I went to an international conference organized by top academic authorities in Poland the other day. It was atrociously advertised, so there were all of a handful of people there. The session I attended concerned changing gender roles. Most of it was about how women who work are paid less and have lower life satisfaction than men, especially when we compare mothers and father (mothers generally much lower in life satisfaction than non-mothers who work, fathers happier than non-fathers). This is typically ascribed to the double load working mothers face (responsible for kids, and work).
Anyway, this is a session in which 6 people give talks, after which there is a discussion of their findings. Disregarding for a moment the fact that most of these talks didn't really have findings, but were readings of statistics gathered over the last few years, I was horrified to hear the kinds of questions being asked. By far the most egregious was a question from the floor asking each of the speakers to adopt the role of a participant in her own study and answer the questions being asked of her (i.e. are You satisfied with Your life? What are Your expectations concerning division of household labour? Would You prefer to be friends with a woman who doesn't take care of her appearance or one who does? etc etc).
Like:
W
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?
Seriously? This is science? This is what we have to talk about? As women conducting empirical research in the social sciences? Offensively irrelevant personal questions? Which will teach us WHAT? compared to the DATA COLLECTED FROM LARGE SAMPLES THAT YOU JUST PRESENTED?
God. I am outraged/disappointed/really really angry that none of the speakers pointed out the horrific inappropriateness of the question.
Did you? Point it out? When you were there? What was the response?
ReplyDeleteInterested in the response too.
ReplyDeleteI didn't point it out. That is the problem with me in this country. I'm always the one saying things are bad, when everyone else thinks they are a-ok. If I were asked that question, I would be appalled, and I would respond accordingly. But I wasn't asked the question. If the panelists themselves thought it was reasonable enough, who am I to say (beyond the context of this blog) that it wasn't? Except an outsider looking in, not sharing the norms and values of this society, only constantly judging them?
ReplyDeleteYeah. Always this country's/ this society's fault.
ReplyDeleteHhmmm. That is precisely the opposite of what I wrote. As I wrote above, I perceive the problem as me in this country. If I perceived it as this country's "fault" then I'd probably feel more morally entitled to try to change it.
ReplyDelete