familiar to so many Indigenous students, to many women, gender and sexually diverse students and those from low socio-economic backgrounds. The ‘imposter syndrome’ in particular, was reinforced by the institution through tokenism and, in general, through the ways in which Aboriginal education was devalued. I recall one event which occurred while I was in my first year at university studying a Bachelor of Arts. The class was discussing Aboriginal artifacts and the teacher, a non-Indigenous man, brought a didgeridoo to show as an example of an Aboriginal musical instrument. We know that the Yidaki, as it is known to us, is more than a musical instrument. The teacher closed the door, looked around the room and said, “Aboriginal people don’t allow women to play the didgeridoo but there are no Aboriginal people here today, so you can all give it a go if you like”. In that moment I understood the devaluing of Indigenous knowledges and protocols. I also learnt a lot about the politics of identity. I was determined and although I acknowledged much of the institutional racism that pervades the academy, I managed to navigate a path towards achieving a tertiary education.

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Pathway to Academia While studying I spent a number of years working for my local Aboriginal Medical Service and then while finishing my doctoral thesis, I spent several years as a research consultant working with government, non-government and corporate Australia. When I started university in 1999, many of the Indigenous students were mature aged. I am pleased to see this changing in more contemporary times with many students now enrolling after they complete high school. My work as a researcher was diverse, and among many achievements, I developed an online training package for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) which they rolled out to 165 locations across the country and implemented across all staff. There was much discussion about what to name the training package from “cultural awareness to “cultural competence” and even “cultural appreciation”. While the online course was framed under the banner of a “cultural” course, it was really about highlighting the organization’s coverage of Indigenous content and how this had changed over the years. The course utilized the archival material that was kept by the ABC which was extensive. I have 106

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never been supportive of “cultural awareness” or “cultural competence” training even though it was, and still is popular in the health and wellbeing space here in Australia. Health organizations often seek this type of training to address the appalling statistics in Indigenous health. In my experience no such training has ever improved the outcomes or experiences of Indigenous peoples seeking help. Racism remains the most prominent barrier for Indigenous peoples accessing services in Australia (Carlson & Frazer, 2020; Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016). Regardless of a fairly productive and successful career in health and research, I always wanted to be an academic. I will never forget my first Indigenous Studies lecture and the impact that it had on me. I remember thinking what a powerful position that would be—to have the ability to influence the thinking of the next generation. I also nearly had a heart attack when I realized to do so, I would need a PhD which meant I would need to write a 100,000-word thesis! I questioned how I would ever be able to write so many words, but I did write it. My thesis, entitled, The politics of identity: Who counts as Aboriginal today? won the prestigious Stanner Award in 2013 which is administered by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. It is awarded to the best academic manuscript written by an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander author. Then, in 2016 Aboriginal Studies Press published my reworked thesis as a book with the same title. For me, traversing the terrains of higher education was made possible by the care provided from the Indigenous community on campus. Trusting ourselves and our young people to these institutions requires a lot of good faith. This good faith is often not reciprocated, as I was to discover for myself first hand, and observe in the experiences of other Indigenous students and academics. These are spaces we have carved out for ourselves within the academy and where we can bring to the fore Indigenous knowledges and continue to practice our core Indigenous ethic of reciprocity—a tradition that is a fundamental responsibility for relationships with all life.

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Reciprocity and Paying the Debt The concept of reciprocity describes our ancient practice that draws from our interconnectedness with all our physical and social structures. The concept of reciprocity in its modern, neoliberal materialist formation, is often watered down as a concept that suggests a ‘give and take’ relationship rather than an obligation of sharing, not necessarily implicated by repayment. Reciprocity has been a social adhesive for Indigenous people; it is the glue that has ensured our survival. Reciprocity is about sharing, about understanding that our survival depends on the dissemination of knowledge, of food, shelter, songs, art and stories.

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Reciprocity lies in the understanding that ‘give and take’ at times translates to “give”, and that sharing is a cultural practice rather than a benevolent or altruistic act of morality. Removed from any religious or moral code, reciprocity is simply about our interdependence as a people, and our capacity for the continued existence of our lands, our people and our relationship to non-human kin. I am drawn to the wisdom of Aboriginal political philosopher Dr Mary Graham who argues that “the foundation of Law is a complex and refined system of social, moral, spiritual and community obligations that provided an ordered universe for people” (2014, p. 18). In a recent conversation, Dr Graham commented that there has never been an effective system to ensure social cohesion like that which Aboriginal people adhere to. A system that is founded on reciprocity and relationality. As Dr Graham asserts, Aboriginal logic maintains that there is no division between the observing mind and anything else: there is no ‘external world’ to inhabit. There are distinctions between the physical and the spiritual, but these aspects of existence continually interpenetrate each other (Graham, 2008, np). For me, Indigenous Law and reciprocity differ from modern, materialist notions of this concept in the following ways: •

•

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•

The act of reciprocity is a social obligation—it is not simply a matter of repayment for a debt owed, but a demand that all aspects of culture that are not prohibited by Law (e.g. certain types of knowledge/gendered practices etc.) are shared for the common good; Reciprocity is also about sharing of knowledge—is a guarantor of survival. It is not attached to a religious or spiritual belief system, or a moral code, but forms the basis for the survival of humanity; Reciprocity is not seen as a force for reprisal; reprisal is encoded in Law, for example, when punishment is meted out, but this is not the same as reciprocity.

I have developed my thinking on this topic by drawing on the work of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars such as political philosopher Dr Mary Graham (2014); scholars of law and history, Professor Ambelin Kwaymullina and Dr Blaze Kwaymullina (2000); legal scholar, Professor Irene Watson (2000) and many more. Indigenous law, history and teachings contain warnings of deviance from reciprocity—consequences will be had for disregarding responsibilities for Country and for each other. Irene Watson captures this arguing, today in the modern world, the will to live in a place of lawfulness is lost to the greater humanity. Evidence of this is found in the growing list of global crises, poverty, environmental disasters, famine, war, and violence. What the greater humanity have come to know as law is a complex maze of rules and regulations: 108

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the body of law is buried, barely breathing. Law came to us in a song, it was sung with the rising sun, law was sung in the walking of the mother earth, law inhered in all things, law is alive, it lives in all things… (Watson, 2000). Now more than ever these words ring true. The end of 2019 and continuing into 2020 has seen much devastation in Australia with bushfires burning out of control across the entire continent. While bushfires are a regular occurrence in Australia, what we are witnessing is unprecedent. I chose to study both Sociology and Indigenous Studies because I felt Indigenous Studies would provide a foundation for what I would learn in Sociology and that, in some ways, the disciplinary foci of each would complement the other. Although this proved to be the case in some respects, it was the Indigenous theorists from here and other nations who used sociology, cultural studies, history, philosophy, and other humanities disciplines to reframe Indigenous histories and politics by forcing their inclusion into western knowledge systems that inspired me. I learned much from these scholars and their application of other disciplines and I am grateful to them for their scholarship—Indigenous Studies as a disciplinary focus is now far more ‘inter-disciplinary’ than it was when I began studying due to their efforts and their refusal to be satisfied with western knowledge that had no Indigenous focus.

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Doing Better, Working Harder and Overcoming ‘Lack’ My first fulltime position was teaching in Indigenous Studies and I felt like it was such a privilege. Indigenous Studies is by nature political. Sociology for me has become both a theoretical and practical application of ideas that are central to Indigenous Studies and that seek to address social justice for Indigenous people through sociological principles. I was keen to be a part of the academy and I was excited about the possibilities. I was also keen to repay the debt that I owed as an Indigenous person who had successfully navigated the system with support from other Indigenous peoples. I feel strongly about this debt and continue to see it as an obligation of reciprocity. My PhD is in Sociology, a discipline that focuses on the systematic study of human societies, cultures and their relationships and interactions. Combined with my undergraduate degrees in Sociology and Indigenous Studies I felt that I had a lot to offer academia. I trusted the institution that employed me to feel the same way. I recall my first few weeks as an academic. I was the only Aboriginal person in the faculty at that time. I was excited to be located in the faculty. Previous to this Indigenous Studies was taught out of the Indigenous student support unit. Being located in the support unit generally resulted in a sense of isolation from academia and usually meant a lack of opportunities and especially in regard to research. 109

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Collegiality was generally confined to other Indigenous peoples and our numbers were low. Many Indigenous academics did not thrive well in terms of the institutional expectations of academics. There simply were not an abundance of opportunities nor was there any real focus by the institution on building Indigenous academic careers. Our positions, in my opinion, were largely to support students and deliver Indigenous content that was required in some disciplines. Unfortunately, many institutions remain this way. More than a decade later, the number of Aboriginal academics in the faculty where I began my career remains at one. I was determined to make the most of this opportunity to be located in the faculty and to be collegial. I was excited by the prospect of engaging in scholarly activities and including research. I decided to make an effort to introduce myself to my peers, however I was quick to learn that the playing field in academia was not an equitable or friendly one at times, and especially for Indigenous people. There was another new person starting at the same time as me, but he was in Sociology. I decided to introduce myself. As two new people, and both sociologists I assumed we would have much in common. I was mistaken. I knocked on his door and introduced myself and my position in Indigenous Studies. The man, a non-Indigenous academic who studies men and masculinities, did not rise from his desk and did not even attempt to fake the slightest interest in knowing who I was. He heard “Indigenous Studies” and closed off any further interest. He said he was busy and that I might benefit from reading his mother’s work. His mother, as it turns out, is a well-known anthropologist who had a lengthy career writing about Indigenous people. There in that moment I realized that to him, I was of no consequence despite his familial connections to Indigenous research, and indeed, his interest in gender studies. Standing there in an effort to be collegial, I became very aware of the gendered and racialized codes of academia. This is not to say that all the interactions I had were similar, in fact some have been extremely collegial, but this first attempt on my part to ‘fit in’ framed for me the experience of being an Aboriginal woman in a white institution and alerted me to the ways in which Indigenous academics must continually command the attention and respect of their non-Indigenous peers. I was reduced to being someone that he and his mother knew. He knew me through her research and that knowing had informed him that I was undeserving of my position because of the things that I lacked. I was an imposter that had no legitimate justification to be there, or to think of myself as an academic. I know many Indigenous women are familiar with the notion of imposter syndrome where an individual doubts their accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a “fraud” despite external evidence of their achievements. This is often a reality for women particularly, but for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the academy the perception of not belonging or not measuring up is very real. It is not just a “feeling” that has no substance or can be alleviated 110

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by one’s accomplishments. Often Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholars and students get reminded that we are lacking and not deserving, in effect that we are imposters. As Torres Strait Islander scholar (and my PhD supervisor) Professor Martin Nakata wrote, “Indigenous people must always do better, work harder, excel at everything so we are not just seen as people who lack” (Nakata, 2003, p. 88). He wrote about how Indigenous people have often been represented as having lacked everything there is to lack.

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We have, at various times, lacked intellect, language and education. We have lacked health, hearing, and nutrition. We have lacked control over alcohol, finances, land and sea. We have lacked as fathers and mothers. We have lacked as children. We have lacked as students. We have lacked so-called mainstream experiences (Nakata, 2012, p. 88). He also wrote, “If the experts have named it, then we lack it” (Nakata, 2012, p. 88). My introduction to academic life began with the knowledge that I must overcome this perceived ‘lack’ and always do “better”. This, and other incidents and observations sowed the seeds for my overwhelming need to prove that I was deserving of being an academic. Regardless of having first class honours, my success in completing my PhD, winning a national award and attaining a publishing contract I still felt that I needed to do better. The following year I was awarded my first Australian Research Council grant, to explore Aboriginal people’s engagements on social media with the aim to provide a better understanding of how Aboriginal people make use of online social media sites (IN130100036). I felt like I was performing the role of an academic, ticking the boxes, achieving the measures that would be recognized in the academy as indicators of someone who could be considered a scholar, a researcher, an intellectual. I was also cognizant that some of my colleagues attributed my success to the fact that I was Indigenous and somehow was receiving “special treatment”. One was even so bold to suggest to me that for non-Indigenous women the playing field is much harder. She was referring to the fact that my ARC was from the Discovery Indigenous round. I looked around at the people in the faculty who were mostly white and all but me were non-Indigenous. I saw many successful white women, I saw no other Indigenous people. I published regularly. I taught the biggest first year classes. I transformed the curriculum. I was awarded a second consecutive Australian Research Council grant focussing on help-seeking and giving on social media for a range of issues related to several areas including health and wellbeing, employment and education (IN160100049). I was nominated as a woman of influence by the university. I was

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recognised by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia as an Early Career Researcher for Sociology. I attracted media attention to Indigenous research and scholarship. I was confident I was doing everything I was supposed to, and I trusted that the system would recognize this and that I would be accepted and be thought of as deserving. I also established an international Indigenous research network, The Forum for Indigenous Research Excellence (FIRE), and brought amazing Indigenous scholars on campus to the benefit of the entire university community. To achieve this, I scraped together funds from several avenues. Funding is not usually freely forthcoming for Indigenous initiatives in my experience. One must work extra hard to ensure interest in Indigenous topics and to demonstrate and justify why investment should be made. Too often I hear that Indigenous people are only 3% of the population and therefore any investment must justify why a minority population should be considered. When I hear this I am often reminded of the words of Professor Martin Nakata who would always simply reply—“Pay the rent”. Then the faculty I was part of put out a call for representatives for the research committee. I thought I would submit an expression of interest. I felt I had adequately established myself as a researcher. I was mistaken. I was called aside and offered the “Indigenous” seat on the Equity and Diversity committee. It is not that I do not value the work of equity and diversity—I do-and I understand that the work is extremely important. However, I realised that my opportunities would always be limited and any aspirations outside of this would be difficult. I began to comprehend that no matter how many boxes I ticked I would always be considered lacking, undeserving and an imposter, someone who needed to be kept in her place. I have mentioned a couple of incidents here, but in reality, there were numerous occasions where I would be useful in some circumstances, but not in others. I felt—no, I realised—that my Indigeneity was historically sutured to my efforts to be a good scholar.

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Institutional Racism and Indigenous Killjoys These experiences made me begin to think more deeply about institutional racism and how this has impacted all those that work within the system, and particularly how it affects Indigenous people, staff and students. It has now been over 50 years since the term ‘institutional racism’ was first coined in 1967 by Charles Hamilton and Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). They considered institutional racism as a form of racism “less overt, far more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts. But…no less destructive to human life” (1967, p. 4). “Less overt” “more subtle” are perhaps subjective descriptors of what I have come to see as quite blatant expressions of racism precisely because they take place in an arena that prides itself on attention to “diversity”, “equity” and so on. 112

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Raising the issue of institutional racism is not necessarily safe for Indigenous women. As feminist scholar Sara Ahmed notes, “When you expose a problem, you pose a problem” (2017, p. 37). Sara Ahmed refers to herself as a “Feminist Killjoy” (2017, p. 66). I began to think about how the concept of a killjoy has a great deal of currency for Indigenous women advocating for equity in higher education and how we can quickly become the problem—the angry Black woman—never happy, never satisfied and usually considered to lack any idea of how things work. Always demanding more than is deserved. Aboriginal scholar Dr Chelsea Bond articulates this in an Indigenous context when she writes, “the angry Black woman is a trope which insists that our emotional responses are irrational and unregulated, which then makes the oppression we experience seem like a rational outcomes of our behaviour” (Bond, 2018, np.) Ahmed further highlights the issue stating, “When exposing a problem is to become a problem then the problem you expose is not revealed” (Ahmed, 2014, np). Thus, I make a conscious effort to remain a “killjoy” and always privilege Indigenous people and perspectives in the academy. One thing I have learnt well, you cannot trust the system because it continues to serve those who have always been beneficiaries of white race privilege. Given I graduated with my PhD in 2012 and was awarded my first research grant in 2013 then another in 2016, it is fair to say that my entire research career thus far has been primarily focussed on Indigenous engagements on social media. I remain one of the few Indigenous peoples and women researching in this area. That is not to say there are not a lot of researchers focussed on social media research but mostly they are non-Indigenous researchers who write about us. For this reason, I am often called upon to deliver keynotes at conferences. One of the keynotes this year was for the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference, held in Brisbane. The overarching theme of the conference was trust in the system. The “system” is referring to online technologies and platforms. I was keen to present on the idea of trust as it pertains to Indigenous peoples and especially in relation to our engagements on social media. My keynote was titled, “Indigenous internet users: Learning to trust ourselves”.

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Indigenous Peoples, Social Media and Trust in the System The conference blurb states that scholars are invited to “explore the question of whether we can still have, or how we might regain, “trust in the system”: in a world of unscrupulous actors and dubious data, how can we know what and whom to trust? Indeed, how might we change the system itself— rethinking, redesigning, rebuilding, repurposing it— to provide a more trustworthy experience for a broader, more diverse, more inclusive community of Internet users?”.1 ‘Trust’ for me, is a term that embodies (and disembodies) our experiences from over two hundred years 113

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of colonisation. Trust in any system, online or offline, is a precious commodity for Indigenous peoples to whom notions of trust are always subject to suspicion, fear, and at best, careful negotiation. Our ‘trust in the system’ therefore speaks much more historically to the concept itself. Whether we ‘trust’ data, online archives, social interactions or simply information that is ‘out there’ about us, we begin tentatively and always with the knowledge that while we are skilled adaptors to all forms of introduced technology, many have been used to harm us. Indigenous people have always been early adopters of technology and social media is no different. We have always used technology for our own ends, our own ‘systems’, for connectivity and social and political interactions, for survival as well as for our own pleasure. Over the last decade or so, social media technologies have gradually become a central part of our everyday lives (Lumby, 2010; Carlson, 2016; Carlson & Frazer, 2018a). These forums offer opportunities to connect across vast distances and diverse populations. They provide a platform to express identity, connect with community, to learn and play, to seek love, organise political action, find lost friends and family, search for employment, raise our public profile, to seek help in times of need—and much more. Almost every aspect of everyday life has in some way been shaped, modified or enhanced in recent years by social media technologies (Carlson & Frazer, 2018a). Indigenous people have made particular use of social media for agitating for social justice. Information can be distributed, events coordinated, and alliances spontaneously forged across great distances often outside of the surveillance and control of state actors (Carlson, Sciascia & Wilson, 2017; Carlson & Frazer, 2016). Assessing the actual impact of online engagement is not a straightforward matter—any concept of ‘trust in the system’ demands that we appropriate and begin to infiltrate that system in order to force ‘it’ to incorporate the views and experiences of Indigenous people online. The conference blurb suggests that researchers find themselves at the intersection of critical studies, technology, culture and society. For Indigenous researchers, and Indigenous internet users generally, the crossroads are a little different. We find ourselves dealing with the intersecting domains of colonial history and technology and the exigencies of corporeal realities that identify us in relation to place and genealogy, to kinship and language. We intersect therefore at what Nakata calls the “cultural interface”—that space, both real and symbolic, where we navigate colonial power with the purpose of reclaiming identities and reinforcing our sovereignty (Nakata, 2007). Indigenous people are subject to shifting identities which can threaten to overwhelm. For example, we are expected to ‘prove’ our Indigeneity, our authenticity, our worth in a way that other cultural groups are not. Who counts as Aboriginal is a topic I have written about extensively (Carlson, 2016) and this is no less the case 114

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online as offline, in fact, evidence shows that the vitriol levelled towards Indigenous users of all internet forums is often related to issues of identity. For Indigenous researchers, therefore, the intersecting domains of critical studies, culture and society speak in vastly different modalities. We are often subjected to the omnipresent threat of online, and offline violence as real threats to our bodies and our psyches because we are Indigenous. This is particularly the case for Indigenous women. We are thus subject to the online continuity of racial violence that has accompanied and continues to accompany the colonial project. Indigenous women are avid social media users and are often at the forefront of community and political activism online (Carlson & Frazer, 2016). We also utilise social media driven sites to engage in cultural practices, socialising, dating and connecting with others. Online, Indigenous women are exposed to racist, traumatic discourse, and often experience direct threats of violence including rape. Arguably, online violence is an extension of offline gender and racial relations which is marked by notable levels of violence and abuse (see for example the cases of Ms Dhu and Ms Daley as discussed by Langton, 2016). Tolerance towards violence directed at Indigenous women transcends the ‘offline’ world via social media. Online violence can take many forms, such as abuse via content/posts/images/memes, stalking and harassment which can also lead to offline physical violence (Barlow & Awan, 2016). Former Labor Senator and Australia’s first female Aboriginal federal parliamentarian, Nova Peris was harassed by a barrage of racist comments on social media for daring to represent her culture in parliament by wearing white ochre on her face during her maiden speech in 2013. The white man who made the comments also suggested that Senator Peris was only endorsed by the then prime minister because she was Indigenous. He then went on to tell her to “go back to the bush and suck on witchety grubs and yams” (ABC News, 2016). Greens MP and Victoria’s first female Aboriginal MP, Lidia Thorpe was threatened with violence on social media in an attempt to silence her on Australia Day debates. She also received multiple posts threatening her with gang rape. She received a note delivered to her office that stated, “all black people should be killed” (Clift, 2018, np). Significantly, Indigenous people refer to 26 January (officially Australia Day) as the beginning of invasion and subsequent dispossession of Country (Carlson, 2019, p. 237). Activist Tarneen Onus-Williams has been subject to a barrage of derogatory comments about her physical appearance, her political views and her Aboriginal identity for her comments about Australia Day. She has been threatened with physical violence and told to leave Australia (Faruqi, 2018). While these are high profile cases many other Indigenous women suffer the same violent “unexpurgated ugliness” (Jane, 2014, p. 567). Little attention is given to how the lives of Indigenous women are impacted by such violence. As noted by Lewis, Rowe & Wiper (2017, p. 1463), “accounts from recipients of online abuse which would reveal the experience and impact are absent”. 115

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However, as argued by Jane (2014, p. 558), there is “ample evidence to support the contention that gendered vitriol is proliferating in the cybersphere”. Highlighting violence against women as the most prevalent human rights violation in the world, ElSherief, Belding and Nguyen (2017, p. 52) acknowledge the potential for social media to be a pervasive open platform that provides a unique lens into gender-based violence. Violence against women is currently the subject of widespread media coverage following the rise of the #MeToo movement (Mendes et al., 2018). In 2017 the #MeToo hashtag trended on Twitter capturing public and media attention. The hashtag was reported by CBS News (2017) as having been used 12 million times in the first 24 hours. This demonstrates how social media can distribute information quickly and globally. However, while social media has the potential to call out violence against women it can also be a platform that facilitates violence as noted previously. As a result, there are many debates about policy interventions and the need for social media platforms to respond more effectively to violence directed toward women. Many Indigenous people live ‘on the edge’ on social media platforms, continually having to explain and re-explain, forced to re-construct ourselves, prove ourselves, and invest in emotional labour that is harmful to us and our communities (Carlson, 2019). Clark et al. (2016, p. 4) write “the central logic of settler colonialism” is “one of elimination and absorption into the settler society”. The settler state wants Indigenous peoples to disappear—to leave, perish, or assimilate entirely into the settler population (Carlson & Frazer, 2020, p.8). Matamoros-Fernández (2017, p. 933) argues that social media are not neutral platforms of social engagement, rather “they ‘intervene’ in public discourse and often contribute, as has happened with other technologies, to sustaining whiteness”—what they describe as ‘platformed racism’. The idea of ‘trust’ as a ‘techno-emotion’ therefore, doesn’t necessarily fit or speak to us in ways that are congruent with our histories. We are always embodied by our histories, online and offline; for us, trust cannot be neatly siphoned off as a techno-emotion. Trust in any system, for Indigenous peoples, remains an historically unrealistic and dangerous emotion that demands our scrutiny, our attention and our agency in discerning what is possible and beneficial for us and indeed, what is harmful.

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Navigating the Labyrinth of Dis/Mis/Trust So how do we begin to conceptualise trust in such a labyrinth of dis/mis/trust? The reality is we don’t. Like all users of technology, we just get in there and use the platforms and forums and adapt to all new techno applications, devising them for our own use, re-making them so we can avoid distrust and mistrust and develop trust in our own systems, in our own creativity and our own ways of being. We strategically deploy the technology available to us and find innovative ways of minimising the 116

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harm and the danger implicit in many of the sites that comprise online forums. In this process of re-making, we seize the ‘means of production’ and re-create it to our needs much like the way we navigate the academy. Facebook, for example, although useful for connecting Indigenous people and groups, is what could be described as a hotbed for racist sentiment aimed at Indigenous people. Despite the sporadic shutdowns of sites, there are still specific pages created to allow users to discriminate and abuse. Indigenous people are abused for a range of ‘transgressions’, not least of which is our proclivity to ‘live in the past’; an expression we find mind boggling in its racist sentiment and its denial and ignorance of the colonial project per se. It is the case though that we are often treated to hostile demands to ‘get on with it’ or ‘get over it’ and are often questioned about claims to Aboriginality by those endorsing the settler state and all it stands for. There are countless examples of Indigenous social media users who self-censor, or are reluctant to identify, or who are regularly exposed to racist abuse as some of the following statements from users in my recent Australian Research Council funded study (IN160100049) testify: Some comments make me just want to turn Facebook off. I get so frightened for my safety sometimes. The racism seems relentless. As soon as I identify, the whole conversation shifts. They want to know how much ‘Aboriginal’ I am, and do I get benefits, and have I got proof. There is rarely a positive comment from non-Aboriginal people unless it’s an all Aboriginal site. That’s safest.

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Sometimes I feel as though these abusers can see right through me and know who I am and where I am. It is terrifying when they turn on you. Because you are Aboriginal. No other reason. Participants in this study explained that a way in which they mitigated or avoided racist encounters online was by ‘not identifying’ as Indigenous on publicly accessible sites and in some case not identify as Indigenous at all. While social media can at times be a site of care and support—a ‘clearing’ in which Indigenous alterity becomes possible—it can also be a site of violent encounter between Indigenous and settler peoples. Social media is also a space in which settlers seek to establish their sovereignty, their ‘possessiveness’ (see Moreton-Robinson, 2015). And as the above accounts demonstrate, the logic of elimination is clearly at play in many of these encounters. Getting constantly ‘slammed’ by racist abuse; being told to ‘stop bringing up the past’; or being told that they’re not ‘really’ Indigenous—there are myriad discursive practices through which the settler logic of 117

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elimination can be effected online. By this, I am suggesting that this kind of violence is a continuity of the violence that informed many of the acts of attempted genocide. As Indigenous peoples we draw on Indigenous epistemologies as a force where survival has always depended on trust. For tens of thousands of years, trust for us has been underscored by the following propositions: • • • • •

• •

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•

Trust in our Elders to pass on knowledge that would ensure survival; Trust in our kinship relations that would ensure a tried and true system of social organisation; Trust in our Law which ensured the regulation of behaviour and belief and established mores, holding people accountable for their actions, and adherence to an overarching system of social coherence and cohesiveness; Trust in our capacity for pleasure, for fun, enjoyment, for humour and cultural production in many forms, and the necessity for these to ensure good health and longevity; Trust in our economies where trade facilitated the distribution of resources and was not grounded in competition, profts or the rights to property ownership; one’s country was a collective resource that demanded stewardship from all its members; Trust in our scientists who held knowledge of our solar system, our environment, our oceans and skies, our medicines, the treatment of illness and so forth; Trust in our spirituality, our stories and our pedagogical practices that provided us spiritual sustenance and well-being; Trust in our gendered system of social relations that was about the strength of women, men and gender diverse individuals rather than the inequitable distribution of resources, or a hierarchy based on male dominance.

So, trust according to an Indigenous episteme is based on tens of thousands of years of knowledge that has promised and delivered our survival, despite and through the enduringness of colonialism. Trust according to this knowledge system is not ground in competition; it is necessarily based on co-operation, collaboration, the recognition of particular hierarchies that are knowledge-based and are in place to serve us, not necessarily to dominate. This does not imply an absence of conflict; nor does it set up a utopian vision of our humanity where ‘trust’ is a ‘transcendental signifier’. There is evidence of conflict, of difference, of hatred and inter-clan violence, and of all manner of human frailty. We do not know of all the instances of pre-colonial conflict, but we do know—and we can make assumptions—that tens of thousands of years of survival were not without turmoil. And there are indeed clans that did not survive. There were undoubtedly battles, if not wars, among our 118

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ancestors. However, the evidence of Indigenous peoples’ survival overall is beyond doubt, through millennia and more significantly, through the past two hundred plus years of colonial violence and attempted genocide. So, “trust” as an integral feature of Indigenous peoples’ cultural, intellectual and spiritual knowledge is unquestionably a survival mechanism that has served and continues to serve us well according to our pre-colonial understandings of kinship and subsistence. It is also the case, however, that colonisation has wreaked havoc on our social systems and languages and has decimated our people in various ways. Thus, our adaptation to its technological device is shot through with the pain and anguish of this violence. In many ways, this is one of the reasons why Indigenous peoples are so adept at using modern forms of technology; we see in the systems the capacity for speaking, for political insurgency, for social activism, for healing, and for reconnection to our pre-colonial networks. Undoubtedly it is the case that racism, online or offline, has dire consequences for Indigenous peoples’ mental and physical health (O’Sullivan, 2015; Paradies, 2016). My research has produced a wealth of information supporting Indigenous peoples’ use of social media to alleviate or seek solutions for various forms of ill health that are a direct consequence of various manifestations of hate speech and racist violence (Carlson & Frazer, 2020). What we encounter in all the research carried out relating to Indigenous people and social media is firstly, an attempt to sidestep dis/mistrust or and secondly, an attempt to establish trust among ourselves for our own use and benefit. For Indigenous users, it is not so much an issue of changing the system to make it more inclusive—or less racist or harmful, although this is a worthy endeavour. Rather, our interest lies in seizing the opportunity to create for ourselves a system of trust. In many ways, as the subjects and objects of racial violence, both online and offline, we need a form of separatism online at this early juncture whereby ‘trust in the system’ is heavily weighted towards Indigenous people and their allies—that small group of supporters who are content to listen to what we have to say and to make an effort to learn and be open to alternate ways of knowing the world. We need to re-establish through our own forums—and we have many now—a space of safety where we can mourn, and heal, and laugh, and love, and find comfort in our own concept of ‘trust in the system’.

CONCLUDING REMARKS Indigenous people are steeped in tens of thousands of years of philosophy. We are the beneficiaries of knowledge that has sustained us and strengthened us. Our philosophy is and has been, our survival. One of the central features of this branch of knowledge is, as previously discussed, reciprocity. Indigenous scholars in the academy have a 119

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responsibility. Ensuring opportunities for others especially now we are in positions of privilege. We have social, economic and political responsibilities under the broad framework of reciprocity—in everything we do we need to ensure that reciprocity is upheld. That means we need to ensure we build and maintain strong and meaningful relationships with Indigenous community members and organisations. We do this under often fraught circumstances where institutional racism is the order of the day. But we still do it. Our commitment is towards our people’s ability to contribute to intellectual life because we have much to offer, much to teach. We have had to learn the ways of the academy and to understand how the legacy of colonisation has structured institutions and made academic life difficult for us at times. We may be seen by some as ‘lacking’ or “killjoys” but despite all the pitfalls we face, we are here in increasing numbers and will prevail as academics of worth and substance.

REFERENCES ABC News. (2016). Nova Peris: NSW Central Coast chiropractor charged over online racist abuse. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-30/novaperis-online-racist-abuse-nsw-chiropractor-charged/7460374 Ahmed, S. (2014). ‘The problem of perception’ Feministkilljoys Blogpost. Retrieved from https://feministkilljoys.com/2014/02/17/the-problem-of-perception/ Ahmed, S. (2017). Living a Feminist Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822373377 Barlow, C. & Awan, I. (2016, Oct.). “You need to be sorted out with a knife”: The attempted online silencing of women and people of Muslim faith within academia. Social Media + Society, 1-11.

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Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Carlson, B. (2016). The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 19(4), 784–807. doi:10.1080/13613324.2014.969224 Bond, C. (2018). The audacity of anger. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www. theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/31/the-audacity-of-anger Carey, A. (2018). Aboriginal MP hits back against vile threats over Australia Day flag call. The Age. Retrieved from https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/ aboriginal-mp-receives-vile-threats-over-australia-day-flag-call-20180119-h0l51i. html

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Carlson, B. (2016). The Politics of Identity: Who Counts as Aboriginal today? Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Carlson, B. (2019). Disrupting the master narrative: Indigenous people and tweeting colonial history. Griffith Review, 64. Retrieved from https://www.griffithreview. com/articles/disrupting-master-narrative-indigenous-tweeting-colonial-history/ Carlson, B. (2019). Love and hate at the Cultural Interface: Indigenous Australians and dating apps. Journal of Sociology, 1–18. Carlson, B., & Frazer, R. (2016). ‘Indigenous activism and social media: The global response to #SOSBLAKAUSTRAIA. In A. McCosker, S. Vivienne, & A. Johns (Eds.), Rethinking Digital Citizenship: Control, Contest and Culture (pp. 115–130). Rowman and Littlefield International. Carlson, B., & Frazer, R. (2018a). Social Media Mob: Being Indigenous Online. Sydney: Macquarie University. Carlson, B., & Frazer, R. (2018b). Cyberbullying and Indigenous Youth: A Review of the Literature. Commissioned by the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW. Sydney: Macquarie University. Carlson, B., & Frazer, R. (2020). The politics of (dis)trust in Indigenous help-seeking. In S. Maddison & S. Nakata (Eds.), Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Springer. Carlson, B., Sciascia, A., & Wilson, A. (2017). Indigenous Activism on Social Media. AJIS. Australasian Journal of Information Systems, 21. CBS News. (2017). More than 12M “Me Too” Facebook posts, comments, reactions in 24 hours. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/metoo-more-than-12million-facebook-posts-comments-reactions-24-hours/

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Clark, T., de Costa, R., & Maddison, S. (2016). Non-Indigenous people and the limits of settler colonial reconciliation. In The Limits of Settler Colonial Reconciliation (pp. 1–12). Singapore: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-2654-6_1 Clarke, A. (2018). Racist Tinder user shamed online after making Indigenous petrol sniffing joke. BuzzfeedNews. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeed.com/allanclarke/ racist-tinder-user-shamed-online-after-making-indigenous-pet?utm_term=. xoP882QA2M#.ni9jjoLNoB Clift, T. (2018). “I’m not going away”: Indigenous MP Lydia Thorpe responds to Australia Day threats. Junkee. Retrieved from https://junkee.com/lidia-thorpedeath-threats/143539 121

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ElSherief, M., Belding, E., & Nguyen, D. (2017). #NotOkay: Understanding gender-based violence in social media. AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM 2017). Graham, M. (2008). Some thoughts about the philosophical underpinnings of Aboriginal worldviews. Australian Humanities Review. Retrieved from http:// australianhumanitiesreview.org/2008/11/01/some-thoughts-about-the-philosophicalunderpinnings-of-aboriginal-worldviews/ Graham, M. (2014). Aboriginal notions of relationality and positionalism: a reply to Weber. Global Discourse: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Current Affairs and Contemporary Thought, 4(1), 17–22. Jane, E. (2014). ‘Back to the kitchen, cunt’: Speaking the unspeakable about online misogyny. Continuum, 28(4), 558–570. doi:10.1080/10304312.2014.924479 Kwaymullina, A., & Kwaymullina, B. (2000). Learning to read the signs: Law in an Indigenous reality. Journal of Australian Studies, 34(2), 195–208. doi:10.1080/14443051003721189 Langton, M. (2016). Two victims, no justice. The Monthly. Retrieved from https:// www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2016/july/1467295200/marcia-langton/two-victimsno-justice Lewis, R., Rowe, M., & Wiper, C. (2017). Online abuse of feminists as an emerging form of violence against women and girls. British Journal of Criminology, 57(6), 1462–1481. Lumby, B. (2010). Cyber-Indigeneity: Urban Indigenous identity on FaceBook. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 39, 68-75.

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Matamoros-Fernández, A. (2017). Platformed racism: The mediation and circulation of an Australian race-based controversy on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Information Communication and Society, 20(6), 930–946. doi:10.1080/136911 8X.2017.1293130 Mendes, K., Ringrose, J., & Keller, J. (2018). #MeToo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 25(2), 236–246. doi:10.1177/1350506818765318 Moreton-Robinson, A. (2015). The White Possessive: Property, Power and Indigenous Sovereignty. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. doi:10.5749/ minnesota/9780816692149.001.0001

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Nakata, M. (2003). Better. In M. Grossman (Ed.), Blacklines: Contemporary Critical Writing by Indigenous Australians. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Nakata, M. (2007). Disciplining the Savages, Savaging the Disciplines. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. Nakata, M. (2012). Better: A Torres Strait Islanders story of the struggle for a better education. In K. Price (Ed.), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education: An Introduction for the Teaching Profession. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. O’Sullivan, D. (2015). Indigenous Health: Power and Citizenship. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing. Paradies, Y. (2016). Colonialism, racism and Indigenous health. Journal of Population Research, 33(1), 83–96. doi:10.100712546-016-9159-y Stokely, C., & Hamilton, C. (1967). Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. New York: Random House. Watson, I. (2000). ‘Kaldowinyeri – Munaintya in the beginning’. Flinders Journal of Law Reform, 4, 4.

ENDNOTE

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For more information on the Association of Internet Researchers see, https:// aoir.org/aoir2019/aoir2019cfp/

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Chapter 8

Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens:

Bridging the Gap Between Academia, Legislature, and Politics Shubha Sandill York University, Canada

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ABSTRACT An insurmountable amount of great research being done in academia rarely gets transformed into laws and policies. This can be attributed to the disconnect between academia, law/policy makers, and decision-making tables. A three-pronged approach to bridge the gap between academic scholarship, grassroots advocacy, and political activism could be instrumental in impacting socio-legal and policy reforms. Gender, as a social construct, has intersected since time immemorial with the way law and society have been organized. Law, as a hegemonic collection of practices and processes, has actively perpetuated a particular social order that did not go far enough in matching lived realities. This chapter begins with the author’s eforts to examine family law and social inequality through a gendered lens by exploring marriage, divorce, and family entrepreneurship. It further outlines the ongoing debates about gender vs. diversity mainstreaming in policy realms. Lastly, it concludes with how these experiences drove the author’s passion for grassroots advocacy, which fnally led the author to political activism.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch008 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

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INTRODUCTION Three decades ago, during my day-to-day struggles as a female entrepreneur who was trying to run both a household and multiple family businesses, after stepping aside from my academic career, I frequently questioned my situation. Coming from an Urban Geography background, little did I know back then that such feminist theories existed in academia in Gender Feminist and Women’s studies and social science academic circles. What seemed like mere thoughts about my own situation were in fact part of a larger feminist analysis already taught in classrooms and discussed in seminars across universities all over the globe. This to me is the power of feminism - how far have we come, how much more we still have to achieve in terms of family law and public policy realms, and how little we have acknowledged about the power of feminist potential in a global context. These are the true marvels of this discourse and its ever-ameliorative work. Feminism is a global word, with the innate power to prompt conversation, promote education, and redefine broad amounts of discussion. However, do these feminist theories and academic research actually impact women’s daily lives by bringing us the much-needed evidence-based legislative and policy reforms? How often do these extraordinary amounts of academic research-based outcomes actually reach the decision-making tables and get transformed into laws and policies? The answer came in various forms as I further explored certain lived realities through my own research about married women’s property rights in the history of Western family law, and the current Canadian family law regimes as they relate to women in family entrepreneurship upon marital breakdown. “Behind every successful man, there is a woman.” So goes the age-old adage of the male-female relationship, repeated time and again to describe perhaps a much larger symbolism of the role that women have been expected to play as wives and within the larger success of the family. Yet how many times has the problematic nature of this statement been questioned, either by the law or by academia in general? How much credit have women been truly given, be it to the extent of financial compensation or even through legal recognition of title and status, within the context of a successful family entrepreneurship? Behind that apparently successful man, what was the extent of that woman’s contribution, and has history in fact silenced these ultimately invisible contributions in continuing the hierarchy of gender norms and family structure? Taking both a feminist perspective, as well as a socio-legal approach to the family court system in Canada, I explored the “invisible women” in the history of marriage, divorce and family entrepreneurship. I explored three main structural elements for these topics. My first aim was to examine and review literature from feminist entrepreneurial studies that addressed the paid/unpaid labour and the official/unofficial role that women play in family 125

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

businesses. Secondly, I applied this literary understanding to a socio-legal examination in an effort to see the status donned upon women in marriage, family entrepreneurships and motherhood, in the eyes of the law and society. The inspiration for this part of my examination comes from the seminal family law case of Murdoch v. Murdoch (1975) which spawned debate over the lack of recognition for women’s contributions in the home in the context of “farm wives.” I then culminated this legal and literature analysis through examining a more concrete indicator of credit in family realms – especially upon marital breakdown. How does family law place a value in separation and division of property on women’s paid and unpaid work in the home and family business? When “assets” are divided per family law standards, to what extent is female contribution and entitlement to a family business’s hardearned profits recognized? Do their properties, including family businesses in which they may have worked for no pay, constitute “family assets” per provincial family law statutes? My hope was to combine each piece of research to conclude on whether family entrepreneurships provide a convenient, collegial place for female advancement, or a reproduction of the subjugation and invisibility that stems from patriarchy and women’s traditional roles in the home. Finally, I hoped to unearth some of the roots of inequality in the law in the treatment of women’s contributions to the home and society, and how this trickled its way down to divorce proceedings at all. Are there any particularly archaic, preexisting relics of legal history in family law and property division between spouses that are still present in today’s family law mechanisms? With this combined research, my hope was to merge my current research in gender justice together with the study of Western legal histories and see how it impacts legislative and policy reforms. I aimed at taking a feminist lens and perspective, and applying it to the way the law has developed in tandem with the West’s patriarchal histories to affect an area of law that continues to be a reality for millions of single mothers and spouses throughout Canada. Once I realized that academic research rarely transforms into laws and policies, I asked myself how to bridge the gap between academia, law and policy formation, and politics. If so, can we build bridges between academic findings, grassroots advocacy and political activism to influence legislatures and policies? Coming from a diversified background of business, non-profit work and academia, I figured politics was where I could combine my multidisciplinary experiences into one while impacting change through my involvement with civil society organizations. This 3-prong approach drove my passion for my academic research along with my zeal for political activism combined with an interest in social justice advocacy. Throughout my career, I realized that academia and activism go hand in hand. Flood et al. (2013) explain this relationship:

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Academics may produce knowledge that, intentionally or not, informs progressive social change. Academic research may be taken up by activist and advocacy organisations for their own campaign work. Academics may contribute to policy debates and political change by participating in public debate or by direct submissions to policymakers. Second, academics’ conduct of research itself may involve social change… Thus, academics may conduct activism as academic work, validating (particular forms of) activism in the name of their intellectual value. (p.2) As Flood et al. relay early on, within my research of topics such as gender, law and public policy as they impact women’s daily lives, I identified the prevalent shortcomings women face, and it was one of the many factors that played into my decision to enter politics. This chapter begins with my efforts to examine family law and social inequality through a gendered lens by exploring marriage, divorce and family entrepreneurship. It then outlines the ongoing debates about gender vs. diversity mainstreaming in policy realms, and concludes with how these experiences drove my passion for grassroots advocacy which finally led me to political activism.

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FAMILY LAW AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY THROUGH A GENDERED LENS Law is a quintessential cornerstone of the organization and structure of society. It is reflective of values, strives to emanate justice and fairness, and, as a result, has been a traditional place to turn for change makers. Feminists, however, have been divided as to its true potential, particularly when advocating for women’s advancement in a very gendered sphere: the family. In 1994, Mary Jane Mossman exasperatedly echoed Carol Smart’s description of the perceived progress in family law legislation as women “running hard to stand still” (Mossman, 1994, p.5). This statement came after a decade that had seen multiple legal developments in case law and in legislation perpetuated by the work of second wave feminists, and echoing the sentiments of first wave feminists. Canada’s first divorce ever was granted between John Stuart and Elizabeth Van Reneselaer Powell in 1841, a mere 6 years after the first Court of Divorce in the country was established (Collections Canada, 2011). While history and the law subsequently evolved to include wide ranging provisions for marital property division, spousal support, and agreements to represent the changing face of the Canadian family, a considerable amount of silence remains in both academic discourse and legal case law on the plight of women in the process of this change. Against the backdrop of formal traditions of coverture, women rarely had an identity of their own in the eyes of many Commonwealth legal systems. What then, became of them when they 127

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

separated from their husbands? How were the norms of property division established in legal history? Long before the Family Law Acts of our various provinces were in place, how did these single women obtain support in societies where divorce was a largely frowned-upon concept? To streamline the focus of these questions, a few definite areas formed the major points of exploration, starting with a special inquest into women in enterprise from the 19th century. There is research to show that some women, be it as breadwinners or out of their own interests, did take the step of starting their own business enterprises with some success (Backhouse, 1991). If women were subject to the idea of coverture, whereby they could not be sued, own property, or have separate status from their husbands, how were some able to run their enterprises and organizations? I then narrowed down the focus of this question to look at divorce and separation – would these women, under the laws of those times, be able to maintain those enterprises themselves if separated? Another area of interest is familial contributions: how has the law developed and traditionally viewed women’s roles in the home? In the eyes of the law, both in legislature and in the courts, were a woman’s contributions to the rearing of children, the unpaid work of her household, and any joint family enterprises, rewarded fairly and equitably? Under the Constitution Act (1867) (s.91(26))., legal marriage and the divorce proceedings upon the breakdown of a marriage fall under federal jurisdiction. The federal Divorce Act of 1985 regulates the latter. This statute covers a wide variety of issues ranging from custody and access to spousal support in the context of a marriage breakdown (Divorce Act s. 8(1)). The Constitution Act (1867) created a second limb of family law that conferred provinces with the power to regulate the “solemnization of marriages” (s. 92(12)), as well as property and civil rights (s. 92(13)). In turn, therefore a “dual system” has been created over time – after the enactment of the first Divorce Act in 1968, the federal government let the provinces take the lead in creating legislation for claims of custody, support, and property division across all modern forms of conjugal relationships (Payne & Payne, 2011, p.15). Each province thus has its own Family Law Act that governs these issues and allows couples access to provincial family law courts of justice. Property brought into or accumulated during the marriage is to be equalized and divided between partners accordingly. The Ontario Family Law Act of 1990 (s. 5(7)) for example recognizes child care, household management and financial provision are responsibilities that are to be equally shared between spouses, which entitles each spouse to “the equalization of net family properties” – with the qualification that in case of unconscionability by one party, the court still retains the power to deviate from the equal division rule (s. 5(6)). As the case of Murdoch v Murdoch (1975) and subsequent adjudicative history has revealed, however, the concept of equality in contribution is still not completely settled, as the notions of true contributions to 128

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

a marriage are continually challenged. One such contribution is the woman’s role in family entrepreneurships, which formed the focus of my comprehensive analysis. In spite of the reforms that had come in the form of a succession of Divorce Acts, multiple expansions of married women’s property rights, and the emergence of women in the paid public workforce, and law as a tool for change remained a conflicted battleground. The law was a regularly accessed tool for change, but had “just as often” failed feminists in its perpetuation of traditional mindsets (Mossman, 1995, p.211). Murdoch v. Murdoch (1975) proved to be a seminal example of this disappointment. In its award denying property interests to a farm wife who had spent 25 years of her life working for the family farm, and then was left destitute after separation, Mr. Justice Martland stated that the work Mrs. Murdoch had done was “merely the work done by any ranch wife” (p. 425). The case presented a key intersectional ground between the traditional roles of women and the increasingly public roles that they were assuming: that of the inequalities of women involved in family business work. As women continue to march towards shattering the glass ceiling in the public work sphere outside the home, within the home they, largely, are faced with gendered expectations of their roles as wives and mothers. The family business presents a unique sphere in which the challenges of both of these internal and external roles combine forces to create potential for both opportunity, and oppression, often shrouded in a secrecy that family law is unable to fully appreciate upon marital breakdown. The next sections will expand on and substantiate family law’s inability to fully understand how marital and family relations actually work in reality in family businesses. It will begin by setting the scene on how family law has evolved over the years through a look at the impact of first and second wave feminist movement history, and the overarching principle that law, in itself, is gendered. It will then turn to examine the manner in which labour, generally, is divided on a gendered basis, which is only exacerbated in a family business environment. The intersection between the state, as represented by the law, and labour, will be analyzed through a discussion of the public/private spheres and how that shapes the opportunities and burdens placed on women – particularly when family businesses are unable to fit into either side of the public/private equation. Through this examination of the factors and forces that contribute to gendered issues in family businesses, I will then discuss how the formal equality of family law unintentionally fails women. Moreover, I will explore how principles such as “equal” division of property and self-sufficiency, which inform divorce decisions, do not account for the lived realities of women in family businesses carrying out very much gendered work, often with negligible pay, and, in particular, often faced with the further isolation of cultural and race-based expectations as a direct result of intersectional factors. Thus, my research aims to shed light and challenge the subordination of women in family businesses, as they 129

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find themselves in a unique grey area that neither law nor feminist scholarship has truly been able to encapsulate and assist as of yet.

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SETTING THE SCENE FOR FAMILY LAW: A GENDERED ORDER FROM BYGONE YEARS Gender, as a social construct, has intersected since time immemorial with the way labour and law have been organized. The oppression that women faced as a result of their position in society is a moot point – the discussion here is to understand how the movements that took place over the last two centuries have shaped family law specifically. Blenkinsopp and Owens argue that gender roles and gender identities themselves are constructed through social means, rather than physical methods, and are kept consistent through the operation of relationships within the roles, expectations, and perceptions that individuals are born into (2010, p.363). The family is the strongest example of these contexts, particularly given the place that they occupy within society as a type of central construct around which individuals organize their lives (Luxton, 1983, p.41). If this is the case, then law in and of itself can easily be viewed as gendered – epitomizing the roles that society carved out for its members, and setting out rights and responsibilities pursuant to those roles. The presumption throughout historical family law feminist reform has been of a heterosexual marriage model of the nuclear family (Chunn, 2014, p.232). Perhaps for this reason, the first wave of feminist movements in the 18th and 19th centuries were premised upon what Chunn has described as the “maternal” feminist perspective which influenced law and society (2014, p. 233). In her description, maternal feminists espoused the characteristics of femininity, care, and child-rearing, and advocated for rights based on the immediate needs of those women who fulfilled these roles in society, including seeking legal recognition for mothers in the form of custody rights and property rights at a time when doctrines such as coverture, and the unity doctrine, allowed men to have ownership over women’s property through marriage, and walk away from families yet maintain control over them (Chunn, 2014; Backhouse, 1991). Womanhood was entrenched in the reforms that sustained this status quo. Genders were, indeed, different for first wave feminists. This difference was accepted; the negative consequences of it were sought to be alleviated. Law that stripped women of their “personhood” was seen to blame, and early feminists sought change through the elimination of those laws (Chunn & Lacombe, 2000, p.3). The struggle from the beginning, therefore, was to change the law to allow women to partake in their roles as wives and mothers without external, state-based oppression. Law reform operated in a very much gendered sphere.

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

The shift with second wave feminist movements of the 1960s onwards created an approach to legal reform that saw divisions between camps of feminist thought. Largely, the second wave was one of “liberal feminism”, spawned by women in the West who, by that point, had achieved the personhood that their first wave predecessors had advocated for, but thirsted for “equality” with men. They believed not in the differences between them and their male colleagues, but in sameness and similar rights regardless of gender that rested on the “human ability to reason and make rational choices…there are no proven, innate differences between women and men” (Chunn & Lacombe, 2000, p.4). The assumption was that women would still bear children and marry; however, economic independence was suddenly a concern, as this was seen as the true route to economic equality with men (Boyd & Sheehy, 1986). Liberal feminists were the proponents of the first Divorce Act in 1985 clearly outlining obligations for child support, spousal support, and division of property upon marital breakdown, building on the work done for child custody and married women’s property rights by first wave feminists, and felt that gender neutral laws that allowed women to be both mothers and contributors to paid work were the ideal path to change. There was also the contrasting and simultaneously developing faction of feminism known as the “radical” camp, which was adopted by pre-eminent scholars such as Catherine MacKinnon. Contrary to their liberal contemporaries, radical feminists outright rejected law as the path to emancipation for women. Law was seen as a product of male needs and structures in a society, or “male protection rackets” that men used to dominate women and designed to perpetuate inequality (MacKinnon,1987, p.31). Rather than remaining gender neutral, radical feminists saw a distinct and separate path as the correct method. Carol Smart, in a lesser tone, argued that law needed to be understood in a “complex and contradictory fashion” to “reproduce the material and ideological conditions” for the survival of patriarchy (1995, p.144). This fast-paced era of feminism left behind several family law – specific results for Canadian families and women, including parental leave, increased economic standing for women as they financially contributed to marriages and homes, property division pursuant to women’s financial contributions, and the development of the constructive trust doctrine for common law couples’ property division (Chunn, 2014, p.244). Per Andrew and Rogers (1997), however, gender neutral family law has also had some unintended negative consequences for failing to recognize the inherent systematic inequalities present in a family and marriage, and exacerbating it through assumptions such as sole parent custody being commonly awarded to the mother by default. This period also saw the development of the “causal connection test” doctrine, a difficult standard whereby an applying spouse for support needed to satisfy that he or she suffered a “radical change in circumstances flowing from an economic pattern of dependency engendered by the marriage” in order for the 131

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court to exercise its “relieving power” (Chunn, 2005, p.295). Law, as a hegemonic collection of practices and processes, actively perpetuates a particular social order and these movements certainly shook what was social gendered order from bygone years. However, this did not go far enough in matching lived realities.

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SEXUAL DIVISION OF LABOUR AND FAMILY ENTREPRENEURSHIP Child rearing, care work, and homemaking are all terms synonymous with female roles in the home. Ironically, this division of labour has made its way broadly into mainstream work practices as well. Joan Acker (1990) has commented on this sexual division extensively and thoroughly in her work. She points to income and status inequality amongst genders, as well as notions of masculinity affecting the options available to women. Per her argument, “Organizations are a gendered process where both sexuality and gender have been obscured through a gender-neutral, asexual discourse and suggest some of the ways that gender, the body, and sexuality are part of the process of control in work organizations” (Acker, 1990, p.140). Gender operates in a subtle, almost natural way at work in its existence as an institution, such that bureaucratic workplaces are fundamentally shaped from gender, and that paid work is a concept arising from gendered expectations (Yancey-Martin, 2003). So when family law, as it stands today, divides property and makes determinations of spousal support on the basis of self-sufficiency expectations for the divorcing parties, and a formalistic approach to the roles played in the home and outside the home, it must also account for the notion that women of today’s day and age have at least some external options available to them based on their active contributions to society. The organizations within which they seek opportunity, however, may carry the same notions of gender that dictate most home lives. What then of the situation where home life and work/organizational life are one? That is the paradigm of the family business. The manner in which labour, paid and unpaid, is divided is lost in the blur between a home-operated financial venture. Per Lisa Philipps, in this sphere exists an extension of the unpaid work in the home, such as the wife or mother that works in the back room of the family business. Philipps terms this “Unpaid Market Labour” or “UML”, or a specific form of gendered economic activity that requires further feminist analysis, especially given the benefits that are reaped by the receiver of this unpaid work in the form of tax credits and avoidance (2008, p.65). Pupo and Duffy warn against the under appreciation of unpaid work where it is obligatory in nature, stating that it “warrants scrutiny because it is such an integral element in our lives, because it is core to present day capitalism and because it complexly sustains patterns of social inequality”, and that it is in fact more 132

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

commonplace than not (2012, p.28). Gender, social standing, societal hierarchies, and families impact how paid and unpaid work becomes divided within families (McMullin, 2005, p.225). Family business-specific literature, where available, does not paint a positive picture. Kristin Cappuyns argues that a bias exists between the roles that “women are expected to play and those that they agree to play”, where the roles can switch between direct assistance or passive emotional support (2007, p.42). Cappuyns refers to a study by Garcia Alvarez (2003) to further outline the position of shareholders in family businesses, whereby individuals hold shares in name only as a “shareholder without a role” as a mere tool to navigate around financial regulatory requirements (2007, p.48). As a result, even within companies, women have poorly defined ancillary roles supporting, often without pay, male family members who control the business, extending their supporting role in the family as a result of poorly defined boundaries between business and family (Cesaroni & Sentuti, 2014, p.359). In husband and wife businesses, often it will be that the husband is seen as the owner or authority while the wife is completing administrative tasks or typical “feminine” jobs with no real external visibility (Bleenkinsopp & Owens, 2010). Women join these businesses out of duty rather than a devotion to the business, and are often reluctant to disclose some, if any, information about income in a manner analogous with reluctance to disclose information about family finances (Cesaroni & Sentuti, 2014, p.362-63). Family businesses operate in the grey area between the much-gendered private sphere, and the wider public sphere. Decisions for them are made with the objectives of the public sphere, but carry the undertones of a very traditional private sphere. Cases visible in the higher courts may not necessarily be completely representative of day-to-day life in marital homes. Fehlberg (1997), as described by Condon, explores how women have “no role in family businesses” despite holding “the legal positions of company director, company secretary (officer), or shareholder… [however] they had never considered exerting their formal legal authority” in such roles (2000, p.191). As per Condon, Fehlberg further analyzes this phenomenon termed as “informed powerlessness… [whereby] women who were involved in the ‘financial operation’ of the business had no role in strategic decision making” (2000, p.192). Perhaps this is why family law is unable to fully account for women’s shares or experiences in these environments: it has no way of making sense of them given the manner in which they operate. Thus, when family law accounts for women’s contributions as it failed to in Murdoch, it lacks the ability to understand these nuances. A pre-existing sexual division of labour in organizations generally has a realm to run with free rein in family businesses, where service from women is generally within the confines of duty, pre-existing labour roles, and a subordinate, negligible position. Why, however, is this the case? My next sections explore some exacerbating factors in the form of 133

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equality debates such as formal and substantive equality, property division, and the concept of self-sufficiency as it impacts the feminization of poverty.

EQUAL VS. EQUITABLE

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Formal Equality Fails Women Murdoch symbolized a trend in family law whereby property division upon marital breakdown was conducted “equally” rather than equitably. This is an example of how family law, in general, is trained to apply principles of formal equality, or treating like cases alike. The concept of formal equality, as applied by women’s movements during the second wave to create protectionist family legislation, has been one that, often, has carried unintentional, widespread negative consequences for women. The limitations of advocating for laws that were blind to differences between genders were apparent when, in spite of achieving economic independence, a large proportion of female single parent families were still living in poverty, and divorce awards were not being made in a sustainable manner for many women (Chunn & Lacombe, 2000, p.7). Chunn argues that gender neutral family law, in its strict following of formal equality principles, fails women in treating them alike and re-creating their key differences. Awarding solo child care to a woman who, for example, has had no career outside of her forced contributions to a family business creates a disproportionate message that childcare is and remains a woman’s responsibility (Chunn, 2005, p. 341). She further argue that while law, per Cossman and Fudge (2002) remains a critical site of struggle, it must be used to promote statutes and policies which appreciate the differences with the similarities between both gender in order to move beyond the application of mere “equality” processes (Chunn, 2005, p. 298). Luxton and Vosko highlight the failure of this equality regime through the results of the “Census Inclusion of Unpaid Work” whereby the full time homemaker – which can arguably be extended to include the full time family business contributor without pay – remains undervalued in law and policy through inequitable divorce awards in light of the tremendous amount of loss that they suffer economically at the end of a marriage (1998, p.61). Substantive equality remains an “aspirational” prospect for feminists, particularly in the context of spousal support (Kessler, 2011, p.228). As per Kessler (2011), feminists such as Fineman have conceded that even though they have made progress, they have not been able to break the formal equality rules within which divorce operates. The quest for an “equal” partnership in marriage in terms of contribution creates constant sites for sacrifice of women, either of time with their families or 134

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their own forms of individual fulfillment. Kessler further argues, “a set of robust internal feminist anti-essentialist critiques of marriage-based solutions to women’s inequality may also explain lessening scholarly interest in the disparate economic costs of divorce on women” (2011, p.228). Property division and self-sufficiency schemes in family law are two of the greatest areas of challenge stemming from the formal equality espoused in family law, as applicable to women in family businesses.

Equitable Division of Property In the contributions that women make to family businesses, equity needs to be the guiding principle. Moge v. Moge (1992) is perhaps one key case to at least some extent recognize the burdens placed on women involved in family businesses at the time that marriages break down and they are deprived of both a home and a livelihood. In my previous research, I explored case law since Murdoch and recent family law decisions and opinions to see where women are at in their business contributions – and whether there is solid allocation to their statuses, or whether more needs to be done.

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Cases such as Peter v. Beblow and Sorochan v. Sorochan demonstrate that awards seem to confine themselves mostly to the stereotype of the “homemaker” with no outside source of income. Domestic services were held in Peter to form the basis of a claim in unjust enrichment, along with a remedy of constructive trust in the home maintained through the services. In terms of property division, it seems that the unpaid work must need to have a necessarily “direct link” to the asset in dispute, as was the case in Fox v. Fox where a legal secretary who worked without pay in her husband’s law firm and dedicated many hours to helping with the estate litigation against her mother-in-law was granted an interest through a constructive trust in an estate recovered from her ex-husband’s mother. A similar approach was taken in Serra v. Serra, where a wife made a constructive trust claim for deprivation from her contributions to the family business (Sandill, 2017, p.14). Indeed, legal feminists major critique of no fault divorce has been that equal division of marital property fails to account for the significant responsibility that remains with women both before and subsequent to a divorce, and that merely dividing marital property “equally” does not adequately provide the economic security required for women to take on these roles (Kessler, 2011, p. 227).

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SELF SUFFICIENCY AND THE FEMINIZATION OF POVERTY Further difficult for the family business wife is the law’s often unrealistic expectation that support will be awarded on the basis that parties, at the time of marriage, need to become “self-sufficient” pursuant to the Divorce Act’s (1985) provisions. Sufficiency for this woman came from dependency on a business that, in turn, was dependent on marital relations. Gorlick terms this as a “get self-sufficient quick” scheme failing to account for women who had left behind careers for marriage (2005, p.223). Based on notions of formal equality, she argues a prevailing assumption that a woman would have continued to work during her marriage, without having regard for gender wage inequities, family influenced decisions and male domination leading to dependency, and, importantly, “unrealistic time frames for education” that fail to account for “loss of seniority, missed promotions, and lack of access to fringe benefits such as pensions and insurance” (Gorlick, 2005, p. 223). Thus, divorce has become a site of economic destitution for many women. Corporate law is another area worthy of scrutiny for its perpetuation of unpaid labour and resultant feminization of poverty potential. Does corporate law offer and extend protection to those engaged in a business without title? An empirical study of the role of women in family businesses conducted by Rowe and Hong concluded:

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The lack of compensation, or pay at below-market wages, limits wives in businessowning families in the amount they can contribute to Social Security and to privately owned retirement funds. In the short run, this practice diminishes and undervalues the work women do. Over the long term, this practice can jeopardize the financial security of these women – especially when a married couple, who runs the family businesses, divorces or the spouse most active in managing the business becomes incapacitated (2000, p.11). Female single parent families form a “significant minority” of families that Boyd has argued have been failed largely by traditional privatization policies in an era where several of these families live in poverty (Boyd, 1997, p.22). Indeed, Mossman points out that reform and statutory provisions within family law were interpreted against the self-sufficiency backdrop, diminishing inter-spousal support on the assumption that both husbands and wives had the real ability to support themselves upon marital breakdown (Mossman, 1994, p.22). Even in the Moge v. Moge (1992) case above, rather than assisting with placing a wife in the position she should have been in the marriage as a result of unpaid labour assumptions, support is awarded as a measure to encourage self-sufficiency and a “clean break between spouses” (Boyd, 1996, p.177).

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Dependency, for these women, was not a “choice”, and “reduced marketability” upon divorce, along with “reduced earning capacity” tremendously limits the family business wife’s opportunities outside of the marriage. (Sandill, 2017, p.1114) The expectation to become self-sufficient quick does not sustain itself in these circumstances, and if anything, creates an environment where support is negligible, and where the burden of poverty falls on the resultant single mother. Fortunately, family law reforms are on the horizon and are intended to modernize Canada’s existing Divorce Act with a hope to make our family justice system more efficient. As of June 21, 2019, the Department of Justice released a news report outlining these upcoming changes. Divorce and separation is a reality for many Canadians, and ensuring the family justice system can effectively respond to the needs of families in these situations is critical. That is why the Government of Canada took action by introducing Bill C-78, which modernizes and strengthens federal family laws. Today, the Government welcomed the Royal Assent of Bill C-78 following its careful review by Parliament, marking the first substantive changes to federal family laws in more than 20 years. Three federal laws have been amended: the Divorce Act, the Family Orders and Agreements Enforcement Assistance Act (FOAEAA) and the Garnishment, Attachment and Pension Diversion Act (GAPDA). The legislation has four key objectives: promote the best interests of the child, address family violence, help reduce child poverty, and make Canada’s family justice system more accessible and efficient (Department of Justice, 2019).

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ONGOING DEBATES ABOUT GENDER AND DIVERSITY MAINSTREAMING IN POLICY REALMS A further, and final factor to be wary of is the method in which feminist intersectional analysis informs our understanding of family law in the manner in which law fails to account for women’s experiences and familial relations. Brodie pointed out, “[the] depiction of the state as a guarantor of patriarchal hegemony…tends to ignore that public policies often have different consequences for different women, whose experiences vary by class, ethnicity, race, and sexuality” (1998, p.25). Chunn et al. solidified this argument by adding that the legal and policy “reforms have not benefited all women equally – their impact has varied depending on a woman’s race, class, (dis)ability, or age” (2007 p.1). Categorization and narrow-minded gender mainstreaming create unrealistic views of social dynamics, subsequently exacerbating social inequality and it shows the disadvantageous sides to taking a narrow gender focused approach to policy. (Eveline et. al, 2009, p.201-2). 137

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The concept of gender mainstreaming is a hotly debated practice in feminist approaches to politics, with its utility and alternatives coming into question time and again especially with suggestions on what a shift of focus away from traditional gender mainstreaming should look like. Eveline et al. define Gender Mainstreaming as an overall goal for evenly distributing the impact of policies on both men and women, with gender analysis accounting for differing gendered experiences being a key tool in this effort (2009, p.200). Their biggest argument overall in terms of gender mainstreaming is that it adopts a categorical method of gender, and that policy makers should be instead focusing on the goals that policy set out to create in order to challenge intersectional discrimination for undermined groups. Eveline et al. (2009) view neither Hankivsky’s (2005) call to shift from gender to diversity mainstreaming to “reflect a deeper understanding of intersectionalities,” nor Squires’ (2005) suggestion of “deliberative democracy” to allow for undermined groups to uproot institutionally entrenched conceptions of equality as appropriate for tackling intersectional discrimination (p.202-203). Like Eveline et al., Paterson (2010) takes a critical standpoint of and suggests potential alternative stances to the traditional method of gender mainstreaming. She outlines key problems with gender-based analysis, especially its tendency to privilege gender as the main basis of oppression and overlook intersections of gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, and ability (p.399). These debates in policy realms certainly compel one to look beyond the individualistic aspects of an issue and create wider reaching equality – an aim that should be sought in all instances of promoting greater social inclusion regardless of gender or race categorizations. In light of the above discussion about gender vs. diversity mainstreaming in policy realms, it is interesting to see how the intersections between race and gender exacerbate the silence in which family businesses operate, and the method in which we interpret the law without regard for individual, substantive circumstances. Boyd argues that gender-based dynamics are “cross-cut by racialized and class based social relations” which perpetuate further inequality amongst certain groups of women affected by variables of “race, disability, class, and sexual identity as they intersect with gender” (1997, p.6). Per Perry, “the search by feminist scholars for a theory of alimony and the continuing controversy over the subject of transracial adoption are examples of family law issues that have the potential to expose the existence of racial hierarchies among women” (2010, p.248).The quintessential or ideal family informs the theories surrounding spousal and child support, whereby the home is made up of a breadwinning husband and a career fore-going mother. The sacrifice that was made of the woman’s career is the greatest asset in such a marriage, where breakdown means a complete, irreparable loss of several years-worth of work, and a particularly hard economic fall for women.

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The blurring of the owner-servant lines in family businesses is a potential site for exacerbation of this phenomenon, particularly with the intersection apparent between the public and the private in this environment. Per Patricia Hill-Collins, the family ideal is one of formal equality, in contrast to the true hierarchical nature of families as they exist in our society. These hierarchies then become an accepted truth of society, thus doubly entrenching any inequities that may result from them as a natural part of the gendered and familial process (1998, p.64). The social context within which roles and responsibilities are negotiated creates the options family members have available to them in balancing work and family duty, where paid and unpaid work is influenced by gender, class, and social situation (McMullin, 2005, p.225). Finch describes that “…a wife’s incorporation in her husband’s work consists both in her incorporation into the structures around which that work is organized, and the incorporation of her labour into the work done” (1983, p.3). She further argues “that the structural location and the cultural designation of a wife provide strong supports for a particular hierarchy of priorities and considerable obstacles to the development of alternatives” (Finch, 1983, p.150). The South Asian family business is a key example of how intersecting factors alienate female members of family businesses from the law. Dhaliwal (1999) has conducted extensive research into a trend of self-employment amongst South Asians, a trend which Ram & Jones describe as a response to “block upward mobility” (1998, p.8). Dhaliwal argues that women bear the brunt of this blocked upward mobility, whereby women find themselves working in family businesses in a desire to avoid discrimination based on race in the wider labour market and limit potential “damage”. Where entrance into the business is not a choice, but something forced upon female members of the family, control and pay are negligible in spite of their contributions. Dhaliwal classifies these women as either the “independents”, who make their own decisions yet consult with male family members, or the “hidden women”, who are “relegated to serving customers, supervising employees or checking stock rather than tending to the financial aspects of the business, which seem to be the sole domain of the men” (1999, p.465-469). Race, thus, delineates an entire group’s understanding of their rights, their standing, and their position relative to society and the law, in that family becomes the embodiment of their world, and the diktats that they follow often run perpendicular, or even parallel, to the formal equality idealisms of family law. Should these “hidden women” be cast out of such a marriage, they would have to deal not only with the factors outlined above, but faced a double disadvantage in the manner in which they seek work, and the manner in which they may face shame in their own families and ethnic communities. Given the stigma and taboo against divorce in South Asian communities, it is no surprise that there was a limited amount of case law available to explore.

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For the reasons outlined above, it is apparent that family law, as it stands, has not yet developed the ability to fully appreciate the manner in which family and marital relations operate in the family business. The legacy of first and second wave feminists lives on, yet there is much more work to be done to rid the law of the concepts of over reliance on self -sufficiency, overly formal yet unintentionally divisive equality, and intersectional factors that place a double burden on some factions of women. Law, if it is to be an effective tool, must be understood in such a broad, inclusive concept.

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LOOKING AHEAD: BRINGING GRASSROOTS ADVOCACY AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM TO THE TABLE After exploring the topic of law, equality and entrepreneurship through an academic research lens and recognizing the gap between legislature, policy and the decisionmaking tables I was left with many questions. How are today’s policy decisions shaped by gender roles and gender politics? Is law creating meaningful change that aligns with what feminists are asking for? How has the political realm influenced gender dynamics of work and labour? After reflecting upon these questions, I then got involved with grassroots advocacy and political activism to see if those are more effective tools for legislative and policy reforms. According to Milyo, grassroots activism can lead to transformations in public policy through organized and coordinated lobbying to elected officials (2010, p.1), something I witnessed firsthand with my experiences through positions on various non-profit organization boards. My involvement with the Ontario Council for International Cooperation (OCIC) board opened my eyes to the world of global social justice advocacy. OCIC is a community of Ontario-based international development, global education and individual members working globally for social justice and realization of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). OCIC works to support Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) and Civil Society Partnership Policy, by bringing together leaders from civil society organizations, academia, government, community groups and funding agencies that are working towards the realization of the Agenda 2030 in Canada and globally. As a Chair of OCIC’s ‘Development Drinks’ Committee, I helped organize events to promote the SDGs and to foster multi sectoral dialogue on Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy through youth and community partnerships. As an OCIC Board Director, my work on the Governance Committee included developing a women’s rights and gender equality policy, while I also helped entrench intersectionality to OCIC’s anti-oppression policy and assisted in improving the environmental stewardship policy. These policies help to ensure

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Law, Equality, and Entrepreneurship Through a Gendered Lens

OCIC’s programming, governance and organization practices are aligned with OCIC’s commitment to gender equality and women’s rights. In my efforts to bridge the gap between academic findings related to gender justice and law & policy reforms, I recognized the importance of women’s pathways to power through politics and legislature. This led me to my current position at the National Board of Directors at Equal Voice Canada – a national, bilingual, multi-partisan organization dedicated to electing more women to all levels of political office in Canada. Founded in 2001, Equal Voice has been advocating for the equal representation of women in Canada’s Parliament, in provincial and territorial legislatures, and on municipal and band councils. Through my ongoing work with Equal Voice, our collective efforts as a Board are dedicated to promoting equal participation of women in politics with a view to achieving gender-balanced representation at all levels of decision-making bodies. In the same regard, political activism is a key tool for bringing diverse voices to the table. As mentioned earlier, laws and policies are not always impacted solely by academic research. It became clear that my family-law related research about “invisible women” in the history of marriage, family entrepreneurships and single motherhood would not have helped eradicate social inequality and gendered economic imbalances in absence of proper policy reforms. At this point, I was determined to translate theory into decision-making and enter into politics. My political journey began in an interesting manner. In 2015, I decided to take my classroom theory and community activism into politics. It was conversations with female politicians at an Ontario Bar Association Women’s Lawyers Forum event that motivated me to join the local riding associations and learn politics from scratch. I joined the Hamilton West Ancaster Dundas Federal as well as Provincial Liberal Associations and took on the dual role of Fundraising Chair. When long-term local liberals asked me to consider putting my name forward as a contestant for the Federal Liberal Nomination at Hamilton Mountain, I stepped up to run as it was time to bridge the gap between academia and political decision-making. Therefore, my research on gender, law and public policy somehow led me to my decision to step out of academia and put my name on the ballot, so I could eventually make policy versus teach policy. In the recently published book Women on the Ballot, I explained what ‘tipped the balance’ for me in terms of deciding to enter electoral politics, and switching from academic research to “action” (McGregor, 2019). Nolas et al (2017) highlights the importance of such political activism: At a time when social science is struggling to understand the rapid and unexpected changes to the current political landscape, … political activism can be enriched by engaging with the temporal dimensions of people’s everyday social experiences

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because it enables the discovery of political activism in mundane activities as well as in banal spaces. (2017, p.1). It is important to engage people through political activism as very little would change unless laws and policies do. How do you make people see why representation matters? Once I decided to put my name on the ballot, I quickly recognized the common challenges women face within the political arenas such as the nomination challenge, the diversity/intersectionality challenge and gender-bias related challenges. The entire nomination process was an eye-opening experience. My city is culturally diverse but the political representation is not thereby making it even more crucial for me to get engaged. In most rooms, I find myself as one of the very few women of colour. Running as a woman added its own challenges combined with other identifying intersectional characteristics such as race, ethnicity, faith affiliation etc. which all contribute to the reality of a campaign. Furthermore, as a woman, a prominent challenge I faced was the perceived perfect familial ideal in absence of a dominant male figure such as a husband, brother or father, a fact which contributes to further gender discrimination in minority communities of a patriarchal nature. Many parties have women’s organizations that encourage women to get engaged and help strengthen their voice and skillsets. All women’s experiences add valuable perspectives to the political sphere. Party training and providing female candidates and their teams with proper support are important preparatory stages to strengthen our ability to compete. This experience also led me to my next endeavour with the Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission (OWLC). In my role as Vice President for South Central Ontario, I oversee 17 ridings in this region. OWLC’s goal is to amplify women’s voices within Ontario Liberal Party, by engaging women on important policy issues, recruiting talented women organizers and candidates, and supporting women running for office by raising funds on their behalf. In the meanwhile, my multi-partisan role on the National Board of Directors at Equal Voice Canada allows me to work across party lines to encourage more women to run for office, while integrating gender equality within party structures, processes and practices. Through my ongoing involvement with both OWLC and Equal Voice, I take an active role in supporting women’s political participation by enhancing their capacities and resources, collaborating with organizations across Canada towards women’s political advancement within the electoral arena, and strive to diversify women’s political representation with an intersectional framework committed to equity, diversity and inclusion. Therefore, my quest for political activism continues through various avenues with an ultimate objective to impact legislative and policy reforms. The success of activism is best described below by Flood et al (2013): 142

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Many academics engaged in social change work experience powerful personal and professional benefits. Activist academics can find meaning and comfort in the sense that their work contributes to the greater good, nourishing a sense of personal and collective purpose. Many of them find pleasures in friendships and alliances with likeminded others and in participating in collective activist networks and communities. Their personal and political investments in ‘making a difference’ can give impetus to their professional work, motivating both intensified research and public engagement. In turn, academia can be a valuable base for activism. (2013, p.3) While it can be challenging at times, activism has its own rewards. Given my passion for advancing women’s rights and gender equality through academia, civil society organizations and political activism, I see how each step led me to a plethora of personal and professional achievements. This journey has left me with an enhanced passion for social justice, civic engagement, community partnerships and inclusivity with an end goal to seek legislative and policy reforms. As an avid advocate for social justice, I aim to bridge the gap between academic scholarship, grassroots advocacy and political activism and hope to translate this vision into action through the 3-prong approach outlined earlier. Through grassroots advocacy and political activism, combined with additional academic research in the fields of gender justice and substantive equality, we all move towards building dynamic and thriving communities where the working families, aging population, people of all races, classes and gender, and people with disabilities can live equal lifestyles so no one is left behind.

REFERENCES Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A theory of gendered organizations. Gender & Society, 4(2), 139–158. doi:10.1177/089124390004002002

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Andrew, C., & Rodgers, S. (Eds.). (1997). Women and the Canadian Slate. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press. Backhouse, C. (1991). Petticoats and Prejudice: Women and Law in Nineteenth Century Canada. Toronto: Women’s Press. Blenkinsopp, J., & Owens, G. (2010). At the Heart of Things: The Role of the Married Couple in Entrepreneurship and Family Business. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 16(5), 357–369. doi:10.1108/13552551011071850

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Boyd, S. (1996). Can law challenge the public/private divide? Women, work and family. Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, 161–185. Boyd, S. (1997). Challenging the public/private divide: feminism, law and public policy. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. doi:10.3138/9781442672819 Boyd, S., & Sheehy, E. (1986). Canadian feminist perspectives on law. Journal of Law and Society, 13(3), 283–301. doi:10.2307/1410013 Brodie, J. (1998). Restructuring and the Politics of Marginalization. In C. Andrew & M. Tremblay (Eds.), Women and Political Representation in Canada. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. Cappuyns, K. (2007). Women behind the scenes in family businesses. Electronic Journal of Family Business Studies, 1(1), 38–61. Cesaroni, F., & Sentuti, A. (2014). Women and family businesses, when women are left only minor roles. The History of the Family, 19(3), 358–379. doi:10.1080/ 1081602X.2014.929019 Chunn, D. (2005). Feminism, Law, and Public Policy: “Politicizing the Personal. In N. Mandell & A. Duffy (Eds.), Canadian Families: Diversity, Conflict and Change (3rd ed.). Toronto: Nelson Education. Chunn, D. (2014). Feminism, Law, and “The Family” Assessing the Reform Legacy. In E. Cormack (Ed.), Locating Law (3rd ed., pp. 232–253). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Chunn, D., Boyd, S., & Lessard, H. (2007). Reaction and Resistance: Feminism, Law and Social Change. Vancouver: UBC Press. Chunn, D., & Lacombe, D. (2000). Law as a Gendering Practice. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.

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Collections Canada. (2011). Retrieved from https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/ home.aspx Condon, M. (2000). Limited by Law? Gender, Corporate Law, and the Family Firm. In D. Chunn & D. Lacombe (Eds.), Law as a Gendering Practice. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. Dhaliwal, S. (1998). Silent Contributors: Asian Female Entrepreneurs and Women in Business. Women’s Studies International Forum, 21(5), 463–474. doi:10.1016/ S0277-5395(98)00069-7

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Eveline, J., Bacchi, C., & Binns, J. (2009). Gender Mainstreaming versus Diversity Mainstreaming: Methodology as Emancipatory Politics. Gender, Work and Organization, 16(2), 198–216. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2008.00427.x Finch, J. (1983). Married to the job: Wives’ Incorporation in Men’s Work. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Flood, M., Martin, B., & Dreher, T. (2013). Combining academia and activism: Common obstacles and useful tools. Australian Universities Review, 55(1), 17–26. Gorlick, C. (2005). Divorce: Options Available, Constraints Forced, Pathways Taken. In N. Mandell & A. Duffy (Eds.), Canadian Families: Diversity, Conflict and Change (3rd ed.). Toronto: Nelson Education. Hankivsky, O. (2005). Gender vs diversity mainstreaming: A preliminary examination of the role and transformative potential of feminist theory. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 38(4), 977–1001. doi:10.1017/S0008423905040783 Hill-Collins, P. (1998). It’s all in the family: Intersections of Gender, Race and Nation. Border Crossings: Multicultural and Postcolonial Feminist Challenges to Philosophy, 13(3), 62–82. Home. (n.d.). Retrieved at https://www.equalvoice.ca/ Jacobson, P. (1974). Murdoch v Murdoch: Just about what the Ordinary Rancher’s Wife Does. McGill Law Journal. Revue de Droit de McGill, 20, 308. Kessler, L. (2011). New frontiers in family law: Introduction. Journal of Law & Family Studies, 11(2), 226–242. Luxton, M. (1983). Two Hands for the Clock: Changing Patterns in the Gendered Division of Labour in the Home. Studies in Political Economy, 12(1), 27–44. doi: 10.1080/19187033.1983.11675648

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Luxton, M., & Vosko, L. (1998). Where women’s efforts count: The 1996 census campaign and “Family Politics” in Canada. Studies in Political Economy, 56(1), 49–81. doi:10.1080/19187033.1998.11675292 Mackinnon, C. (1987). Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Martin, P. (2003). Said and Done’ versus ‘Saying and Doing’ gendering practices, practicing gender at work. Gender & Society, 17(3), 342–366. doi:10.1177/0891243203017003002

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McGregor, B. (2019). Women on the Ballot: Pathways to Political Power. Oakville: Rubicon Publishing. McMullin, J. (2005). Patterns of paid and unpaid work: The influence of power, social context, and family background. Canadian Journal on Aging, 24(3), 225–236. doi:10.1353/cja.2005.0079 PMID:16421847 Milyo, J. (2010). Mowing down the grassroots. Institute for Justice, 19(3). Mossman, J. (1994). Running Hard to Stand Still: The Paradox of Family Law Reform. Dalhousie Law Journal, 17(5), 5–34. Mossman, J. (1995). The Paradox of Feminist Engagement with Law. In N. Mandell (Ed.), Feminist Issues: Race, Class and Sexuality. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall. New Measures to Strengthen Family Justice Receive Royal Assent. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2019/06/new-measures-tostrengthen-family-justice-receive-royal-assent.html Nolas, S., Varvantakis, C., & Aruldoss, V. (2017). Political activism across the life course. Journey of the Academy of Social Sciences, 12(1), 1–12. Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ontarioliberal. ca/ontario-womens-liberal-commission/ Paterson, S. (2010). What’s the problem with gender-based analysis? Gender mainstreaming policy and practice in Canada. Canadian Public Administration, 53(3), 395–416. doi:10.1111/j.1754-7121.2010.00134.x Payne, J., & Payne, M. (2011). Canadian Family Law (4th ed.). Saint Lazare: Irwin Law. Perry, T. (2010). Family Law, Feminist Legal Theory and the Problem of Racial Hierarchy. In M. Albertson (Ed.), Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory. London: Routledge.

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Philipps, L. (2008). Helping out in the family firm: The legal treatment of unpaid market labour. Wisconsin Journal of Law, Gender & Society, 23(1), 65–111. Pupo, N., & Duffy, A. (2012). Unpaid work, capital and coercion. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 6(1), 27–47. doi:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.6.1.0027 Ram, M., & Jones, T. (1998). Ethnic Minorities in Business. London: Small Business Research Trust.

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Rowe, B., & Hong, G. (2000). The Roles of Wives in Family Businesses: The Paid and Unpaid Work of Women. Family Business Review, 13(1), 1–13. doi:10.1111/ j.1741-6248.2000.00001.x Sandill, S. (2017). Gender Dynamics in Family Entrepreneurship: A Socio-Legal Perspective. Journal of Academic Perspectives, 1, 1–23. Smart, C. (1995). Law, Crime and Sexuality: Essays in Feminism. New York: Routledge. Squires, J. (2005). Is mainstreaming transformative? Theorizing mainstreaming in the context of diversity and deliberation. Social Politics, 12(3), 366–388. doi:10.1093p/ jxi020

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Vision, Mission, Mandate. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ocic.on.ca/about-us/

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APPENDIX

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Cases • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Anderson v. Dudek [2011] ONSC 6495 Bhopal v. Bhopal [1997] CarswellBC 1603 Bortinikov v Rakitova [2015] CarswellOnt 6524 Crowe v Adams [1892] S.C.J. No. 62 Fox v Fox [2011] BCSC 72 Geransky v Geransky [2012] SKQB 218 Gerth v Gerth [2007] BCSC 488 Jackson v McNee [2011] ONSC Juma v. Juma [2013] ONSC 904 Kerr v Baranow [2011] SCC 10 Large v Large [1997] CanLII 690 (BCSC) LeBlanc v LeBlanc [1988] 1. S.C.R. 217 MacLeod v. MacLeod [1999] CarswellPEI 26 Malaka v Becker [2000] BCSC 1449 Maskobi v Maskobi [2010] ONSC 2540 Miglin v Miglin [2003] 1 SCR 303 Milne v. Milne [2007] CarswellAlta 1792 Moge v. Moge [1992] 3 S.C.R. 813 Morris v Morris [2005] NSSC 117 Murdoch v Murdoch [1975] SCR 423 M. v. H. [1999] 2 SCR 3 Peter v Beblow [1993] 1 S.C.R. 980 Pettkus v Becker [1980] S.C.J. No. 103 Rathwell v Rathwell [1978] S.C.J. No. 14 Serra v. Serra [2009] ONCA 105 Silverstein v Silverstein [1978] I.J. No. 3415 Sorochan v Sorochan [1986] 29 DLR (4th) 1 (S.C.C.) Stanish v Parasz [1989] M.J. No. 578 Stergiou v Stergiou [2007] CanLII 17642 Stein v Stein [2008] 2 SCR 263 Whitty v. Whitty [2008] NSSC 243 Yorke v Yorke [2011] NBJ No.311

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Statutes

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• • • •

Canadian Business Corporations Act 86 at s. 241(1) Constitution Act 1867 (s.91(26)) Divorce Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. 3 (2nd Supp.)) Family Law Act R.S.O. 1990, c. F.3

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Section 2

Academic Administrative Roles

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(President, Vice-President, Acting Vice-President, Research Assistant VicePresident Graduate Studies, Dean, and Manager)

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Chapter 9

Intergenerational Indigenous Resilience and Navigating Academic Administration Sheila Cote-Meek York University, Canada

ABSTRACT

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The author has been asked a number of times about how she arrived at the role of an academic administrative leader in postsecondary education. Queries and interviews on questions such as these have provided her with an opportunity to refect on her path into academic administration and to think more deeply about her own values and understandings about academic leadership. This chapter provides critical refections of her experiences, understandings, and knowings from an Indigenous women’s leadership lens and provides a perspective on navigating academic administration in the postsecondary environment. She intentionally weaves personal narratives as well as relevant literature to discuss the challenges and successes of navigating academic administration as an Indigenous woman. She does this because of the nature of this book and also because women in academia continue to be oppressed. Importantly, she situates the importance of staying true to core values and her own Indigeneity drawing on her own intergenerational resilience.

INTRODUCTION I have been asked a number of times about how I arrived at the role of an academic administrative leader in postsecondary education. Queries and interviews on questions such as these have provided me with an opportunity to reflect on my path DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch009 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Intergenerational Indigenous Resilience and Navigating Academic Administration

into academic administration and to think more deeply about my own values and understandings about academic leadership. This chapter provides critical reflections of my experiences, understandings and knowings from an Indigenous women’s leadership lens and provides a perspective on navigating academic administration in the postsecondary environment. I intentionally weave personal narratives as well as relevant literature to discuss the challenges and successes of navigating academic administration as an Indigenous woman. I do this because of the nature of this book and also because women in academia continue to be oppressed. Importantly, I situate the importance of staying true to core values and my own Indigeneity drawing on my own intergenerational resilience. Key components of Indigenous leadership often include the importance of working towards collective vision, establishing strong linkages to the community, the importance of trust and respect, and finally walking your talk. Minthorn and Chavéz (2015) also note that as “Indigenous leaders we define ourselves by collective orientations; a deep focus on context, connection, history, and wholeness; and on collaboration and service as a way of being” (p.10).

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SITUATING MYSELF It is important that I introduce and situate myself. Starting this way is very common amongst many Indigenous communities around the world. As I have noted elsewhere (Cote-Meek, 2014) I do this for several reasons. One is that my lens and worldviews are informed by who I am. Simply stated I do not believe that one can truly write from an objective stance as it is impossible to separate one’s understanding and experiences and place them into discrete compartments. I also recognize how my identity reflects how I interact with the world around me. Many other Indigenous writers (Absolon, 2011; Baskin, 2005; Kovach, 2012; Wilson, 2008) also note the importance of introducing and identifying oneself in relation to the world. Similarly, Minthorn & Chavez (2015) note that the Indigenous leaders who wrote in their edited text discussed how their work is derived from their respective “cultural identities, relations, and histories” (p.10). Boozhoo, kwe kwe, Semaa-kwe ndishnikaaz. (Hello, My name is Tobacco woman). I am from the Mukwaa dodem, the Bear clan. In essence I have already told you much about myself. Tobacco is one of four sacred medicines used to give thanks and to pray to the Creator. People of the Bear Clan are usually drawn to work in social justice and healing. In an Indigenous worldview my strength therefore lies those areas and it is what has drawn me to the work I do. For me, this has involved advocating for equity and social justice in the fields of health and education. I have lived in a number of places, but I feel most connected to my mother’s traditional territory--the Temagami-Anishnaabe, the people of the deep water. This community 152

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is located in northeastern Ontario, Canada. I also acknowledge my Irish roots. Although I do have some contact with my father’s family it remains distant as we were largely disconnected from his family when he and my mother married.

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MY ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP JOURNEY I turn now to my journey into academic leadership. I recently took on the inaugural position of Vice-President, Equity, People and Culture at one of Canada’s largest universities. In this role I am responsible for leading organizational change that will attend to equity and diversity and build a more inclusive and healthier workplace for all. This is a new division for the university, and I am early into the role and just beginning to build it. From a personal perspective I am excited about the role as it is a culmination of my experience in developing and implementing strategies, leading organizational change, equity and inclusion, and building positive faculty relations. Prior to this I spent 25 years working at another university where I advanced to full professorship and held roles as a senior academic administrator for 13 years. My years in administration included responsibilities as the senior academic lead on Indigenous initiatives and programs as well as key responsibilities in faculty relations, vice-provost work and oversight of academic and Indigenous supportive services. My role expanded considerably over those 13 years and each time my role expanded it provided another opportunity for me to grow and develop my leadership capacity. I was also engaged at the provincial and national levels with colleagues from other universities who were committed to advancing equity and inclusion of Indigenous peoples including Indigenous knowledges in curriculum, creating safe and welcoming spaces and increasing the numbers of Indigenous student and faculty in higher education. Prior to my work in the university I also worked at a local community college for 3 years where I was a professor for a short time before taking on a leadership role as a program administrator then later as an acting Dean. I became somewhat disillusioned with leadership roles during this stint perhaps relating to my lofty goals and feeling ineffective with being able to bring about change quickly. In my much younger mind I simply thought that equity and inclusion should just happen. I quickly realized that creating space and place for Indigenous peoples in any institution was going to be a struggle. My years prior to entering the field of higher education where spent working as a registered nurse in a hospital setting. As I reflect on my academic journey, I see patterns in my work in that I have always been drawn into leadership types of roles throughout my career. For example, during the later years of my time in nursing I became a nursing supervisor and during my times as a professor I took up roles as program coordinator. Having said that my 153

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journey into university academic administration in 2006 was not something I had planned. In fact, when I started my career at the university, I intentionally set out to focus on teaching and research, both of which I had a strong love for. Whilst a faculty member I taught primarily in Indigenous based programs both at the college and the university. During that time, I was struck by the number of challenges that Indigenous learners confronted in navigating the education system including but not limited to the following:

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1. Underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in postsecondary education which affects the future of Indigenous communities; 2. Most Indigenous students that I encountered were struggling to meet basic needs for food and housing yet still persisted; 3. At the time I did not fully comprehend that in addition to the struggle to make ends meet they were also facing inordinate amounts of racism that compounded their struggle to attain a postsecondary education; and 4. It was only when I undertook research for doctoral studies (Cote-Meek, 2010) to better understand the experiences of Indigenous student and professors that I recognized how racism manifested in the lives of Indigenous students and professors alike. These years spent as a professor in an Indigenous based program were quite important to me as I felt like I had finally found work that I was passionate about. It seemed to link my personal to my professional life. While I enjoyed my time in nursing as I was a natural helper, I never really felt I could bring my whole self to work. I will come back to this in the next section. It was during these early years at the university that I developed a strong sense of wanting to contribute to Indigenous students’ success. I call those awakening years because it was a time where I became acutely aware of the vast disparities that existed for Indigenous students especially in attempting to succeed in education. I came to realize that my early school experiences in confronting racism still persisted some 30 years later when I began working in the postsecondary environment. As a result, I put a lot of effort into learning about pedagogy in an effort to be a better professor. I chuckle now at my own inexperience and struggle to create classrooms where all students could excel and be successful. During those early years of teaching as I struggled to find ways to deliver curriculum in a way that was engaging for the students and not simply lecture based, I found myself reading and researching about adult learning strategies as well as reaching out to people I considered great presenters. I learned much from many mentors during that time and am grateful for their support. Overtime I believe I did improve my facilitation skills in the classroom. I did this work for over a decade while also developing relationships with Indigenous communities both locally and nationally. 154

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My decision to enter academic administration was not one I took lightly. Having had prior experience that left me somewhat disillusioned I was cautious. However, I also realized that I had grown in my own experience and understanding over the first decade of university life. I understood the university governance system as well as the policies and procedures relating to academia. I had also developed a number of supportive allies within the university as well as externally. Thinking back, I was in a much better position to take on an administrative role. I was also excited that the university had considered creating a specific position for an Indigenous lead, one of the first in the province of Ontario. I could see the potential for bringing about further change in the academic sector of the university. As a result, I spent the next decade providing leadership in the Indigenous portfolio, which included strengthening relationships with the Indigenous advisory council, developing strategic action plans, fundraising for key initiatives within the Indigenous portfolio, and ensuring an Indigenous presence across faculties in the university. In addition to the Indigenous portfolio, I found myself taking on an expanded academic role that included but is not limited to university faculty relations, chairing a large academic curriculum approval committee of senate, and building an Indigenous facility. In the next section I come back to an earlier statement about bringing my whole self to work and how that has impacted my trajectory as an academic administrator.

BRINGING MY WHOLE SELF TO WORK

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During my doctoral work I undertook a review of writings that articulated Indigenous knowledges and worldviews. Part of this effort was to better understand how Indigenous knowledges and worldviews informed my thinking around undertaking research. Upon further reflection I also recognize how my core values and beliefs have been nurtured and informed by my familial upbringing which was largely influenced by my mother, her family and community. Further, the review also identified several elements that have consistently emerged in the work I have undertaken in academic leadership. These elements include attention to the personal, spiritual, holism, interconnectedness and relationships (Cote-Meek, 2010) as outlined below. The personal relates to the nature of experiences that generate understanding and knowledge. Having a strong sense of self is important in reaching understandings about the world in which we live and relate. These earlier writers also view spirituality as central to Aboriginal knowings and expressions of spirituality are described through participating, for example, in ceremony, ritual, prayer, and fasting. The belief in the need to consider the whole is also a central element of Aboriginal knowledge and 155

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this concept of holism is described in many ways. For instance, it is referred to as including the mind (mental / cognitive), body (physical), and spirit (spiritual) and also extended to include the cultural and historical. Strongly associated with holism is the belief that everything, all of life, is interconnected: human, animal, plant, rock, seen, and unseen…Relationships are also central to Aboriginal knowledges. It is through relationships that knowledge is nurtured and transmitted from one person to another as well as one generation to another. (p. 33) One can note the personal connection to a collective, holism, and relationships. In a more recent publication edited by Minthorn and Chavez (2015) they also note how at its core Indigenous knowledge is relational. They also reaffirm that the contributors to their book on Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education attest to the need to understand Indigenous epistemologies and ways of being and how each bring this to their role in leadership. In my role as an Indigenous lead in academia I have also drawn on these central aspects of Indigenous knowings to guide my administrative work. Relationships are core to much of the work we do. As Minthorn and Chavez (2015) state ‘Transforming higher education to empower and embody many cultural frameworks is necessary for the well-being and success of all Peoples including those who are Indigenous’ (p. 10). These connections have been critical to me on a personal and a professional level. As an Indigenous person I often felt at odds with expressing my Indigeneity because I was astute enough to recognize that the culture of a university is built on particular values that encourage debate and challenge ideas that sometimes meant being interrupted, over talked and dismissed. While I think debate is healthy, I do not necessarily agree with how debate gets equated with the latter points as it does present challenges when culturally there is a lot of value put on listening, not repeating what others have said and being respectful. I found myself wanting to say things but was conflicted with also being mindful of earlier cultural teachings in my life. Sometimes I would leave a heated discussion chastising myself for not speaking out. Over time I came to realize the true value of listening, reflecting and building a deeper understanding of any particular issue. I have since become much more comfortable having been able to align these values. For instance, in my more recent role I spent a large part of the first 90 days of onboarding meeting with people and trying to gain an understanding of a very large and complex organization. I could only have achieved a broad understanding through taking the time to listening deeply. Please keep in mind as you read this, this is my personal journey, it will be different for every Indigenous person. Not every Indigenous person finds their lifework in Indigenous education or in diversity and equity work. See my earlier work in Cote-Meek (2014) where I discuss the double bind that working on the margins in the academy can create. For some Indigenous scholars their contributions may be much more discipline or research focused, which 156

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is still a great contribution to shifting how Indigenous peoples are viewed in the academy. In a similar vein, Ahmed (2012) also analyzed how diversity work is often marginal work in educational institutions and is largely done by the Other. So, while I have found my work in this area of the academy, I am also acutely aware of how that positions me in the academy. The notion of bringing one’s whole self to work draws on my own personal values around interconnectedness and relationships as critical components of my leadership style. If I have learned anything it is the importance of being comfortable with who you are and what you bring to your leadership.

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EDUCATION AS CHANGE In this next section I provide some critical reflections on how I approach facilitating organizational change. I have always believed in the power of education to assist with mobilizing change. I think this belief came from my own personal upbringing and my mother’s belief that education was key to lifting her out of poverty. My grandfather’s words also resonate in my mind as he was insistent that to survive in the world I would need an education. He himself lived off the land hunting and trapping. He had attended residential school in his early years but much of his adult life was spent in the bush. World leaders like Mandela (2003) also echo a similar belief. One of his inspirational statements emphasizes his belief in education: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. It stresses the importance of education as a path to emancipation. More recently, Senator Murray Sinclair, who was one of the commissioners on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Canada stated “Education is what got us into this mess –the use of education at least in terms of residential schools—but education is the key to reconciliation” (Watters, 2015). His reference was related to the impact the residential school system had on the lives of Indigenous peoples in Canada. Despite the horrendous abuses suffered in these schools, Sinclair also saw the value and potential of education. I also believe quite strongly that education is key to bringing about change in the lives of people who have been marginalized in society. However, I also recognize that western based or mainstream education, for Indigenous peoples at least, “has always been part of the colonial regime” (Cote-Meek, 2014, p. 46). Education as change is a different type of education. It is one that puts value on and creates space for different ways of knowing that include Indigenous knowledges. We cannot simply rely on western notions of what constitutes a good education. In Colonized Classrooms: Racism, trauma and resistance in post-secondary education, I interrogate the challenges and difficulties that Indigenous students and Indigenous professors confront, often on a daily basis, as they negotiate the space of the academy. Racism continues to permeate many aspects of the academy 157

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including classrooms. Part of facilitating change also means addressing systemic racism. Similarly, Sefa-Dei (2010) takes up a critical reading of Fanon’s work specifically around education. He notes how “We must ask new questions in order to contribute to knowledge of how to resist the poisonous viruses of colonialism, racism, exploitation and alienation” (p. 1). Education systems require an overhaul in order to transform into places that value the range of diverse ideas, worldviews and peoples. Sefa-Dei (2010) also affirms how western knowledges are privileged and that “Colonial colour lines continue to play out in our education system from the ways certain bodies and their knowledges are validated or invalidated. Notations of ‘excellence’ are usually ascribed to dominant bodies…” (p. 1). Indigenous peoples have been advocating for changes to the education system for decades. However, it is only more recently, with the release of the TRC (2015), that I have witnessed a concerted effort to bring about change. Further, there has been a marked increase in writings by Indigenous authors who are not only at the table they are setting the table that will facilitate broader and deeper changes to education including curriculum and pedagogy. Coming back to education as change we do not have to settle for the status quo and that if we put our minds and efforts into changing for the good we can achieve much. In doing this we must tackle the larger systemic issues, which is a core element of leading any change. As I reflect on my own leadership as an Indigenous woman in education, I can say that while there have been many stories of success, there are also many stories where I was challenged. In those times I have always come back to my core belief that change is always possible.

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THE BRICK WALL In the remainder of this paper I discuss some of the challenges I experienced and how I was able to not only survive those challenges but also transcend them. First, one of the more difficult challenges to navigate is the constant awareness that, we as Indigenous peoples, are still living in a world of ongoing colonialism. For Indigenous peoples this means that there is a constant struggle with confronting various forms of racism. Elsewhere (see Cote-Meek, 2014), I identified a number of ways that racism manifests in the postsecondary environment. These include navigating expectations of being the ‘native’ informant. Being in academia as an Indigenous person comes with the added burden that we must be able to respond to all things Indigenous when questioned. If we are unable to answer we are quickly dismissed as either not knowing who we are or we are not authentic (Cote-Meek, 2014).

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Another way that racism rears itself is in the burden of representation. While there has been a number of recent targeted Indigenous hires in many universities across Canada there still remains the fact that Indigenous peoples are underrepresented in the system. As a result, every committee that strives to meet its diversity quota often requires an Indigenous voice. Therefore, we are often called upon to sit on many committees to ensure a voice at the table. This results in being spread too thin. If one refuses to sit on a committee comments are made that the Indigenous scholar did not respond and are thus deemed uncooperative, disinterested and even ‘lazy’ by non-Indigenous colleagues. There is an underlying trope that constructs Indigenous peoples as deficit or lacking, which is in itself another example of how racialized constructions are perpetuated versus examining the systemic environment. There is an inherent lack of understanding amongst many non-Indigenous scholars about how this burden of representation takes its toll on Indigenous peoples in the academy. In Cote-Meek (2014) I document the emotional toll of racism as not only being tiring and exhausting but being traumatic. As an academic administrator I found these racist tropes about Indigeneity particularly difficult to navigate. One of the lessons I can say I learned is to depersonalize racist comments and to look at the broader system of how racialized constructions get perpetuated in the everyday language used and in various practices that happen institutionally. This is not always easy. Experience as well as educational opportunities have provided me a much better way to advocate and appropriately respond in such situations. For example, my doctoral work took me on a learning journey about how ongoing colonialism and racism manifests in the lives of Indigenous students and Indigenous professors. Through this learning I developed a much deeper understanding and ability to articulate how systemic racism operates in the post-secondary environment. Prior to this I found myself struggling for the words to describe the more covert and systemic forms of racism. Third, there is an increasing expectation that Indigenous staff, faculty and students must bear the responsibility to educate everyone about Indigenous peoples. While many of us go beyond the usual day to day expectations relating to our roles and responsibilities to build bridges and increase awareness and understanding, it often comes at a cost. For example, Indigenous initiatives offices are often inundated with requests for Elders and speakers in classrooms at the cost of providing service to Indigenous peoples themselves. I have worked tirelessly to educate by providing advice, small group talks and presentations. In most instances these have been positive experiences for me. However, there are times when I have had to provide information to people, only to turn around a month later and find myself repeating the same message. Sara Ahmed (2012) writes about how diversity work is akin to banging your head against a brick wall where the norms of institutions become so ingrained, they are difficult to change. I actually laughed out loud when I read the 159

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passage even though it is far from funny. I laughed because I actually had a red brick wall in my office and many times I made reference to the fact that I felt like I was banging my head on it. Diversity work can be incredibly frustrating and as Ahmed (2012) notes institutional norms are literally cemented in the system. Here is the picture of the red brick wall I had in a previous office (see figure 1).

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Figure 1. ­

The last point I want to raise here is the issue of the imposter syndrome. Despite having 13 years academic administrative experience working on various projects and taking on various responsibilities to expand my range of skills and knowledge it has been a struggle to get out of the box that the academy has put me in. At times external pressures made me feel like I did not belong, was not good enough and was not ever going to be good enough. Yet I knew I had the skills and knowledge having led a number of portfolios. I also had people who knew my work and believed in my capacity. I also learned the response to my work in diversity and equity is a response that is consistent across people who do diversity work. Ahmed (2012) assists with this analysis. People who do diversity work not only do this work on the sides of their desks with limited resources they are also usually Indigenous or racialized persons. For example, there is an expectation that if you are an Indigenous academic your work is Indigenous related and if you enter administration you would take up the Indigenous or some other equity portfolio. While I have loved most aspects of my work in leading the Indigenous portfolio, I always felt I was capable of adding more value in taking up a more senior portfolio. Unfortunately, the statistics paint a grim picture for Indigenous, People of Color and Black Peoples who are consistently underrepresented in the top ranks of universities (Henry, Dua, James, Kobayashi, Li, Ramos & Smith, 2017). I was also working in a designated 160

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bilingual institution (English and French) where bilingualism was required for most administrative positions. Despite a policy exemption for Indigenous scholars this was repeatedly a barrier as search committees struggled to understand how I would be able to communicate with faculty and staff in French rather than looking at ways to institute their own policy that would ensure my success. I felt, that essentially, I had to come up with the solutions to make the institutional policy work. In the end I left the institution after unsuccessful attempts to advance.

TRANSCENDING CHALLENGES AND SURVIVING I want to take some time to identify how I’ve turned these challenges into lessons learned, survived and managed to bring about some changes.

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Depersonalize the Issue Keeping your cool despite the racism. Sometimes this is difficult to do when you feel the brunt of a racist remark. You question yourself with ‘Did I just hear that’ and quickly have to decide how to respond. For myself, I have found it better to take a deep breath and quickly assess the context of the comment, where it came from and why? This is followed by a quick internal assessment of whether this is a battle to address here and now. All of this takes place relatively quickly and I know that I have built a set of skills and expertise that have assisted me in transcending these difficult and challenging times. In most instances, I now know this is not about me and understand how racism is perpetuated systemically. In many instances I have addressed the issue on the spot with as best as I can. I always try to remember that if my goal is to educate and build relationships I need to step back, depersonalize and work for the larger good so to speak. I am not going to paint a perfect picture though as there were days when I just shook my head in despair wondering whether I heard what I heard and wondering whether understandings of Indigenous peoples were really changing. I recall one instance where I just had to get up and leave and stop subjecting myself to microaggressions. In another instance I have an acute memory of simply being immobilized while a senior faculty yelled at me and questioned why I was there taking up space. As a junior faculty member at a time, when there were few Indigenous scholars in the academy, I could not believe my ears and literally could not even find my voice nor could any of the 5 academics who were in the room at the time. I am thankful these did not occur often and have since learned what I will and will not tolerate.

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Relationships Are Critical Early on in my career I largely stayed within my small circle of largely Indigenous friends and colleagues who shared similar values and aspirations. I felt safe and supported in that environment. However, as I became more aware of my passion to bring about change, I realized the importance of building relationships with many people across the sector. I also came to realize there are many people who shared similar aspirations to build a better world and although our experiences may differ, we shared a connection to humanity. Over the course of my career I have built many friendships and working relations that cut across race, gender and ability, and I have come to appreciate the enormity of the human heart when you reach across and get to know people. I have also come to realize the importance of having these supports in an otherwise sometimes hostile and oppressive system. In addition, I established a strong network of leaders who were always there when needed.

Understand Your Core Values Take the time to understand what it is you value and draw on those values in your work. In a University Affairs column, I (2018) also wrote about the importance of understanding how values guide our responses and behaviours:

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In leadership they are referred to as core values. Core values are important as they define what is important to us and they can help us to establish our priorities in life and work, and in decision-making. Mandela exuded values of fairness and justice, equality, dignity and freedom. We know these are his core values because, in trying times, he remained true to them. (https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/ from-the-admin-chair/what-we-can-learn-from-great-leaders/) Here I have primarily drawn on Indigenous teachings that for me have laid a strong ethical foundation. I have taken opportunities, many times, to explore how values can assist us with our work and working relationships. Sometimes this has been through attending Indigenous ceremony and listening to the works of traditional teachers and Elders. Other times I have used questionnaires that explore core values, read various books and had many conversations with close colleagues and friends. In each instance I learned more about staying true to core values. It is important to identify what you stand for and what you will not. In speaking with senior leaders in higher education this is also a consistent message. Our values assist us with making decisions. Understanding personal values and how they are aligned institutionally is also important. I have found I do my best work when I feel aligned with the values of an organization. 162

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Intergenerational Resiliency Similar to building an understanding around depersonalizing issues it is important to build resilience. Inevitably, as a leader one will confront really tough issues. In a previous piece I defined resilience simply as “the ability to keep moving forward, or to get back up when faced with barriers or challenges” (Cote-Meek, 2018). However, resilience is much more complex than the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity. Kirmayer, Dandeneau, Marshall, Phillips and Williamson (2011) discuss some of the complexities in Indigenous resilience noting that “ideas of resilience are grounded in cultural values that have persisted despite historical adversity or have emerged out of the renewal of [I]ndigenous identities. These include culturally distinctive concepts of the person, the importance of collective history, the richness of Aboriginal languages and traditions…” (p. 88). Situating resilience within the larger context of Indigenous peoples lives, ecosystems, history must also include linking strongly to ancestral knowledges. To me the strength of my own resilience as an Indigenous woman is rooted in many elements that align with the strength of my ancestors. Leaders are acutely aware that it is not always smooth sailing and that flexibility, and an open mind is required. “When faced with a crisis, which inevitably happens to all of us, leaders need to draw on their inner strength to remain optimistic and find a path forward” (Cote-Meek, 2018). Personally, when I have been confronted with really difficult challenges, I would spend time on the land or near water where I could take time, even a few minutes, to reflect on the experience and ask questions of my ancestors. What would my ancestors think? What might they do in the situation? Doing this assisted with grounding me but also made me realize the tremendous resilience my people had to survive during very difficult and challenging times. Some of my memories include learning that my grandfather attended residential school. His survival depended on his ability to persevere in much adversity. My mother grew up on the land and lived in a canvas tent during winter months. Her ability to navigate living in the city depended on her ability to be flexible, learn the ways of the city, and trust that the creator would provide. When I reflect on what our people went through to survive on the land and the ensuing changes that came with colonization, I find myself drawing on their strength and resilience. So while I have confronted some difficult situations navigating academia I have many sources of strength that I have been able to access to assist me in transcending the challenges.

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CONCLUSION Like many leaders I believe in the capacity to build societies that are more equitable and inclusive. My career trajectory into academic administration was not the usual course that many follow. Would I change anything? Likely not because each of my experiences have provided essential teachings on my path. As I close this chapter the strengths that I continue to draw upon are ancestral. I have always looked to my ancestors for their wisdom and strength whenever I have had to navigate tricky or difficult situations. I am always amazed at the hardship they faced and in the face of those hardships survived, found humor and maintained a strong sense of identity. I feel this intergenerational resilience has been an ongoing presence in my life and work. This is in my DNA, this is who I am, this is my gift from my people, and this is my wisdom to share with the next generation! It is my hope that through sharing my experiences as an academic administrator in this edited collection that I will leave seeds of knowledge for those coming behind. Miigwech, miigwech, miigwech, miigwech!

REFERENCES Absolon, K. (2011). Kaandosswin: How we come to know. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham: Duke University Press. doi:10.1215/9780822395324

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Baskin, C. (2005). Circles of inclusion: Aboriginal world views in social work education (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Cote-Meek, S. (2010). Exploring the impact of ongoing violence on Aboriginal students in the postsecondary classroom (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Cote-Meek, S. (2014). Colonized classrooms: Racism, trauma and resistance in post-secondary education. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Cote-Meek, S. (2018). What we can learn from great leaders. University Affairs. Retrieved January 2020 https://www.universityaffairs.ca/opinion/from-the-adminchair/what-we-can-learn-from-great-leaders/ 164

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Dei, S. G. J. (2010). Fanon, anti-colonialism and education: An Introduction. In G. J. Sefa Dei (Ed.), Fanon and the counterinsurgency of education (pp. 1-10). Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers. Henry, F., Dua, E., James, C., Kobayashi, A., Li, P., Ramos, H., & Smith, M. (2017). The equity myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian Universities. Vancouver: UBC Press. Kirmayer, L. J., Dandeneau, S., Marshall, E., Phillips, M. K., & Williamson, K. J. (2011, February). Rethinking resilience from Indigenous perspectives. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 56(2), 84–89. doi:10.1177/070674371105600203 PMID:21333035 Kovach, M. (2012). Indigenous Methodologies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Mandela, N.R. (2003). Lighting your way to a better future. Speech delivered by at launch of Mindset Network. Minthorn, R., & Chavéz, A. (2015). Indigenous leadership in higher education leadership. In R. Minthorn & A. Chavéz (Eds.), Indigenous leadership in higher education (pp. 3–7). New York: Routledge. Minthorn, R., & Chavéz, A. (2015). Collected insights on Indigenous leadership. In R. Minthorn & A. Chavéz (Eds.), Indigenous leadership in higher education (pp. 8–46). New York: Routledge. Watters, H. (2015). Truth and reconciliation chair urges Canada to adopt UN declaration on Indigenous peoples. CBC News. Retrieved January 2020 https:// www.cbc.ca/news/politics/truth-and-reconciliation-chair-urges-canada-to-adoptun-declaration-on-indigenous-peoples-1.3096225

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Wilson, S. (2008). Research as Ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

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Chapter 10

“I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”: A Critical Reflection on Three Decades of Women’s Leadership in Canadian Academia Vianne Timmons Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

ABSTRACT After decades of being male dominated in nearly every respect, Canadian universities made signifcant progress toward gender equity in 1980s and ’90s. That momentum stalled for the most part for almost two decades, and only in the past few years has an awareness of the lack of progress—as well as the importance of overtly promoting gender equity and women’s leadership—re-emerged as an urgent priority both for faculty members and for the institutions where they work. In this chapter, the past three decades of women’s advancement and leadership in Canadian academia are described and analyzed through the refections and experiences of one woman.

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INTRODUCTION When I was approached about writing a chapter for this book, I gave it a great deal of thought. Do I have anything to say that would interest readers? Is my story unique? After considerable thought, I decided that my story is not unique – which is perhaps what makes it all the more important that I tell it. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch010 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

“I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”

For that reason, in this chapter I will outline the personal and professional journey I have taken – one in which I have served as a university president for more than a decade, but have continued to live through many unsettling experiences that my male colleagues would not have had to endure. The more things changed for me over the years, the more they stayed the same. This is true for many women I know in academia. My generation did not speak of our experiences of bias and harassment, which unfortunately we believed – or had been conditioned to believe – were “just part of being a woman.” Now, with the #metoo movement inspiring women to stand up and speak out, it is more common to hear these stories, but I would argue that sharing them is still not a widely accepted practice. As I speak out about my experiences, I hope my story resonates with and helps make a difference for others.

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STEREOTYPING STILL EXISTS As the first woman president of a university in the province of Saskatchewan (a position I held for more than a decade) and now the first woman president of a university in Newfoundland (a position I recently assumed), I continue to be surprised when I encounter people’s disbelief that I would be a university president. You would think that in 2020 the image of a president would include people of different races, genders and abilities, but the stereotype still exists that it is an older white male. And sadly, the stereotype seems to be held by people of all ages. I was in the United States at a meeting several years ago and was sitting at a table with a number of men. The Governor of the state we were visiting came to the table to introduce himself to us. One of my male colleagues from Saskatchewan (where I was at that time the President of the University of Regina) said, “Governor, I would like you to meet the President of our University.” The Governor reached past me and shook the hand of a man sitting next to me. My colleague said, “No, not him.” The Governor then reached over to the next man to shake his hand. My colleague, becoming increasingly flustered, pointed at me and said, “No, Governor, SHE is the President.” The Governor looked at me and said, “I didn’t expect YOU to be the university president!” Everyone had a good laugh in the moment, and in the intervening years everyone at that table has probably forgotten that the misunderstanding even occurred. But it has stuck with me because it makes me reflect on the fact that the image of a leader in our society is often still perceived – and perhaps even fashioned – as being a man. That was reinforced for me late last year when I met with a group of grade four students to discuss the idea of volunteerism and contributing to community. As I was being introduced, one of the boys made a surprised noise. I looked at him and asked 167

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him what he was thinking. He said he was surprised I was the university president. I asked him why he was surprised and he said I did not look like a president. This provided me with an opportunity to ask the students what they thought a president would look like. The students quickly put up their hands, and they had strong views. They said a university president would be older and taller, would have grey hair and glasses – and would be a man. This definitely did not describe me. How it is that even today, the image of a leader can still be so standardized in people’s minds for both a state governor and a grade four student? The image obviously forms at a young age. The Internet, which has an increasingly powerful influence on young people, may play at least a partial role in this. Bernard Coleman III, the Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Uber, makes an interesting point in an article he wrote for Forbes: Have you ever image searched the word “leader?” If you have, you’ve probably noticed most of the images show pictures of men walking up a mountain, leading a group of other men, or a man standing slightly bigger than everyone else. The image results seldom show women, people of color or other underrepresented people. Apparently, a leadership prerequisite is being a man. (Coleman III, 2017)

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They may not be spending their daily screen time doing image searches of “leader,” but the grade four students I spoke with definitely had a preconceived notion of what a president should be, and I did not fit the mould. That view is coming from somewhere – and it continues to manifest itself in reality even at the post-secondary level, where in Canadian universities (as well as in those in other countries) we have traditionally seen men’s and women’s careers take very different paths. Maureen Baker clearly outlines this persistent gender gap: The academic gender gap has been diminishing for decades; yet it continues to be perpetuated by institutional priorities, academic practices, collegial relations, variations in family circumstances and gendered priorities. Despite major educational, social and institutional changes, men are still more likely than women to work in departments with a stronger research culture, receive informal mentoring early in their career, marry a supportive spouse who shoulders most of the household work, view themselves as experts, receive acknowledgement and recognition for their research, and postpone retirement. (Baker, 2016, p. 897)

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The Historical Gender Gap and the Women who Came Before me The first time I became consciously aware of this sort of gender gap was when I was a child and my grandmother told me about her school experience. My grandmother grew up in New Waterford, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where she was raised by her own grandmother. She loved school as a young girl, excelled in her studies, and remembered feeling special as a young girl, reveling in a wonderful childhood. That changed in grade four, when she was taken out of school by her grandmother to do housework for her mother’s new family. She was devastated at the time, and spent the next seven years cleaning house, babysitting and cooking for the family. My grandmother escaped this servitude at sixteen years of age and married my grandfather, an Italian immigrant and hard-working coal miner. She got pregnant right away at sixteen, gave birth to my mother, and had three more children in subsequent years. She worked in the home raising her family. As a child, I found her to be gruff, and she always seemed angry and busy. As I got older and got to know her better, I learned to love her and appreciate the difficult life she had lived. Of all of those challenges, she told me that the worst day of her life was when she was taken out of school. She knew, even at nine years old, that education was her path to a different life. Unfortunately, as a girl child she did not have that opportunity. I remember thinking at the time how unfair her experience was and being angry that a young girl was removed from school and forced to become a housekeeper at nine years old. It still makes me sad and angry to this day. Her oldest child – my mother – also did not have an easy childhood, in large part because she had a lot of responsibility in the home. My grandmother was formidable and required my mother to do extensive housework, not just at her home, but also in her mother’s household. Unlike my grandmother, however, my mother finished school and was accepted into Teachers’ College in Truro, Nova Scotia. She was elated and her parents were proud, but then she found out she was too young, having skipped a grade in school and graduated when she was only sixteen. She had to defer her acceptance, and at one point during the intervening year, she was on the stairs in her home and overheard her parents talking about how they could not afford for her to go to school. That day my mother turned down the offer to attend Teachers’ College. In later years, she told me that she had always wanted to be a teacher, but that circumstances had prevented her from doing so. With that option no longer available, she followed the path her own mother had taken – marriage at a young age and raising a large family. She and my father had six children, and raised all of us to value learning and education. At the same time, however, they raised us in strict gender roles. As the oldest girl I was required to 169

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do housework and my brothers had to do chores such as taking out the garbage. I always felt it was unequal, and it was. I had strict curfews and my mother was also very conservative with my dress. She was not affectionate growing up, and we did not have a close relationship. She told me she found me challenging to raise, and she often called me dramatic – a term I hated, preferring to tell her that I “felt things deeply.” As an adult I grew close to my mother, in large part because I began to recognize how challenging her life had been and what an amazing role model she is. My mother was a very hard worker. She did all the parenting, cooking, cleaning, and was a working mom at the same time. My father was also a hard worker, but in the mine rather than in the home. His meals were always prepared and all his needs were taken care of by my mother. This was a common story in the 1960s, and still for many today. My mother realized that her children would have the same fate as her getting a university education if she did not do something. Pregnant with her sixth child, she enrolled in a correspondence Business program offered by Queen’s University. She studied alongside of us every night, and completed the program without stepping into a University classroom and while working and raising six children. Together, my parents ensured that all six of us went to university, but they did so at great sacrifice. My mother recalls that on her and my father’s twenty-fifth anniversary, they had enough money to go to a restaurant and share a clubhouse sandwich. Her self-sacrifice and her desire for her children to have opportunities she never had made her a wonderful role model for me growing up in Labrador.

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My Childhood Experience of the Gender Gap My childhood in Labrador was wonderful. Although the household held different roles for us children based on gender, outside the home those differences were less evident. My parents encouraged all of us to play sports, and we participated in every sport possible – soccer, basketball, baseball, and skiing during the long winters. That was our entertainment, and it kept us all active and involved in the community. I had what I would consider to be a fairly normal school experience; I enjoyed school and was successful in my studies. When I was fourteen years old we left Labrador and moved to Nova Scotia, and the transition was very traumatic for me and my siblings. We all had challenges adjusting to a new community, a new school, and a different culture. After a while I joined the high school soccer team and found other ways to get involved in the school and community, but another difficult transition lay ahead – my transition to university. University was challenging for me primarily because I was in a difficult financial situation. I had been able to work only for minimum wage in a fast food restaurant 170

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during high school, and although I had saved what I could and had an entrance scholarship to help with my tuition, living away from home while in university was difficult. I was able to get a couple of jobs on campus, working in the cafeteria and in the canteen at the rink. I ended up working long hours to pay for my food and residence.

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My Early Experience of the Gender Gap in Academia University prepared me to be a teacher – something my mother was very proud of given that she had not had that opportunity – and I ended up working right away after graduation. In teaching children with unique learning needs I quickly realized I needed to know a lot more. I enrolled in graduate school to gain more knowledge about the students I taught, and this pursuit of knowledge about disabilities ultimately led me to complete a PhD in educational psychology. I began to experience gender inequality in earnest when I was a graduate student. I served as a teaching assistant for a male professor, and soon realized that I was doing a significant amount of volunteer work for him over and above what I was being paid for. Essentially, he treated me like his personal assistant, but I did not say anything because I thought this was how the system worked, and that I had no recourse. There was no remuneration for much of the work I did, and I later found out that he was getting paid for a considerable amount of work that I completed for him. I felt I could not say anything as I worried there would be backlash and it could affect my program. I had enough challenges at home, as I had two babies – my third and fourth children – while I was doing my PhD. Those years are a blur to me. One thing that does stand out after all those years, however, is the inequity I experienced in the lead-up to my first interview for an academic position. I was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with my fourth child, and had to fly across Canada for the interview. I asked if the interview could be postponed for two weeks until I had given birth, but was told that if I did not attend the interview on the designated date, I would forfeit my opportunity for the position. When I think about it now, I recognize how unfair that ultimatum was. Again in my academic career, as a woman I felt I had little choice but to comply. So I did get on that plane and go for the interview. I arrived on Thursday, had seven hours of interviews on Friday, and had a beautiful baby girl on the Saturday – far from home and away from my husband and family. I flew back home with my daughter on Monday, and was notified that I got the job on Tuesday. Reflecting on this whirlwind experience nearly three decades later, I wonder how many women have had to deal with situations like this. Our male colleagues definitely have not had to do so.

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“I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”

I began the job when my daughter was three months old, and because I nursed her, I pumped breastmilk at work and put it in the staff refrigerator. It made life difficult, but I really wanted her to be raised on breast milk. One day I was called into the administration office and told that I could not store the breast milk in the refrigerator because it made the men uncomfortable. I was devastated, but again, I complied. This was only one example of the lack of support that existed for me as a new mother in the academy. I did not talk about any parenting or gender issues as a new faculty member, as I was terrified that my colleagues would think I could not do the job. I thought I had to do it all – raise four children, manage my home life, and have a successful university career – without a great deal of support from my employer. These early years in academia were challenging years, as the government of the day went through a rationalization process for university education programs. I had assumed the Chair position of my department as a second-year tenure-track faculty member, but I was notified on Christmas Eve that the program was to be cut and I would not have a job after July 1. I had moved my family, my husband had taken early retirement from the military, and I had four children to support. Needless to say I did not have a very good Christmas that year. In January I decided to challenge the decision. I rallied the faculty and we put a plan together. We went out to alumni, friends of the university and community members. We proposed a revision to our program and were granted a second review. We were reinstated and our program also received funds to expand. It was a trying time, but we succeeded. I then learned that no good deed goes unpunished. We had the opportunity to hire more faculty for the revitalized program, so we hired two excellent candidates, both of whom were men. One had just finished his PhD, and one was close to being finished. I had to recommend the candidates to the administration, who then negotiated the salaries. I was surprised to see that both candidates were hired at a considerably higher salary then I was currently making as Chair of the department. I did not know what to do, as I had always been taught to be a “good girl,” and not to ruffle feathers. I decided to speak to the administration about the inequity, however. I was told that my husband received a pension and I was paid enough – what I was worth. I remember leaving that meeting feeling unvalued and not wanted. I could not believe that after working so hard for a year to get the program reinstated, I was being treated that way. I loved the institution and had thought I would be there for the rest of my career. That night, coincidently, I received a call from a university President asking me to consider applying for a deanship at another university. The next day I put together an application, and I got the job.

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My Later Experience of the Gender Gap I moved on, but I’m not convinced that society – including academia – has moved ahead very much since that time. More than two decades after learning that my male colleagues were seen as deserving more pay than me, I am angry that pay equity issues like this still exist in our society. The Canadian Women’s Foundation released facts about pay equity in 2016, and the results should infuriate men and women alike. Canada has the eighth-highest gender pay gap out of 43 countries examined, with full-time working women in Canada earning an average of 75 cents for every dollar earned by men (“The facts about the gender wage gap,” 2019). It is difficult to challenge this longstanding and persistent inequity, but we need to talk about it so that we can fix it. There has been significant movement in recent years among Canadian post-secondary institutions to assess and correct the wage gap between men and women, but we still have a long way to go.

The Value of Mentorship

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Having left my first academic position, I then became the first-ever female Dean of Education at my new university. Four years later, I became the first female academic vice-president in the institution’s history. I had a great experience and was able to implement some equity policies that balanced the pay for the men and women in my faculty. I worked for a woman president while I was dean, and received amazing support. The president was always there to listen and provide feedback, and she allowed me to be creative and take risks in my work. I learned from her the value of mentoring for women academics, and I will always be grateful for her guidance and support. That experience highlighted for me the importance of mentoring for new female administrators. It is definitely helpful to have someone who not only supports you, but also promotes you. My president encouraged me, celebrated my accomplishments, made me feel valued, and supported my initiatives. Her unwavering commitment to me gave me confidence to seek out opportunities and accept those that came my way. She was followed by a male president who was equally supportive and encouraging.

The Continuing Existence of Gender Barriers Several years later, I became the first woman president of a university in Saskatchewan. I was thrilled. I was welcomed not only to the university, but also into the larger community, and I wanted to use my position to promote leadership for women.

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Early in my presidency at the University of Regina, I proposed to my senior team that in conjunction with International Women’s Day, we put on a day-long event about women in leadership for the community. I was shocked that there was resistance among my team. I was told that it would be viewed as exploiting my position and gender. I realized then that gender is still an uncomfortable topic for some people. I had to work with the team for more than a year to get consensus to go forward, but we eventually put on the event and the response was overwhelming. The “Inspiring Leadership Forum” has sold out every year in the intervening decade, indicating that there is a growing appetite for sessions on women and leadership. What wasn’t a movement in the early years of my career has been growing in momentum, in large part because women are interested in each other’s stories. But we continue to face gender barriers all the time. I was on a board recently and the opportunity came up to appoint some new board members. I suggested that we needed to look at ensuring that the board was more diverse, and I was astounded at the response. I was told we already had three women – and asked if I was suggesting that we should have more than 50 percent women. I said no, but what would be wrong with that, as I had been on the Board six years and we always had more than 50 percent men. The idea that a board is diverse if it has 30 percent women is absurd. However, this is the view many people still hold.

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#Metoo Women also still face so many challenges with regard to their power and safety. At universities there has been a movement to develop robust programs to support students who experience sexual assault and violence. This is long overdue. I have three daughters and when the #metoo movement began I asked them whether they had experienced any sexual assault. My oldest cried and said she was not prepared to discuss it. My second-oldest did not recall any negative experiences. My youngest was forthcoming about her experience. She was sexually assaulted as an undergraduate student, but did not report it because she had been drinking and believed that she would be told it was her fault. I was traumatized to learn that this had happened, and that she believed she would blamed for it. This made me realize that we have so much still to do around education about consent and respect for others. I am frustrated that women still experience inappropriate touching, comments and violence. I am also very concerned about the number of women like my daughter who have not felt safe in reporting their experience. I have been that woman – and quite recently. I was at a conference in another country a few years ago, and a politician came over and was speaking with me. I had just met him. I noticed he was drinking, and I was a little uncomfortable with how 174

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close he was to me. Suddenly I felt his hand on my backside and moving between my legs. I was in shock. I quickly said I saw someone I wanted to speak with, and moved away. I was processing what happened, feeling disbelief, and could scarcely fathom that this had just taken place. Could this really have happened to a professional woman in her fifties, and the president of a university? To my surprise the man came over to where I was standing, and started talking to me again. I did not know what to do. He again stroked my back, and moved his hand down between my legs. I was frozen, again feeling embarrassment and disbelief. I looked around the crowded room and saw many politicians and important people. I did not want to make a scene, so I told him I had a conference call and had to leave the reception. I went and grabbed my coat and started up the hill to my hotel. Halfway up I stopped and was overwhelmed. I was wracked with shame and guilt – shame that I had “let” this happen, and guilt that I had not said anything to the man. I called my husband when I got back to my room and told him about the incident. He was very supportive of me and said something that has stayed with me. He said that if I did not know how to handle this as a successful older woman, how would a young woman in her twenties be able to handle this? The incident was very upsetting to me and I knew that I would be judged by many on how I did not handle it well, so I compartmentalized it in my mind. When the #metoo movement gathered momentum, I knew I needed to talk about this incident so that others could come forward and realize it happens to many women in all stages of life. I also wanted to send a message to my daughters that it was okay to talk about these incidents. Until women feel safe reporting these incidents, they will keep happening.

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CONCLUSION Over my lifetime I have seen progress in gender equity, but I must confess that I am frustrated that true equity does not exist, and that there is still resistance to it. The more things have changed, the more they have remained the same. And I see examples of this all the time. A couple of years ago, I was interviewed by the Globe and Mail about the low numbers of women presidents in Canadian universities. The article was factual and well-written, as one might expect – but I was shocked to read the online comments that were posted about the article. One person stated, “We could have all the universities run by women and they still would be whining”. Another said, “Universities have been run successfully by men for hundreds of years, so why do we need women? There were other, even nastier comments. This made me realize 175

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“I Didn’t Expect YOU to Be the University President!”

that we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. I do not want my three daughters to face gender bias, but they do and they will. I hope that my two granddaughters will face less. We still have so much work to do to close the gender gap, let alone change the culture in which women are treated respectfully. When I look at the circumstances in which women live in many countries, I am filled with despair. We still have women who are not allowed to go out without male escorts, and are physically groped and touched in public. We have child brides, forced marriages, genital mutilation, human trafficking, missing and murdered women and girls, and domestic violence. The world is not safe for so many women, in particular trans women. Until this changes for all women, it changes for none. The oppression of women is a not a cultural prerogative; it is wrong in all cultures and in all circumstances. So how can we be hopeful when we look at the statistics and circumstances for women globally? We can be hopeful because change is indeed happening, although not as quickly as I would like. The current generation of young adults is more aware of societal issues than we were at their age. We have young people speaking out about global warming, gun control, and gender issues. We have a worldwide conversation starting about gender inequality. We recognize that gender equity is even more challenging for women when it intersects with race, religion, ability and sexuality. As a white woman I have faced barriers because of my gender, and yet I am privileged because of my whiteness. So many female colleagues from different cultural backgrounds face additional barriers – people such as Dr. Stephanie Whitney, a woman engineer of Asian descent who notes that that “the playing field is not equal, but based on hundreds of years of colonialism” (Whitney, 2019). We need to encourage the voices and support the activism of these women for whom intersectionality adds an additional layer of barriers. In this regard, I have learned so much from Dr. Malinda Smith of the University of Alberta, who highlights the fact that when we discuss diversity in post-secondary institutions, we tend to focus solely on gender. We need to broaden the conversation to include racial equity as well. We need to ensure this conversation continues, especially in the academy. Academia should be leading research on these issues and challenging gender inequality in our own practices. I believe that many initiatives such as the Government of Canada’s new Dimensions program will change the culture of academia and ensure that the next generation of female academics will not face the barriers that we have faced, but will be part of a system that values them appropriately, supports them unconditionally, and enables them to manage family and work life in a positive way.

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I look forward to the positive and necessary changes that are coming, and to seeing the development of a more equitable university system than the one in which I have spent my career for the past three decades.

REFERENCES Baker, M. (2016). Women graduates and the workplace: Continuing challenges for academic women. Studies in Higher Education, 41(5), 887–900. doi:10.1080/030 75079.2016.1147718 Coleman, B., III. (2017, November 17). What a leader really looks like. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/11/17/what-a-leaderreally-looks-like/#74b1d8d15a9b The facts about the gender wage gap in Canada. (2019). Retrieved from: https:// www.canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-pay-gap/

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Whitney, S. (2019, September 9). Reflections on being a woman in engineering. Retrieved from: https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/career-advice-article/ reflections-on-being-a-woman-in-engineering/

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Chapter 11

Breaking the Ice:

Reflections on Our Leadership Expedition to Antarctica With 99 Women in STEMM Tammy Eger Laurentian University, Canada Kirsten M. Müller University of Waterloo, Canada

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ABSTRACT The “leaky pipeline” has become a popular analogy to explain the gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine (STEMM). The reasons for the “leaky pipeline” are varied and continue to be addressed in the literature, and entire sections of the pipeline are missing for Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S+, persons with disabilities, racialized minorities, and women who experience other forms of marginalization. In 2019, the authors were selected for Homeward Bound, a 12-month international leadership program that culminated in the largest ever allwomen expedition to Antarctica. They joined 97 women from 34 diferent countries around the world where they explored and refected on their leadership in the context of personal values, strategic planning, visibility, and team building. In this chapter, they explore current statistics that paint a clear picture that the “pipe” is still leaking. They also share refections from their journey to Antarctica and ofer strategies to “break the ice” and create a system that will enable all women to thrive in academia.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch011 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Breaking the Ice

INTRODUCTION The “leaky pipeline” has become a popular analogy to explain the continued gender disparity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). The reasons for the “leaky pipeline” are varied and even more concerning is that entire sections of the pipeline are missing for Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S+, persons with disabilities, racialized minorities, and women who experience other forms of marginalization. Furthermore, there is a paucity of women in leadership positions in both academia and industry and those numbers do not appear to be shifting or are shifting slowly and white women are benefiting the most from the small increase in numbers. Homeward Bound is a not-for-profit organization established in Australia to address the lack of women in leadership positions and to empower women to make decisions that impact the planet. In 2019, the authors were selected for a 12-month international leadership program, that culminated in the largest ever all-women expedition to Antarctica, where the effects of climate change are acutely visible. We joined 97 women from 34 different countries around the world where we explored and reflected on our leadership in the context of personal values, strategic planning, visibility, and team building. In this chapter, we will explore current statistics that paint a clear picture that the “pipeline” is still leaking. We will also share reflections from our journey to Antarctica and offer strategies to create a system that will enable all women to thrive in academia.

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THE LEAKY PIPELINE A “leaky pipeline” analogy is often used to explain the widening gender gap in STEMM that continues to persist in academia (Grogan, 2019). Pipeline cracks are a metaphor for unconscious bias and systematic barriers facing women in STEMM and water leaking out is a symbol for women in the “pipeline” leaving academia or being stalled in their career progression. Therefore, the gender gap widens as women move from undergraduate, to graduate, post-doctoral fellow, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full Professor, and senior leadership roles as Dean, Associate Vice-President, Vice-President, and President in the academy (Figure 1). For example, according to 2015 data, reported by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics, women accounted for 53% of graduates at the Bachelor’s level, 53% at the Masters level, 43% at the Doctoral level and represent only 28% of researchers worldwide (Huyer, 2015). Globally the gender gap persists, as women hold less than 25% of the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor positions in Universities or Senior Director positions at National Research Institutions in Brazil, Argentina. South Africa, Mexico, United States, and the European Union (Huyer, 2015). 179

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Early strategies to close the gender gap have focussed primarily on outreach initiatives aimed at informing girls and young women about opportunities to study in STEMM fields in college and university, with the thinking that the gender gap would be addressed at all stages of the pipeline if there were more women or “water” added to the system. However, after several decades of focus primarily on recruitment, little change has been seen at the Associate and Full Professor levels and the gender gap at the senior leadership level has closed very little for women and even less for Indigenous women, racialized minorities, and persons with disabilities (Smith, 2019). Therefore, strategies aimed at simply getting more women to enter STEMM disciplines in college and university, need to be replaced with efforts to fix the pipeline including systemic barriers, and antiquated cultural thinking that have caused women to leave academia and, in some cases, abandon science altogether (Huyer, 2015). Evidence supports “pipeline leaks” related to post-doctoral fellow employment opportunities and compensation, start-up funds, accepted first-author publications, grants submitted, awarded level of funding, teaching evaluations, micro-aggressions around family, and awards to name a few (Table 1). Moreover, the “leaks” are larger when intersectionality is considered, resulting in an even greater loss of Indigenous women, racialized minorities, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ persons. This is why efforts to repair the “pipeline” need to go beyond initiatives that simply attempt to add more women to the flawed system. Awareness and recruitment efforts, particularly for marginalized groups, will remain vitally important; however, equal effort needs to be placed on working with all levels of academia and government to begin to fix the system. The existing “leaky pipes” need to be repaired and new pathways to support diversity and variable career pathways need to be added as well as cultural shifts within institutions. Adding more water, fixing the leaks, and building a network of diverse pipeline pathways will be required to create an inclusive system for all (Figure 1). In the next section we will explore the numbers further to identify barriers and begin to reflect on opportunities to address unconscious bias and systemic barriers.

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Figure 1. Illustration of the “Leaky Pipeline of Women in STEMM” and proposed strategies to build an inclusive system for everyone

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WOMEN IN STEMM: THE NUMBERS DO NOT LIE According to a 2017 report by Women in Science and Engineering in Canada, Canadian boys and girls typically perform equally well in standardized mathematics and science tests; however, women only make up 38% of the students graduating from Canadian Universities with a Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences or engineering (NSERC, 2017). The gender gap is worse at the Masters and Doctoral level with women graduates at approximately 36 and 31% respectively. Interestingly, the percentage of female international students choosing science and engineering 181

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Table 1. Summary of documented leaks to the pipeline and suggested inequities and barriers for women in STEMM

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Leak

Proposed Reasons

Elementary and High School (before women enter the pipeline)

• Stereotypes • Biases • Lack of role models • Misunderstanding of STEMM career options • Family/cultural pressures

College and University

• Stereotypes • Biases • Lack of mentors and role models • Harassment/Sexual Violence • Discrimination

Early Career

• Flawed recruitment practices • Disproportionate care for children responsibilities • Less access to funding; grant funding at lower levels • Lower starting salaries • Harassment/sexual violence • Lack of support for continued research while on parental leaves • Discrimination • Lack of mentors and role models • Lack of flexible working hours • Stereotypes • Larger teaching loads or class sizes • Extensive committee loads for diversity particularly for women with intersectionality (Indigenous; racialized minority; LGBTQ2S+; person with disabilities)

Mid-Career

• Disproportionate care for children and aging/ill family members • Lack of support for continued research while on parental or sick leaves • Less access to development opportunities • Difficulty with re-entry into the workforce after a leave • Delays in research and publications after a leave • Flawed career advancement pathways • Lack of mentors and sponsors • Dissatisfaction with compensation and promotion opportunities • Harassment/sexual violence • Discrimination • Extensive committee loads for diversity particularly for women with intersectionality (Indigenous; racialized minority; LGBTQ2S+; person with disabilities)

Senior Level Career

• Disproportionate care for aging/ill family members • Higher administrative loads • Lack of mentors and sponsors • Lack of recognition of achievements • Increased pressure to sit on Boards and Committees to meet diversity requirements particularly for women with intersectionality (Indigenous; racialized minority; LGBTQ2S+; person with disabilities) • Discrimination/sexism • Bias

Sources: Australian Academy of Science, 2019, Grogan, 2019, Hunt, 2015, Huyer, 2015

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disciplines is higher than the percentage of female Canadian students, suggesting further opportunity for outreach programs in Canada (NSERC, 2017). Scholarships and awards in the natural sciences and engineering disciplines are also awarded unequally between men and women (Table 2; NSERC, 2017). However, progress towards gender parity is occurring, just slower than one would expect given all the recruitment and retention efforts in recent years by Universities, including programs like EDGE for women, go-Eng-girls and Women in Science and Engineering Chapters. Table 2. NSERC grants/scholarships awarded to women in 1995-96 and 2015-16

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Grant/Award Program

1995-1996

2015-2016

Discovery

9.3%

19.9%

Postgraduate scholarships

34%

38.9%

Postdoctoral fellowships

17.3%

29.4%

USRA

44.4%

43.4%

On a positive to note, the 12.1% increase in postdoctoral fellowships (Table 1) awarded to women indicates that more women are being added to the pipeline; however, more effort is required to retain women in natural sciences and engineering as they transition to assistant, associate and full professor. Still, this is a good sign and could be reflective of more women serving on scholarship committees and training in unconscious bias and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) required by members serving on committees. These data, however, does not provide details on intersectionality for women represented in the increase for postdoctoral fellowships. The gender gap persists at the NSERC Discovery Grant level with less than 20% of the grants (2015-16) awarded to women (NSERC, 2017). It is also true that fewer women are applying for Discovery grants, as seen in 2019 where women accounted for less than 25% of the applications overall, despite having a slightly higher or equal success rate than men in all career stages (NSERC, 2019). Moreover, the biggest gap in women applicants is at the full professor level, where applicants submitted by men outnumber women 4 to 1, which reflects the paucity of women at these upper career levels (NSERC, 2019). Furthermore, lack of gender parity continues at the Research Chair level. The percentage of women holding Canada Excellence Research Chairs has improved since program inception in 2010 when all 19 recipients were men. Furthermore, only two women held a Canada Excellence Research Chair between 2010 and 2018. In 2019, with increased focus on equity, diversity and inclusion throughout the recruitment and hiring process the gender gap has closed with 6 of 183

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Breaking the Ice

the 16 Canada Excellence Research Chairs now held by women; however, work is still needed as no Indigenous scholar, in the 20-year history of the program has ever been awarded a Chair (Smith, 2019b). First examination of the gender ratio for Canada 150 Chairs would suggest significant progress is being made as 14 of the 24 Chair holders in 2019 were women. However, upon closer examination a significant gender gap exists in award value with the majority of the lower value Chairs ($350,000 annually) being held by women and the majority of the higher value Chairs ($1 million annually) being held by men. Once again Indigenous persons were not represented and less than 17% of the awards were held by visible minorities of any gender (Smith, 2019c). Women are also under represented as recipients of prestigious awards such as the Herzberg & Steacie (NSERC, 2017) and Nobel Prize in Physics (Nobel Media, 2020). These inequities can add up, resulting in the greatest gender gap at the end of the pipeline leading to a lack of senior women needed to fill leadership roles in academia. For example, in the United Kingdom, women accounted for less than 13% of the positions at the Professorial level in 2001 and over a 10-year period the number is still under 20% (Howe-Walsh, & Turnbull, 2016). In Canada the numbers are not much better. Dr. Malinda Smith and the Academic Women’s Association at the University of Alberta (2019) released a report on the landscape of leadership at 15 Canadian Universities illustrating the pipeline remains overwhelming white and male. For example, white males account for over 60% of the positions at the Deans, Provosts, and Presidents level. Interestingly, at the Vice-President Research level white women account for over 47% of the positions; however, minority persons remain underrepresented with minority women filling less than 8% of the positions and racialized men less than 14% (Academic Women’s Association-University of Alberta, 2019). The body of literature is rich with strategies and mechanisms for increasing and advancing women in STEM within the academy (reviewed in Diehl & Dubzinski, 2016); including educational strategies such as implicit bias training, institutional report cards for gender equality and ensuring balanced representation on panels and symposia. Furthermore, others have recommended a number of strategies to address the gender gap in STEMM including 1) a need to reevaluate tenure and promotion processes, which allow for flexible publication and research outputs, that do not penalize women or men who have career interruptions for family, 2) a need to implement sexual harassment and unconscious bias training, 3) a need for transparent and accountable selection processes for hiring, grant funding, and award selection, 4) a need to eliminate the gender pay gap, 5) access to resources to support parents reentering the academy after a leave, and 6) a need to support institutional gender policies at the highest level of governance (Huyer, 2015).

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Despite these efforts, women continue to experience barriers when looking to advance and move into leadership positions. Lack of access to networks and support systems, implicit bias present in traditionally male-dominated fields, and workplace structures and everyday practices that have developed overtime to favour men can lead many women to leave academia altogether or stunt their progression to senior leadership roles (Van Oosten, et al., 2017). In response, leadership training programs specifically for women in STEMM, have emerged to upscale women’s skills, and provide networks as they move through the pipeline including EDGE (https://www.edgeforwomen.org), Super Stars of STEMM (https:// scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/list/2019-superstars/), Sedna Epic (https:// www.sednaepic.com), the Leadership Lab for Women in STEM (Van Oosten et al., 2017), and Homeward Bound Projects (https://homewardboundprojects.com.au) to name a few. In the next section we will provide an overview of the Homeward Bound International Leadership program for Women in STEMM and share reflections from our participation in the program.

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HOMEWARD BOUND LEADERSHIP PROGRAM FOR WOMEN IN STEMM Homeward Bound, is a 12-month international leadership program for women in STEMM with a goal to train and network 1000 women over a 10-year period. Cofounder Fabian Dattner created the program in response to the dearth of STEMM women in leadership positions. Between the first cohort launched in 2016, and the fourth in 2019, over 350 women from over 40 different countries have been trained. These women range from graduate students in STEMM fields, scientists in academia and industry, science communicators and educators, science entrepreneurs to medical doctors and more. The program provides training and skills to prepare women, inside and outside of academia, to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and encourage women to take on leadership positions in STEMM fields. Applicants are evaluated by an international committee and selected for their ability to lead and potential to demonstrate a collaborative, inclusive and legacy-minded model of leadership that will influence outcomes for men and women towards a healthier planet, and a sustainable future for us all. The program includes monthly participant calls, triadgroup activities, master classes, brain-food exercises, diagnostic tools [(Life Styles Inventory (https://www.humansynergistics.com); 4Mat (McCarthy, 1980)] with personal coaching, and peer-mentoring. All the content and activities are tailored to build skills for authentic leadership, strategy, visibility, well-being, and science collaboration. To enable collaboration across international time zones program 185

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participants are connected through a number of channels including shared google driveTM, SlackTM, WhatsAppTM, FacebookTM, and ZoomTM. The last month of the program brings all the participants together in Ushuaia, Argentina for two days of intensive leadership training building on the lessons learned over the previous months before departing for a 3-week expedition to Antarctica where the days were split between leadership training, landings on the Antarctic archipelago or peninsula, visits to international scientific research stations, and scientific symposia at sea given by participants, all supported by a global on-board faculty, and Antarctica itself as the 13th Faculty member. Antarctica was foundational to our learning and reinforced the lessons offered by faculty and expedition leaders. The Antarctica Treaty of 1959 states the continent shall be used for peace, scientific investigation, and international collaboration (Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty, 2020). The management of the continent is carried out cooperatively by the signatories of the Treaty. Researchers and scientists, explorers and adventurers, artists and activists, historians and storytellers from around the world have been coming together for over 60 years to advance science for all of humanity. Antarctica has also been the proving ground for leaders like Shackleton, Amundsen, and Scott and until recently, women were excluded. It has been famously documented that “three sporty girls” applied in 1914 to be crew on Shackelton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Pegrine, 1914): Dear Sir Ernest, We “three sporty girls” have decided to write and beg of you to take us with you on your expedition to the South Pole.

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We are three strong, healthy girls and also gay and bright, and willing to undergo any hardships that you yourselves undergo. If our feminine garb is inconvenient, we should just love to don masculine attire. We have been reading all books and articles that have been written on dangerous expeditions by brave men to the Polar-regions, and we do not see why men should have all the glory, and women none, especially when there are women just as brave and capable as there are men. Trusting you will think over our suggestion, We are Peggy Pegrine Valerie Davey and Betty Webster

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P.S. We have not given any further particulars, in case you should not have time to read this, but if you are at all interested, we will write and tell you more about are greatest wish. However, their application was denied. Shackleton was not the only Antarctic explorer that did not support the presence of women on the continent. In 1947, Harry Darlington stated, “There are some things women don’t do. They don’t become Pope or President or go down to the Antarctic”. In 1957, Rear Admiral George Dufek stated, “Women will not be allowed in the Antarctic until we can provide one woman for every man”, and in 1965 Admiral F. E. Bakutis is on record stating, “Antarctica [will] remain the womanless white continent of peace” (Halton, 2017). The first women believed to be a member of a working Antarctica expedition team was Jackie Ronnie who served from 1947-48 as the historian and expedition recorder for her husband’s expedition (Sullivan, 1948). Although the presence of women working at Antarctic research stations is no longer uncommon, their numbers are still considerably lower when compared to men. Therefore, the arrival of the allwomen expedition teams with Homeward Bound is impactful, and can change the narrative concerning women in leadership. To thrive in the unique environment of Antarctica takes a community much like solving the pressing problems of the world requires a community and a new style of leadership. Values-based authentic leadership with integrity, leadership which embraces equity, diversity and inclusion, leadership for the greater good. We share our reflections on our leadership journey with Homeward Bound in the next section.

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BREAKING THE ICE: OUR REFLECTIONS ON LEADERSHIP FROM ANTARCTICA As members of the fourth cohort (#TeamHB4) we travelled to Antarctica in November and December of 2019 with 97 other women, ages 23 to over 70 from 34 different countries becoming the largest all women expedition to Antarctica that included 99 participants, 12 faculty, and 5 expedition leaders (Figure 2; Figure 3). The expedition provided us with the opportunity to reflect on ourselves and elements of the program related to leadership, strategy, visibility, communication, science collaboration, and well-being. Our formal leadership curriculum was delivered on ship and reinforced when we hiked glaciers and observed wildlife ranging from Gentoo penguins, humpback whales, Orca, Weddell seals, Albatross, and Snow Petrels. On-ship lessons from faculty, one-on-one coaching, and formal and informal small group activities further supported our understanding of cooperation and collaboration, vulnerability and courage, grit and perseverance, and the importance of personal reflection in leadership growth. 187

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Figure 2. Members of the 4th cohort and faculty of Homeward Bound, international leadership program for women in STEMM at Brown Bluff on the Eastern Antarctica Peninsula. Photo Credit: Will Rogan

14 Reflections

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During the 12-month program, and in Antarctica in particular, we were encouraged to practice reflective journaling as a means to process our thoughts, positive and negative, around what we were experiencing. Reflective journaling has been successfully used to enhance leadership training programs (Ladyshewsky, 2007). Below, we have provided fourteen reflections, from our combined notes during the three-weeks we spent in Antarctica, which speak to the lessons we will continue to apply as leaders. 1. Imposter Phenomena: Despite incredible levels of success in STEMM fields from astrophysics to medicine, almost all the women in our cohort talked about experiencing imposter syndrome and the important role the network of homeward bound alumna would play in offering support, encouragement and reassurance. In addition, scientific collaboration among alumna would create networks of women working towards the same goals and in support of each other (TeamHB4, 2018). 188

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Figure 3. Tammy Eger (left) and Kirsten Müller (right) in Antarctica with Homeward Bound international leadership program for women

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Source: (Author personal photo)

2. Leadership for the Greater Good: Musimbi Kanyoro, President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women, was the program elder for our cohort. Musimbi offered us the wisdom of “isirika”. In Musimbi’s native language, Maragoli, and her in her own words, isirika is loosely translated as “a mutual responsibility for caring for one another” We were encouraged to imagine a community, a country, a world where isirika is at the core of leadership. We were asked us to imagine what we could achieve for peace and for science if we committed to a leadership model focused on integrity, collaboration, inclusion, trustworthiness, and a mindset to care for one another (Kanyoro, 2017) 3. Authentic Leadership: Understanding self, and your core values is critically important for authentic leadership and trust within in teams. Do your personal values align with the values of your academic institution. If decisions are not 189

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Breaking the Ice

made with values at the core the path will be precarious. Leaders need to build in time for personal reflection. How do you interact with people? Do you lead with integrity, do you listen with a generosity mindset, are you aware of how others respond to you and you to them when challenged? Have you considered your positionality? How do you identify, how do others see your identity, how does your past experiences shape you and your decision making? 4. Acknowledge the Leaders that Came before You and be that Leader for Others: Sometimes the best strategy is to follow in the footsteps of others. Use the “penguin highways” that have been created as it is not always wise to set a new path, and when you reach your destination honour the trailblazers and be sure to look for opportunities to be an ally and lay the foundation to set new paths for others. During our journey we had many conversations about privilege and power. The privilege held by of the dominant class, privilege assumed by “western science” over Indigenous ways of knowing, power of men over women and girls in many societies where girls who wish to attend school are still at risk of harm. During these conversations we also reflected on the privilege we had as members of #TeamHB4 and our individual and collective responsibility to pay it forward, lead with authenticity, and be allies. We discussed being allies and sponsors and the actions one can take to be these as well as a champion, an amplifier, an advocate, a scholar, an upstander, and a confidante. We also talked about the importance of men as allies, a question that is eloquently explored by Carlson and colleagues (2019) who asked activists and academics about men’s roles in gender equity promotion and found eight themes emerged: constant action of the “everyday ally”; prioritizing a structural analysis of oppression and privilege; non-self-absorbed and accountable selfreflection; amplify marginalized voices; welcome criticism and be accountable; listen+shut up+read, ally is not a self-adhesive label; and allyship: unlikely or undesirable? (Carlson et al., 2019). Importantly, we agreed that being an ally is also about personal growth. It is about being willing to listen and reflect on when one could do better, and it is a commitment to using one’s privilege to support others and resist the urge to become defensive when challenged to do more. 5. Pace Yourself: The view from the top of the glacier is the same whether you walk with purpose or sprint with abandon. One approach lets you enjoy the ascent and the other could leave you breathless and exhausted. Often, we jump into challenging situations without pausing to see if this is the course of action that is best; striving for a solution rather than learning and reflecting on the process. 6. Stronger Together: This mantra was never more apparent than when observing the nesting penguin colonies. The nesting pairs lay their eggs on rock nests 190

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in close quarters and babies typically hatch around the same time so the chicks develop together. The closeness of the colony provides protect to the whole from predators. This included not stealing your neighbours rocks (as Chinstrap and Adelie penguins do). Collaboration and positive conversations through questioning can lead to more positive actions and trust. Trust being the foundation for any leadership position. Storytelling can Bring about Change: On a planet where we are struggling to incite change in people to reverse the course of plastic pollution and climate change, personal stories can engage people to examine their own roles in impacts on the planet and those around us. Listen deeply to the stories of others, reflect and learn from them. The stories shared through the Symposium at Sea inspired women in our cohort to action: lending our voices to the creation of a new marine protected area in Antarctica to be established in Fall 2020. Care for Yourself: We spent a number of sessions talking about the importance of self-care and personal reflection. Showing up, being your authentic best self is your superpower. Caring for yourself first will let you care for others and have the energy and capacity to lead. If you Fall Get Back Up: Failure of idea or strategy is not failure of self. Penguins are incredible, agile swimmers in the water and then incredibly clumsy on land. However, they get back up, improvise and slide on their bellies or try a different path and eventually they get over the obstacle in the way or find a way around it. Our cohort opened up about past failures and the lessons we could learn from these. We learned to judge ourselves and others less and instead used the opportunity to grow and to mentor others. It also enabled us to note that criticism from others that are not “in the arena”, as Brené Brown said in her 2018 book: Dare to Lead, do not get the privilege to criticize you. Have a Plan: Strategy mapping with our core values as a base, was essential for us to reflect on priorities for relationships, self, and work. The exercise required us to examine our balance, be honest about aspirations and identify enablers. For many women in the program this was the most challenging exercise and one that the two of us are still coming back to on a weekly basis. When you are Visible, you are also Vulnerable: Change in our lives and in our leadership cannot come when we are not visible to ourselves, when we are not visible to others and when we do not use our collective visibility for a greater purpose. We also talked about the “risks” of being visible and the courage to be vulnerable and speak with your authentic voice. Ask for What you Need: Many in our cohort also shared stories about difficulties and how challenging it is to ask for help. When asked to reflect deeper on the why, vulnerability and trust rose to the surface. Many of the women in our cohort were the minority in their organizations and held an underlying fear that 191

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asking for help would lead their colleagues to think they were less capable. During our journey the importance of asking for what you need, and the joy all can share when coming together, reinforced why asking for what you need is so important. As members of different communities women had flags of their country, their Indigenous community, and their social organizations. When it came time to take pictures a member of the LGTBQ2s+ community realized she forgot her pride flag, so she asked for help. What happened became one of the most joyful moments on the ship for many. We made a human pride flag. The call went out for people to assemble with red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet clothing and over 80 people showed up to answer the call for help (McConnell, 2020). 13. Diversity is Strength: Our cohort talked extensively about diversity, inclusion and equity in STEMM. At the same time, we acknowledged that Homeward Bound also needed to do more to increase diversity. Reflecting on our experiences, it was the conversations we had with people who did not look like us, people who did not have the same racial identity, gender expression, spiritual faith, age, or life experiences that were the most rewarding. Each cohort from Homeward Bound leaves Antarctica as part of an alumna group committed to a collaborative project. We acknowledged alumna of the program were still predominately white women and we all needed to do more to support Homeward Bound leadership to increase diversity moving forward. A strong foundation that recognizes that diversity makes us stronger is essential to the cultural shifts that we need to see in our organizations and communities. In addition, the interdependence among a diverse group of individuals is essential to a strong, well-functioning organization, and parallels can be drawn between this and the complex food webs and biological diversity seen in Antarctica, that are key for a healthy functioning ecosystem. 14. Take the “Leap of Faith” with Friends: On our last landing we prepared for a polar plunge. Polar Plunge in Antarctic waters requires support. We had a rescue team in drysuits at the ready, the expedition doctor on shore and dry clothing ready to change into. What made the moment incredibly impactful was seeing groups of 10-15 women at a time hand in hand running with joy and diving head first into the Antarctica waters. For some it was a bucket list moment, for other it was a spiritual experience. In many ways it was our awakening to the world we would emerge from the journey to face together. No one women alone, stronger together, invigorated, and supported.

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PREPARING TO BE AGENTS OF CHANGE The Homeward Bound program challenged us to be visible; to step outside our comfort zone and stretch to develop strengths we did not know we had. We talked about vulnerability and courageous leadership. We completed Master Classes on science communication and climate science. We completed exercises to understand how we see ourselves and how others see us. We worked with our coach to explore differences in the results and completed exercises to further develop our constructive leadership skills. We hiked glaciers, traveled amongst the sea ice, witnessed incredible sunsets, and marveled at the resilience of penguins, seals, and sea birds. Armed with clarity of purpose, and connection to women around the globe it was time to return home to take our place at the leadership table. Although we had been transformed by the experience, the world we were returning to had not. We believe the wellness stream was also critical to our leadership growth. Personal strategy sessions stressed the need for value alignment in goals for work, relationships and self. Many of the women, including ourselves, had pulled resources form the self and relationship box to feed the work box. Unsustainable in the long-run and detrimental to personal growth and development required for true transformational leadership. Women should not sacrifice one part of their life to be leaders in academia. When interviewing women leaders in technology Van Oosten and colleagues (2017) observed that women who remained in the profession, reported to understand themselves and what they wanted from life, they had supportive personal and professional relationships, and they understood the impact of socio-cultural factors on their ability to be successful, and as a result took initiative to overcome bias and barriers. Other factors noted to play a role in women rising in the leadership ranks include: a well-rounded concept of self (Sugiyama et al., 2016; Debebe et al., 2016), self-awareness (Taylor et al., 2016) and having a personal vision (Buse & Bilimoria, 2014). Lanaj & Hollenbeck (2015) also noted that women who were aware of gender bias tended to persist in leadership. This last point emphasizes how recognizing gender bias or other biases can be key for understanding how we interact with those in our institutions and how others interact with us. Implicit (or unconscious) bias training is an important tool to advance the understanding of how individuals perceive others through the lens of their lived experience which is key to motivating change. In short, it is hard to unsee what you have learned about yourself. In addition, we believe that the element of storytelling was invaluable, particularly when we returned to our homes. Debebe (2011) documented that women learn well through others’ stories of success and struggle and women-only leadership development programs, such as Homeward Bound, have been recommended. By providing a platform for groups that lack critical mass, such as women in leadership and women in STEMM disciplines, to share their stories this creates a connected 193

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network and further catalyzes women to preserve through their perceived struggles (e.g. imposter phenomenon) through the experiences of others. Peer coaching has also been reported to provide a safe environment for feedback to be exchanged and mutual learning to occur (Parker, et al., 2014). The program was transformational and the 3-weeks with our cohort, while cut-off from social media channels, regular communication with home and no communication with work, was initially terrifying and uncomfortable for most, but became a nirvana within a few days. Antarctica offered the gift of personal reflection in the presence of incredible, yet harsh beauty. However, we knew the environment created on the ship to nurture our growth and development, would not be the environment we would return home to. Therefore, we also spent time talking about transitions and managing change. The lessons not only resonated to support strategies to help us navigate the immediate transition back to our communities, families, and work but it also offered an opportunity to discuss strategies to implement policy, program, and system change and how we could use our new network to aid in these changes.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT: A FRAMEWORK TO REPAIR THE PIPE As research scientists, and leaders in academia we tend to view the world from a human-centered design perspective. Ergonomics is the study of people at work, with the aim to improve human well-being and overall system performance by optimizing human-system compatibility. Said another way, ergonomics looks to optimally design things that interact with people in terms of people’s needs, abilities and limitations (IEA, 2020). This is typically done through a Human Centered Design philosophy which places the person at the center of the system and considers their needs and abilities to maximize their wellbeing and overall system performance (IEA, 2020). In human-centered design, work organization, work environment, and the mental and physical abilities of the worker are considered. If we apply a human-centered design framework to women in STEMM several pathways for improved system design become apparent. Human-centered design will often involve a participatory action research framework, where all the users in the system are involved in identifying failures/risks in the system and in development and implementation of interventions to address the gaps. Participatory action research is collaborative, and reflective. Co-pillars of the participatory action framework are involvement of regular people in all aspects of the research process, nonhierarchical power relations, and transformative practice (Schubotz, 2019). It encourages, in fact requires active participation of all voices. This approach could be particularly valuable to ensure the voices of women with 194

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added dimensions of intersectionality faced by racialize minorities, Indigenous women, LGBTQ2S+, and women with disabilities are heard. Case-study evidence from ergonomic science shows the participatory action research framework is highly successful and results in buy-in for change throughout the organization resulting in positive organizational outcomes. Moreover, within the participatory action framework, “communities of inquiry and action evolve and address questions and issues that are significant for those who participate as co-researchers” (Reason & Bradbury, 2008, p. 1). Our journey through the Homeward Bound Leadership program has showed us the power of a collaborative participatory framework. Over the 12-month program we have not just learned but have witnessed the strength of a collective voice speaking passionately about a common message developed together through group activities. We shared stories of triumphs in advancing EDI and road blocks and challenges. Reflecting on a few of these stories it is clear that many organizations have not done the preparation work to be ready for changes to training, policies or practice aimed at repairing the “pipeline” to advance women in STEMM into elevated leadership positions. Furthermore, as noted by Diehl and Dzubinski (2016) not only do organizations need to recognize that there are numerous barriers for women moving into leadership but there needs to be organizational shifts, which include implicit bias training, to develop new norms. Moreover, the organizational change needs to happen at all levels in order to achieve rapid change in EDI in organizations (Diehl & Dzubinski, 2016). Leadership programs, such as Homeward Bound, also need to reflect on the diversity of women within their programs, and ensure that women with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+, racialized and Indigenous voices are present in the program. On our voyage, this was a large component of the discussions lead by Musimbi Kanyoro and other members of our cohort. In response, efforts are underway by program alumna to fundraise for scholarships to allow persons from marginalized groups, and regions of the world with greater economic disparities to participate in this program. A recent study by the Diversity Council of Australia (2019) showed organizations that did not manage change associated with EDI were likely to face resistance and see the intervention/policy change fail. Only 6% of the practitioners surveyed indicated they used a change management model when designing and implementing EDI initiatives, less than 25% investigated organizational readiness for change prior to implementing EDI initiatives, only 30% did a post implementation evaluation to determine if the program was effective, and less than 17% trained staff to develop change management capabilities. The report went on to say, intended outcomes of EDI initiatives are not realized as the programs were designed and implemented with little regard to process known through organizational change theory to be effective at achieving change within organizations. However, outcomes can be 195

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improved and monitored with a cyclical four-stage organizational change model. First, diagnose the need through active participation of all stakeholders. Second, design an intervention based on the need identified. Third, engage and enable staff in the organization to lead the change by communicating a clear change vision and building staff competency in EDI and change management. Finally embed and evaluate to make sure the change sticks. Return to step one to ensure the initiative had the intended outcome (Diversity Council of Australia, 2019). As an example, earlier this year the women in one of our departments wished to discuss issues of EDI at a faculty retreat. The initial conversation did not go well. The men were “caught off-guard”, were not prepared for the discussion, and the conversation quickly turned oppositional, with many of the men in the room demanded the women prove there is gender bias. The initial discussion failed as the process was not managed. Training was not provided to ensure all in the room had sufficient knowledge for the conversation. Training has occurred subsequent to this initial retreat and the discussion is progressing; however, we would contend that the initial conversation would not have gone so poorly if a participatory action frame-work was utilized to initiate discussion and change management theory was used to oversee implementation of any resulting policy/practice changes. In addition, in one of our departments, several male colleagues have reflected that current EDI initiatives are eroding their rights, a view that comes from a place of privilege and others think of trying to be positive and have hope. In her recent blog post, Dr. Debbie Donsky (2020) notes how such positivity is linked to preserving the comfort of those who are white and dismissing the injustices that have happened to those minority groups. How do we fix the system? We need more women and minorities at the leadership table and we need their voices to be heard. It is not enough just to be at the table. We need a fundamental shift in culture at all levels of the academy. Courageous conversations will be required to break down barriers and address systemic bias. Changes to the systems which created the leaky pipeline will not be permanently repaired unless women are sitting at the leadership table in equal numbers. Therefore, efforts that focus on advancing women in leadership need to be a priority. Recruitment alone will not obtain gender parity if women continue to leave the pipeline and hit the “glass ceiling”. Furthermore, when advanced into leadership positions women need to be supported to avoid the “glass cliff”, a term used to refer to the tendency for women, more than men, to be appointed to leadership positions that are risky and precarious and with a higher risk of failure (Ryan, & Haslam, 2005; Ryan et al., 2016).

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CONCLUSION Innovation in science will be enhanced if we have diverse voices at the table, an argument articulated very clearly by Caroline Criado Perez, in Invisible Women (Criado-Perez, 2019). If we want to solve complex problems facing the world we need women in all STEMM disciplines and we need women leading at the executive level. As alumna of the Homeward Bound international leadership program for women in STEMM we are convinced now more than ever that the world needs a new leadership model. Over 350 women have completed the program and are leading with cause, conviction, clarity, confidence, compassion and courage, while acting with integrity, and transparency through engagement and actions that support equity, diversity, and inclusion. Leaders need to be questioned on their values and how they align with their organizations, how they will lead with transparency, integrity and build trust; and if they aspire to the position to make a difference or advance their own personal agenda (Figure 4). Leadership needs to be about legacy for others, putting others first, listening and institutional health and wellness. We need to include more sponsorship of women and other groups. In addition, leaders should consider the position of power and privilege your title might bring into a room and how your positionality in the room affect your interactions? Other reflective questions include: how do you identify? How do your past experiences shape you and your decision making? How can you respond to difficult situations with generosity?

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Figure 4. Schematic to illustrate the relationship between values, authenticity and the importance of reflecting on one’s interactions with others

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We have proposed that the use of human-centered design theory through a participatory action framework, with diverse voices at the table, might offer a novel way forward. Furthermore, designing inclusive work systems in academia will benefit all in STEMM. Women are not broken, the system is. If the system does not change women will continue to leak out and efforts made to recruit girls and young women into STEMM disciplines will continue to under-perform. Furthermore, it is not enough to write a policy on EDI if people in your organization do not know what it means, what it means to them personally, and what their role is in implementing it. Change-management theory can be effective in ensuring policy is successfully implemented. It is time to repair the pipe, throw down the fishing net, break the glass ceiling and have women take their place in equal numbers at the leadership tables in academia. The responsibility lies with everyone. Homeward Bound has a mantra, #StrongerTogether. The Homeward Bound alumna believe it, and we hope others reading this Chapter will as well. Be an ally and a sponsor for women in STEMM, speak up again bias, nominate women for awards or speaking opportunities, encourage a young girl to stay curious about science, support the coding program for Indigenous youth, just be a champion for women in STEMM; lead with courage and make a positive difference in the world around you.

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Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave work, tough conversations, whole hearts. Random House. Buse, K., & Bilimoria, D. (2014). Personal vision: Enhancing work engagement and the retention of women in the engineering profession. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1400. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01400 PMID:25538652 Carlson, J., Leek, C., Casey, E., Tolman, R., & Allen, C. (2019). What’s in a Name? A Synthesis of “Allyship” Elements from Academic and Activist Literature. Journal of Family Violence. doi:10.100710896-019-00073-z

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Criado-Perez, C. (2019). Invisible women: Data bias in a world designed for men. New York: Abrams Press. Debebe, G. (2011). Creating a safe environment for women’s leadership transformation. Journal of Management Education, 35(5), 679–712. doi:10.1177/1052562910397501 Debebe, G., Anderson, D., Bilimoria, D., & Vinnicombe, S. (2016). Women’s leadership development programs: Lessons learned and new frontiers. Journal of Management Education, 40(3), 231–252. doi:10.1177/1052562916639079 Diehl, A. B., & Dzubinski, L. M. (2016). Making the invisible visible: A crosssector analysis of gender-based leadership barriers. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 27(2), 181–206. doi:10.1002/hrdq.21248 Diversity Council Australia. (2019). Change at Work. https://www.dca.org.au/ research/project/change-work Donsky, D. (2020, February 9). The Danger of “Positivity” in Equity Work: Recentering White Comfort to Silence Anti-Oppression Work. https://debbiedonsky. com/the-danger-of-positivity-in-equity-work-re-centering-white-comfort-to-silenceanti-oppression-work/ Edge Program. (2020, February 9). Advancing Diversity in Graduate Education. https://www.edgeforwomen.org/ Grogan, K. (2019). How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the workplace. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(1), 3–6. doi:10.103841559-0180747-4 PMID:30478306 Halton, M. (2017). 100 Women: The ice ceiling that held women back from Antarctic exploration. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41921096 Homeward Bound Projects. (2020, February 9). https://homewardboundprojects. com.au/

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Howe-Walsh, L., & Turnbull, S. (2016). Barriers to women leaders in academia: Tales from science and technology. Studies in Higher Education, 41(3), 415–428. doi:10.1080/03075079.2014.929102 Hunt, J. (2016). Why do women leave Science and Engineering. Gender and Labour Markets, 69(1), 199–226. doi:10.1177/0019793915594597 Huyer, S. (2015). Is the Gender Gap Narrowing in Science and Engineering. In UNESCO Science Report: Towards 2030, 85-103. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ ark:/48223/pf0000235447 199

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International Ergonomics Association. (2020 February 9). Definitions and Domains of Ergonomics. https://www.iea.cc/whats/index.html Kanyoro, M. (2017). To solve the world’s biggest problems invest in women and girls. TEDwomen. https://www.ted.com/talks/musimbi_kanyoro_to_solve_the_ world_s_biggest_problems_invest_in_women_and_girls?language=en Ladyshewsky, R. (2007). A strategic approach for integrating theory to practice in leadership development. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 28(5), 426–443. doi:10.1108/01437730710761733 Lanaj, K., & Hollenbeck, J. (2015). Leadership over-emergence in self-managing teams: The role of gender and countervailing biases. Academy of Management Journal, 58(5), 1476–1494. doi:10.5465/amj.2013.0303 McCarthy, B. (1980). The 4Mat System to Learning Styles with Right/Left Mode Techniques. Oak Brook, IL: Excel, Inc. McConnell, J. (2020 February 9). Why we formed a human pride flag in Antarctica. https://sisterstem.org/2019/12/12/why-we-formed-a-human-pride-flag-in-antarctica/ Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. (2019). Competition Statistics Discovery Grants, Research Tools and Instruments and Subatomic Physics Programs. https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Professors-Professeurs/2019Comp StatsDiscoveryRTI_e.pdf Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada Report. (2017). Women in science and engineering in Canada. Corporate Planning and Policy Division. https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/_doc/Reports-Rapports/WISE2017_e.pdf Nobel Media. (2020 February 9). Nobel Prize awarded women. https://www. nobelprize.org/prizes/lists/nobel-prize-awarded-women

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Parker, P., Kram, K., & Hall, D. (2014). Peer coaching: An untapped resource for development. Organizational Dynamics, 43(2), 122–129. doi:10.1016/j. orgdyn.2014.03.006 Pegrine, P. (1914) A letter of application to join Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition. https://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/archives/shackleton/articles/1537,2,30,5-6. html Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (Eds.). (2008). The Sage Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. Sage. doi:10.4135/9781848607934

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Ryan, M., & Haslam, S. (2005). The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over‐ Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions. British Journal of Management, 16(2), 81–90. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00433.x Ryan, M., Haslam, S., Morgenroth, T., Rink, F., Stoker, J., & Peters, K. (2016). Getting on top of the glass cliff: Reviewing a decade of evidence, explanations, and impact. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(3), 446–455. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.10.008 Schubotz, D. (2019). Participatory Action Research. In P. Atkinson, S. Delamont, A. Cernat, J. W. Sakshaug, & R. A. Williams (Eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations. doi:10.4135/9781526421036840298 Secretariat of the Antarctic Treaty. (2020, February 9). The Antarctic Treaty. https:// www.ats.aq/e/antarctictreaty.html Sedna Women’s Leadership Program. (2020, February 9). https://www.sednaepic. com/ Smith, M. (2019). The Gender Gap in 2019: Canadian University Leadership Gap by Position. https://uofaawa.wordpress.com/awa-diversity-gap-campaign/the-diversitygap-in-2019-canadian-universities-leadership-pipeline-by-position/ Smith, M. (2019b). The Gender Gap in 2019: Canada Excellence Research Chairs. https://uofaawa.wordpress.com/awa-diversity-gap-campaign/towards-closing-thediversity-gap-in-research-chairs/the-diversity-gap-in-2019-canada-excellenceresearch-chairs/ Smith, M. (2019c). The Gender Gap in 2019: Canada 150 Research Chairs. https:// uofaawa.wordpress.com/awa-diversity-gap-campaign/towards-closing-the-diversitygap-in-research-chairs/the-diversity-gap-in-2019-canada-150-research-chairs/

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Sugiyama, K., Cavanagh, K., Van Esch, C., Bilimoria, D., & Brown, C. (2016). Constructing leadership development: Pedagogies of women’s and general leadership development programs. Journal of Management Education, 40(3), 253–292. doi:10.1177/1052562916632553 Sullivan, W. (1948). Ronne party here from Polar peril: Leader’s wife undaunted by Antarctica Rigors-Wilkins greets ship upon arrival. https://www.nytimes. com/1948/04/14/archives/ronne-party-here-from-polar-peril-leaders-wifeundaunted-by.html?sq=edith%2520Ronne&scp=1&st=cse Super Stars of STEM. (2020, February 9). https://scienceandtechnologyaustralia. org.au/list/2019-superstars/

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Taylor, S., Sturm, R., Atwater, L. E., & Braddy, P. W. (2016). Underestimating one’s leadership impact: Are women leaders more susceptible? Organizational Dynamics, 45(2), 132–138. doi:10.1016/j.orgdyn.2016.02.007 TeamHB4. (2018). See how our successful applicants reacted when they found out they would be a part of #TeamHB4. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=DjIrGxpbsW4&t=3s TeamHB4. (2019). Antarctica a Day in the Life of HB4. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=5qoAaaX1Ooo

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Van Oosten, E., Buse, K., & Bilimorie, D. (2017). The leadership lab for women: Advancing and retaining women in STEM through professional development. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2138. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02138 PMID:29326618

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Chapter 12

An Intersectional Love Story: When Gender, Culture, and Sexuality Meet Joël D. Dickinson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7355-1511 Laurentian University, Canada Carla A. John Cambrian College, Canada

ABSTRACT As a lesbian couple working in academia, you might imagine that the authors have similar experiences. However, once you add race and ethnicity to the mix, the equation changes beyond measure. This chapter will focus on the diferent paths that two lesbians take to leadership positions in academia. Often referring to ourselves as “professionally gay,” the authors tell their stories from “slightly” diferent lenses: the White woman with a PhD who moved to a rural town for a tenure-track position and the Black woman with a Master’s degree who took positions such as “assistant to the administrative assistant.”

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INTRODUCTION The following chapter outlines the professional experiences of my wife and I over an approximately 13 year period. The journey is written from our individual experiences of that time. We hope that the reader observes in these two perspectives how two individuals from the same equity seeking group (LGBTQ2-S) can have very different experiences. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-3618-6.ch012 Copyright © 2020, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

An Intersectional Love Story

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JOËL’S STORY It was as romantic of a story as there ever was….I was scrolling down Gay.Com and saw motorcycle leathers. I knew I had to meet her. She will tell you we met online, but in reality I heard about her from a friend of a friend. Yes, I realize that I just told you that I first noticed her online, but then I would have to agree with her and that isn’t as fun of a story. We were ‘buddies’ for a month before we started dating. Our coffee chats were more like intense job interviews. “Have you ever been arrested?”, “been institutionalized”, “addicted to alcohol or drugs”? We had both been burned in relationships before, both raised by single mothers who struggled to pay the bills, and both have complicated sibling stories. However, we both reacted to these upbringings quite differently. Carla holds back and it takes a great deal to get her to open up…her way of protecting herself. I grab on with both hands and never want to let go…my way of protecting myself. This made for an interesting beginning to our relationship to say the least. The second time she tried to break up with me I wouldn’t let her. “This is not how relationships work” I told her. “We are allowed to disagree and it doesn’t mean I’m leaving, it just means that we need to work through it”. That was the last time she tried breaking up with me, so I guess it worked. My brother came out to me when he was 16, he knew that he was gay since he was 3. That’s the type of family we grew up in. The type where you keep a secret like that for fear of being ostracized. He was right of course, he ended up moving out on his own that year. I stayed closeted (even to myself) until I was 28, 14 years later. I was the lesbian with a gay brother in a small New Brunswick town. I thought I understood what it was like to be marginalized, I was wrong. The first time I travelled to Bermuda with Carla was eye-opening to say the least. At that time it was still legal to discriminate against people for their sexuality. Carla had been a teacher there for years before moving to Canada, saying she was ‘out’ would be a gross overstatement. I was treated like an uninvited 3rd wheel. I had been helping parent our son for an entire year prior to this, and was suddenly demoted to ‘friend of the family’. I was introduced to many people during that trip, went to many restaurants with Carla’s friends, visited a lot of family. The common theme during that entire trip was that I was most often the only white person in the room. A friend’s child even reached out and touched my hair and even exclaimed “it’s weird”. Not to mention the night out at a club when a man came in and literally hit on every single woman there…with one exception. I’ve never been so offended to miss an opportunity to be offended! I won’t begin to compare this short week-long trip to the marginalized experiences that Carla has experienced her entire life. The reason I bring it up is that it was one of the most profound learning experiences I have ever encountered. This was the 204

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beginning of my now life long journey of understanding. It is still a journey, but living in a small Northern Ontario Community, I often find myself being the only white person in the room who even begins to ‘get it’. Prior to this, while I did not consider myself to be racist at all, I certainly did not understand. I would pass things off as a ‘misunderstanding’ on Carla’s part. Like the time we were in a Tim Horton’s in Northern New Brunswick and she said that everyone was staring at her. “You’re just being paranoid” I said. When I looked up and caught every eye in the place looking in her direction (and yes there were even people leaning around corners so that they could get a better view) I had to consider that I might be wrong. So now when the cashier at the grocery store tries to save my groceries from the black woman who is trying to steal them and put them in our grocery bags, or a security guard follows us around the liquor store for 10 minutes, it is often me who points it out and puts in the complaint. I had been working at Mount Allison University as an Assistant Professor on replacement contracts for a year and just signed another year long contract when the job offer came. I had interviewed at Laurentian University in Sudbury about a month before. I was beyond excited, even though I hadn’t heard of Laurentian prior to seeing the ad. A tenure-track position was a dream come true. My journey to my PhD was not a linear one. When I had started at the University of New Brunswick as an undergraduate I had no real intention of graduating. I had applied to Phys Ed, tried (ever so briefly) to major in Biology, majored in English for a year, and then finally landed in Psychology. My grades were horrible up until that point, I had even failed a few courses. Once I found Psychology though that all changed. I made it on the Dean’s list that first year. I had a checkered transcript by then and therefore needed a great deal of support in order to get into the Masters/PhD program. I had to do an extra year of undergraduate, followed by a qualifying (probationary) year in the Master’s program. The director of the honours program had told me that I wasn’t allowed in because it was meant “only for students who had a realistic chance of getting into the graduate program”. I had to work a lot throughout my education. I had a failed marriage to a man (it was a phase, I was in university). It ended with me holding all of our shared debt. This was followed by a failed relationship with a woman…where I was also left holding all of our shared debt. All this to say, my education journey was not an easy or fast one. I had to convince everyone at every stage that I was meant to be there….which I managed to do…except for one…myself. I was never sure that I would make it in academia after that, so when I was offered a tenure track position it was a huge relief. It was also a huge relief that Carla agreed to move with me…I was also never sure that she would. That is why when she agreed I packed all of our

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things in the same boxes instead of separately. If she backed out she would have to go through everything and separate it! This was a solid plan! I won’t get into the nitty gritty details here but to say that tenure didn’t come easily for me would be an understatement. I had the support of my Department 100%, I was working hard, going above and beyond, and all that jazz. I can summarize the story by saying that perhaps all my work wasn’t being recognized. The reason I bring it up is this…I have had to pay my dues. I have had to work hard, I have had to fight for what I have. I often have to acknowledge my history when I bring up the idea of privilege. Many interpret this to mean that they have not had to work hard, that they grew up with a silver spoon. If you are reading this book chances are that you don’t need me to explain that this isn’t what privilege is. I only mean to speak about it here to talk about the resistance that I encounter when I bring up the concept of privilege to my fellow white colleagues. There is a clear lack of understanding by many in the academy. I spend a great deal of time both in one on one conversations and in meetings of ‘allies’ talking about the concept. Usually filled with nods of agreement and then followed by a ‘but this isn’t all about that…there were other issues’. Even if I seemingly have an impact on my peers and get a decision which would support removing systemic barriers those decisions are often back tracked as soon as that person speaks to others who were not in the meeting. So here I am with a front row seat to intersectionality at its finest. Watching daily how my wife who is lesbian and black gets treated much differently from me the lesbian who is white. These observations over the years have helped me gain so much more insight and I have benefited greatly. I have also been working daily on how to best use this insight, and my privilege to help break down barriers for others. However, this journey is very difficult to navigate. When do I speak up? When do I make room? When do I stay silent but stay for support? These are all very difficult questions to answer, and not every context calls for the same response. I’ve made mistakes, I make mistakes, and will continue to do so.Each mistake I make there is a knee jerk reaction to stop doing the work…and then I see my wife, my son, my friends, my colleagues, who have no choice but to continue to do the work. The one piece of advice for others in a similar position is this. Always be true to yourself. I have been given advice over the years to ‘get off of your soap box’ or ‘get the chip off of your shoulder’. I’ve never taken that advice completely seriously but I did question at times if my advocacy would stand in the way of my career. I have also been approached by newer faculty members who have told me that they question their ability to speak up without being penalized later during tenure proceedings. The only advice that I can give is to be authentic. If you are trying not to speak up for fear of being labeled the angry ________ (insert equity seeking group membership here) then you can’t truly connect with people, or in the inverse if you are speaking up in an inauthentic way because you think it will look good; people will see it. So 206

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if you truly get it (and let me be clear, I as a non-racialized lesbian will never ‘truly’ get it) and are angered by it…but will continue to be open to feedback and grow, and you see inequities, you see ways of improvement, you see barriers that must be removed…then the only way for people to truly know you is for you to speak up occasionally. However, if you are thinking that ‘appearing’ angered, or being perceived as ‘woke’ will help your career….it is probably best to sit back and keep listening until you actually feel some emotions on these issues. I owe the limited (but growing) understanding of intersectionality and systemic discrimination to my wife. So yet again, I am advantaged, but by her experiences that I am there to witness.

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CARLA’S STORY I attended university at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia for my undergraduate degree then returned to my country of origin, Bermuda, to be a teacher for just over seven years. I decided to return to Canada in 2004 because I missed the social freedoms, vast spaces and the ability to travel in Canada. When returned in 2004, having already spent four years in Nova Scotia I was acutely aware of some of the prejudice I might encounter so I had no illusions that Atlantic Canada was a warm and welcoming place for people of colour. Nova Scotia was the first place where I experienced the kind of racism where I felt I was in imminent fear of being harmed. One of the incidents I remember from University that stands out the most is walking back to campus after a night out with a bunch of friends who were from various Caribbean islands, and all happened to be Black. We were laughing and talking amongst ourselves when the N-word was shouted at us from the back of a passing pickup truck. We initially didn’t take it seriously and started laughing at them until the pick-up truck suddenly stopped, turned around and came racing back toward us. The term “run for your life” accurately describes what we felt we had to do that night. I look back at that experience and think about why our first reaction was to laugh. I have hypothesized that since we had all been raised in countries where that majority of people looked like us, the N-word had not been weaponized and used against us in the same ways it had been for our ancestors and people of colour who live in places where they are not the numerical majority. Before leaving Bermuda, I enjoyed the illusion of racial safety, an illusion that was instantly disabused along with my naiveté about my physical safety as I moved through Canada as a young Black woman.

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When I was ready to return to Canada I had a two-year-old son, so it was imperative that I found a job quickly in order to support him. We moved to New Brunswick where it took me almost a year to find a job as an entry-level inventory counter for an agency that had contracts with large grocery stores. The company van would pick workers up at around midnight, drive us to a grocery store, where we would have to count the inventory and be out of there by the time the store opened for business the next day. I would often meet and chat with new co-workers on the long rides, and as often happens when you meet new people, you ask them questions to get to know them better. There were always shocked faces when I explained that I had an undergraduate degree from a Canadian University and had been a teacher for over seven years but was unable to find work locally. Most of my co-workers were white and had ended their educational pursuits when they completed high school. My son and I lived in New Brunswick for 3 years where I met my wife, Joël. When Joël was offered a tenure-track position in Laurentian University’s Psychology department, we moved to northern Ontario. When we arrived I immediately applied for a job as a teacher. I had not yet completed my master’s degree, but I was very close to doing so, and assumed that my years of teaching experience would give me an advantage. I was wrong. I was quite hopeful after I received an invitation to an interview after my first application to the largest school board. That hopefulness was squashed quickly. The day of the interview I recall being in the waiting room hearing my name called. I was the only candidate in the waiting room, but the interviewer called my name two more times just to be sure “Carla John… Carla John…”. Needless to say, I did not get that job. The kicker was that after the interview, when the interviewer called to tell me that I was unsuccessful, he wished me luck and indicated that maybe we would meet again when my then seven-year-old son attended the school where he was an administrator. What was left unsaid was that I would not be working for that school board in any capacity as a teacher – he was right. Short of the interviewer telling me that I was not hired because of the colour of my skin, I would never be able to prove racism or discrimination. I also note that this same school board rarely employs people of colour as teachers, even more rarely as administrators, hopefully things have changed since my first interview. After trying to get on the local English school board teacher-supply-list and being declined four times, I gave up on the idea that I would ever be a teacher again. Desperate for work I ended up applying for anything in order to get in-province work experience. I did get hired at a local university as an assistant to the secretary in the Psychology Department. I was extremely grateful for this because I was able to use that experience as an opportunity to network and meet people. One of the things that I found is that you can dispel some biases through being open to experiences with people who are different from you, but this only works if both 208

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sides are open to confronting their own biases. I have learned that in order to stop prejudice and discrimination we need to examine the justifications people use to support their biases. Sometimes these justifications are subconscious but unless we examine them, they will remain so. I was finally able to get a job that was somewhat in my field, as an adaptive sports coordinator for a local Independent Living organization for people with disabilities. I had a one-year contract but was able to use that time to network in the non-profit world as well as with others in the field of accessibility. These experiences reminded me to stay humble and to use my time to listen and learn from people whose voices are rarely heard. While working for another non-profit with LGBTQ youth I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer at 43 years old. It was not a huge shock as each generation of the women in my family had at least one diagnosis of breast cancer. I just looked at it as “my turn”. Shortly after I was diagnosed, Joël had the opportunity to join the year-long Northern Leadership Program. We had several long discussions about her not losing out on opportunities that would help her to advance her career just because I was sick. Together we decided that she would take the opportunity to develop her leadership skills, but we could not have done it without the community of friends that we developed over our time in Sudbury. Navigating the medical system as a bi-racial lesbian couple was interesting. After my first mastectomy surgery, a recovery room nurse initially refused to allow Joël, my wife, into the recovery area to see me. This nurse was adamant that only “family” was allowed in the recovery room. Luckily my sister was there to “vouch” for Joël and she was allowed in to see me. When you are going through something as difficult as cancer, the last thing you want to have to do is fight discrimination so it is important that institutions understand how their policies and the gate-keepers of these policies can negatively impact people accessing their services. Fast forward to today: In my current role as Manager of Equity, Human Rights and Accessibility for a local college, I have been able to receive training on threat assessment. Part of assessing threats is understanding that before perpetrators act out violently, they often go through a process whereby they mentally justify and rationalize the use of violence against a targeted person or group of people. A light went off when I was able to relate the threat assessment rationale with the ways in which discrimination manifests. People in equity-seeking groups are constantly assessing their environment for threats, in the same ways that people on the frontlines assess threats, not because they want to but because they must. The threat assessment model has applications when assessing racism and prejudice which is a clear and present threat to safety and opportunities for people in equity-seeking groups. When we have racial biases and the power that comes with leadership and

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decision making, we can have a huge impact on others, both positive and negative. Make no mistake racism is violence. I posit that our individual biases lead to discrimination when we personally believe a narrative that justifies our discrimination. The justification process is highly dependent on both context and individual factors. In order to visually explain my ideas around what motivates bias and discrimination I created the Bias Burger (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1. ­

In order to end personal and systemic discrimination we need to first acknowledge our biases and examine the justifications we believe validate discrimination. Some may think about their biases as harmless and personal, but we all have the power to discriminate against others in some capacity. When I refer to systemic discrimination, to be clear, I am referring less to the way individuals are discriminated against and more to the unintended consequences and ways that systems allow or even force discrimination to occur. When leaders, policy writers, and people inventing new technology have biases, discrimination can occur with or without acknowledging the justification for the discrimination. Like with threat assessment, justification leads to adverse outcomes like discrimination and prejudice which sometimes manifests as violence. As social creatures, we tend to shy away from being uncomfortable or intentionally making other people uncomfortable, but in order to tackle prejudice and discrimination we need to have very uncomfortable conversations where we can honestly examine our biases and justifications. These uncomfortable conversations need to happen in our own communities first, places where we feel safe to express ourselves. While 210

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waiting for these conversations to take place, we are still responsible for being informed, compassionate, and a decent human being, also known as being antiracist. After all the obstacles life has thrown at us individually and as a couple, we still manage to be grateful for the support and opportunities that have allowed us to advance our careers while speaking our own truth. Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, or EDI is a journey to a destination. We need to have a concept of what that destination will or should look like. When you plan a vacation you typically have some idea of what you want that vacation experience to be, we need at least the same level of planning for how we want our organizations structured as for a simple vacation. If you ask your travel agent to plan a beach vacation but end up at the Grand Canyon, to paraphrase a quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate”. We must ask and answer questions like what does EDI look and feel like, how will you and others experience it, what are the pitfalls to avoid, will it be safe for everyone, and who do you contact if you need support implementing your plan? We cannot keep saying that we want Equity, Diversity and Inclusion without clearly explaining what we are working toward. I think one of the reasons for pushback against EDI is the fear of the unknown along with the lack of willingness of people in leadership positions to plainly state the goals of EDI in their institutions for fear of radically changing the status quo. Historically the status quo has been intentionally encouraged by people who had and continue to have the most power. With our academic instutions still being led by a fairly homogenous group, we are destined to keep repeating our mistakes. If you are a leader who fits nicely into this homogeneous group you are still able to make a difference. Firstly, if you do not understand the perspectives of equity seeking groups it is your job to do that work, and if you are reading this book that is a very good start. Secondly you can listen. Often any diversity we have on committees or with upper administration are lone voices. These lone voices can often be overlooked during big decisions because they are the sole person coming from a different perspective. One of the most valuable contributions you can make is to help elevate those voices and make space for them. Ask questions until you understand, believe them even if you don’t understand completely. Here is some context for you: if you are someone who doesn’t ride a motorcycle, and you are speaking to someone who does ride a motorcycle and they say something like “it’s one of the most freeing experiences I’ve ever had”….you tend to believe them… because a reminder…you don’t ride a motorcycle. Now lets shift back to a more pertinent example: if you are talking to someone who is a different skin colour than you…and they say “I am not being addressed as Dr. in meetings when all of my white colleagues are”…why would you not automatically believe them? Because a reminder….you don’t walk around in that skin. 211

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CONCLUSION

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There we were in the waiting room of the cancer center, Carla was weak, she had just been to chemo a few days earlier, she had lost approximately 20 lbs already during her treatment. The treatments were wreaking havoc on her body. “We are so lucky” she says as she looked around the room. I looked at her strangely until she explained. “We have so much privilege” she explains. We then talk about all of the ways that have made the experience more bearable…we had amazing health coverage (one of the injections she needed after each chemo sessions would have cost us $2500 a shot and she had to have 6 sessions and it was completely free with my coverage). We had a huge amount of support from our family and friends (our friend Rocsan who was studying to be a nurse travelled to our house every week to give her that free injection because I was unable to put her through the pain that it inflicted). The cancer center was in our city (there were others there with small children who had to travel for hours both before and after their treatment). These were the obvious ones, but there was Carla acknowledging that privilege in the moment that she was in so much pain and no end in sight to her treatment (she had the rest of her chemo, 30 radiation treatments, and a second mastectomy to come). This summary hopefully illustrates how Carla and I navigate our lives. We both try to learn from the experiences that we have had to live through…and to take that knowledge and try make a positive change. We aren’t always successful, we both make mistakes, but with the lives we have lived it would have been easier to just be angry. Don’t get me wrong, there are days that the anger is much more palpable than the learning. However, we have found that both in our personal lives and work lives, we would not be able to hold on to that anger and still be successful.

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Willingham, E. (2016, August 6). Yes, serious academics should absolutely use social media. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2016/08/06/seriousacademics-should-use-social-media/#9312c544fb17 Wilson, M. J., & Burke, K. L. (2013). NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Coaching Contracts: A Comparative Analysis of Incentives for Athletic and Academic Team Performance Between 2009 and 2012. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, 6, 81-95. Wilson, S. (2008). Research as Ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Wilson, S. (2008). Research is ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Winnipeg: Fernwood. Women’s March Board. (2019). Mission and Unity Principles. https://womensmarch.com

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Worthen, M. (2017, May 13). U can’t talk to ur professor like this. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/sunday/u-cant-talk-to-ur-professor-like-this. html

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About the Contributors

Taima Moeke-Pickering (PhD Psychology, Waikato University) is a Maori of the Ngati Pukeko and Tuhoe tribes. She is a full professor in the School of Indigenous Relations at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario where she teaches courses on Indigenous research methodologies, international Indigenous issues, and United Nations and Indigenous social work. Her Ph.D used a decolonizing methodology to evaluate Indigenous-based programs. Dr. Moeke-Pickering is an author of numerous articles dedicated to promoting Decolonization strategies, social change and Indigenous wellbeing. She has extensive experience working with international Indigenous communities, women empowerment, evaluative research, big data analysis, and photovoice methodologies. She is an active twitter user @tmoekepickering.

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Sheila Cote-Meek (Anishnaabe-Kwe; PhD, University of Toronto) is the VicePresident, Equity, People and Culture at York University. She has worked in higher education for 30 years and has extensive experience leading Indigenous initiatives as well as senior academic faculty relations experience. She has led several successful strategic initiatives which are aimed at creating more equitable and inclusive environments for Indigenous peoples. Ann Pegoraro is a full Professor in the School of Human Kinetics in the Faculty of Health at Laurentian University and an Adjunct Professor in Communication Studies at Huntington University. A holder of B.A., MBA, and PhD degrees, Ann is also the Director of the Institute for Sport Marketing, a research center at Laurentian. Dr. Pegoraro’s PhD studies were in Higher Education Leadership and Administration and her PhD dissertation was published as a book in this field. She is an active researcher, who has presented at international conferences and published in refereed management journals in the areas of digital media, marketing, communications, and sport management. Her research primarily focuses on communication and marketing with a focus on the digital world. ***

About the Contributors

Bronwyn Carlson, Professor Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia. Bronwyn is an Aboriginal woman who was born on and lives on D’harawal Country in NSW (Wollongong). Bronwyn’s research focuses on the politics of identity and Indigenous cultural, social and political engagements on social media. Bronwyn is the convenor of the international Indigenous research network, the Forum for Indigenous Research Excellence (FIRE) and she is the founding editor of the Journal of Global Indigeneity. Lindsey Darvin is an assistant professor of sport management with the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Cortland and an instructor of sport management with Syracuse University. She teaches courses on intercollegiate sport, sport ethics, and sport sociology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Health and Human Performance with a concentration in Sport Management. Her research centers around the theme of sport industry gender equity with a particular focus on seeking to combat the underrepresentation of women leaders at the intercollegiate level of sport competition. She is an active researcher, who has presented at international conferences and has published in refereed journals in the areas of sport management, sociology, vocational behavior, and communications.

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Elizabeth Demara is the Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach and Senior Woman Administrator at Monmouth College. She received her Master’s in Sports Administration from Canisius College and her Bachelor of Science in Sports Studies with a concentration in Human Movement Science from St. Bonaventure University. Demara was a four-year member of the lacrosse program at St. Bonaventure and has also coached collegiately at Sweet Briar College and Alderson Broaddus University. She is the inaugural Head Coach of the women’s lacrosse program at Monmouth and is actively involved within the campus community. Joël Dickinson is the Dean of Faculty of Arts at Laurentian University. She graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 2006 with a PhD in experimental psychology. She is currently a full professor of Psychology with a research focus in cognitive processing during scheme violations. She has experience in development and training for diversity and Inclusion workshops. She has a successful teaching and research career, winning the Laurentian University Teaching Excellence Award in 2016. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Cognitive Health Research Laboratory, a CFI funded lab. In her spare time, she loans her thumbs to @GeorgesandGraice (her dogs’ Instagram account) and attempts to do motorcycle maintenance on her vintage Honda.

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About the Contributors

Tammy Eger is a Professor in Human Kinetics and the Interim Vice-President, Research at Laurentian University. In 2019 she completed an international leadership program for women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine which culminated in a 3-week expedition to Antarctica with 99 women from 34 different countries. She is an advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in academia. She has 20-years of applied research experience in vibration reduction, fatigue management, and musculoskeletal injury prevention. She is a co-developer of the Centre for Research in Occupational Safety and Health, the first mobile research lab in Ontario, for Occupational Health and Safety, and the Workplace Simulation Lab at Laurentian University. Carla John is the Manager of Equity Diversity and Human Rights at Cambrian College. She is an experienced educator with a demonstrated history of working in the post-secondary sector. Skilled in teaching, public speaking, event management, instructional design, youth programming, accessibility and diversity. A culturally competent education professional with a Master of Education (M.Ed.) focused in Educational Psychology from Mount Saint Vincent University.

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Sharon Lauricella is an Associate Professor in the Communication and Digital Media Studies program at Ontario Tech. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) and has received departmental and university teaching awards, together with nominations on the provincial and national level. Follow Sharon on Twitter: @AcademicBatgirl. Lynn Lavallee is an Anishinaabek Qwe registered with the Métis Nation of Ontario. Her ancestral roots stem from the Anishinaabe and Métis (Algonquin, Ojibwe and French) from Sudbury, Temiscaming, Timmins, Maniwaki and Swan Lake, Manitoba regions. Dr. Lavallee has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Kinesiology and Psychology, Master of Science in Community Health and Doctorate in social work. She has extensive university administrative experience, which she feels has been necessary in advancing Indigenous knowledge in the academy and supporting Indigenous students, staff and faculty. She began her academic career in 2005 at Ryerson University in the School of Social Work and is currently the Faculty of Community Services, strategic lead, Indigenous resurgence after recently returning from the University of Manitoba where she held the position of vice provost, Indigenous engagement for a year and half. Kirsten Muller is a phycologist (studies algae) and past President of the Phycological Society of America. Her research focuses on the evolution, ecology and taxonomy of marine and freshwater algae including toxic and invasive species. More 239

About the Contributors

recently, she has been examining the impact of forest fires on rivers and lakes and the resulting algal blooms that occur following these events. Kirsten is passionate about being a role model for women and advocating for increasing graduate student diversity in STEM and feels that empathy for others is our best path forward. Sereana Naepi is an Indigenous Fijian (Natasiri)/Palagi lecturer at the University of Auckland. Sereana’s work explores the ways in which structures within university’s prevent the success of all learners and staff. Sereana has over a decade of experience running and managing programs that are aimed at increasing Indigenous learner success in Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada.

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Chantelle Richmond (Bigitigong Anishinabe) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at Western University, where she holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health and the Environment. Dr. Richmond is Director of the Interdisciplinary Development Initiative in Applied Indigenous Scholarship at Western University, and is Leader of Ontario’s Indigenous Mentorship Network. Chantelle’s research is based on a community-centred model of research that explores the intersection of Indigenous people’s health and knowledge systems within the context of global environmental change. Along with colleagues and community partners in Canada, Hawaii and New Zealand, Chantelle’s current research examines concepts and applied processes of environmental repossession. In 2015, she was inducted to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars. Shubha Sandill is an academic with a passion for community and political activism. With a Ph.D in Geography & a Masters in Globalization Studies from McMaster University, she has taught in the Law & Society program at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University since 2012. Her research focuses on global gender justice and socio-legal & policy reforms. Shubha currently sits on the National Board of Directors of Equal Voice Canada, dedicating her efforts to support women through their political journey at all levels of politics, across party lines. As the Vice President, South-Central Region for Ontario Women’s Liberal Commission, she also oversees 17 ridings, promoting and amplifying women’s voices on important policy issues, and helping them navigate the pathways to politics. Her research focuses on global gender justice and socio-legal & policy reforms. Shubha is an award winning academic and her research has been widely published in journals such as American Journal of Academic Perspectives and Canadian Institute for Research on Public Policy - Policy Options. In particular, the Helena Orton award from Osgoode Hall Law School was instrumental in helping with this research about family law and entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on workplace inequality related issues for women. 240

About the Contributors

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Linda Tuhiwai Smith, PhD, is Professor of Māori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato. Professor Smith has a distinguished academic career. She has led many of the developments in Māori and Indigenous research, establishing research centres, building international networks and mentoring researchers. She is known for her work on decolonizing and Indigenous Methodologies and Kaupapa Māori Research. Professor Smith was joint founding Director of Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, the Māori Centre of Research Excellence and a former President of the New Zealand Association of Research in Education. Professor Smith is a member of the Waitangi Tribunal. She has served on a number of advisory and governance boards in the public sector and for community organisations. She has received a number of Awards including a New Zealand Honour as Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand and of the American Education Research Association. In 2017 she received the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Education. In 2018 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg, Canada and the Te Puawaitanga Research Excellence award, the highest honour from the Royal Society of New Zealand for research in Māori and Indigenous knowledge. Professor Smith is currently the Chair of the Performance Based Research Fund Review for the Ministry of Education. Vianne Timmons was named the first female President and Vice-Chancellor of Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2020. This followed her 2008-2020 tenure as President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Regina, during which she served as the first university president in the history of the province of Saskatchewan. She is a strong advocate for the development of women leaders in academia and beyond. In 2015, she received the Inter-American Organization for Higher Education’s “Leadership and Influence” award for promoting policies that enhance gender equity. In 2017, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada – one of Canada’s highest civilian honours – for her longstanding work in the areas of women’s leadership, inclusive education for persons with disabilities, family literacy, and Indigenous post-secondary education. She has a BA in Psychology and English from Mount Allison University, a BEd in Special Education from Acadia University, an MEd in Special Education from Gonzaga University, and a PhD in Education Psychology from the University of Calgary.

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Index

#MeToo 9-11, 13, 16, 23, 116, 167, 174-175

D

A

desirable diversity 52, 56-57, 60

academia 1-3, 5-8, 13, 18-19, 22, 33, 35, 64, 71, 73, 80, 105-106, 109-110, 124126, 140-141, 143, 151-152, 155-156, 158, 163, 166-167, 171-173, 176, 178180, 184-185, 193-194, 198, 203, 205 academic leadership 151-153, 155 assault 3, 23, 28-29, 174

E

B barriers 2, 88, 90, 95-96, 101, 163, 173174, 176, 179-180, 185, 193, 195-196, 206-207 belonging 70-71, 73-74, 76-77, 80-81, 83, 110

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C childhood 169-170 community 5, 9-10, 14-15, 22-23, 25, 27-29, 33-36, 38, 40-41, 43-46, 53, 57-58, 60-61, 63, 71-73, 75, 77-78, 80, 82-83, 107-108, 112-115, 120, 140-141, 143, 152-153, 155, 167, 170, 172-174, 187, 205, 209 culture 3-6, 11, 23-26, 34, 43-46, 54-55, 64, 71, 82, 93, 95-97, 114-115, 153, 156, 168, 170, 176, 196, 203

education 4, 14-15, 36, 52-53, 55-57, 59, 61-62, 72, 83, 87-89, 91-92, 96-97, 106-107, 111, 113, 125, 136, 140, 151-154, 156-158, 162, 169-170, 172-174, 205 equality 2, 9, 11, 124, 128-129, 131, 134136, 138-143, 162, 184 equity 1, 11, 14, 24, 59, 112-113, 135, 142, 152-153, 156, 160, 166, 173, 175-176, 183, 185, 187, 197, 203, 206, 209, 211 expectations of intelligibility 52, 56-57, 60 experiencing excess labour 52

F family law 124-140 female 2, 5, 10, 13, 16, 25, 33-34, 39, 46, 57, 91-94, 97-101, 115, 125-126, 132, 134, 136, 139, 141-142, 173, 176, 181, 183

G Gender And Diversity Mainstreaming 137 gender equity 166, 175-176 gender gap 36, 168-171, 173, 176, 179-

Index

181, 183-184 gender justice 126, 141, 143 grassroots advocacy 124, 126-127, 140, 143

H higher education 36, 52-53, 55-57, 61-62, 87-89, 91-92, 96-97, 107, 113, 153, 156, 162 hyper-surveillance 52, 56-57, 59-60

I image 12, 17, 92-93, 167-168 Indigenous health 70-73, 75-78, 80, 82, 107 Indigenous leadership 21-22, 152, 156 Indigenous resilience 151, 163 Indigenous women 11, 21-30, 105, 110, 113, 115, 151-152, 178-180, 195 Indigenous worldviews 1, 14 infantilization 52, 56-57, 59-60 intercollegiate sport 87-88, 90-96, 100-101 intersectionality 5, 140, 142, 176, 180, 183, 195, 206-207 intersections 138 interview 171, 208

L

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leader 16, 18, 25, 30, 59, 70-71, 73, 80, 87, 97-99, 151, 163, 167-168, 211 leadership 1-2, 6-7, 11, 13-14, 16, 18, 21-22, 24-25, 27, 29, 36, 43, 55, 59, 61, 71, 87-88, 90, 92, 94-101, 151-153, 155158, 162, 166, 168, 173-174, 178-180, 184-189, 193, 195-198, 203, 209, 211

P political activism 115, 124, 126-127, 140-143

R racism 1, 3-8, 10, 14, 64, 72-73, 106-107, 112-113, 116-117, 119-120, 154, 157159, 161, 207-210 relationality 83-84, 108 resurgence 82

S sexism 2, 5-7, 10, 14 sexual division of labour 132-133 sexuality 16, 132, 137-138, 176, 203-204 social media 1-2, 8-11, 13, 15-18, 23, 3437, 40, 43-47, 111, 113-117, 119, 194 STEMM 178-181, 184-185, 188, 193-195, 197-198 story 2, 16-17, 54, 73, 75, 90, 166-167, 170, 203-204, 206-207 stranger making 52, 56-60 student 2, 6, 14-15, 30, 33, 44, 57, 70-71, 73, 78, 80-81, 83, 105-106, 109, 153, 168, 171, 174 student shaming 33, 44

T tenure 184, 205-206 Twitter 9-11, 16, 33-40, 43, 46-47, 116

U

M

university environments 73

mentorship 35, 45, 76, 80, 95, 100, 173 motivation 11, 15, 63

W workplace 5, 17, 94, 153, 185

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