Welcome to the first blog post of 2019! For new staff, this blog is a place for our staff to share thoughts, opinions, wonderings, tips, resources, links, and more, about any topic they think is relevant to their colleagues' work and lives. Kris Claman is getting us off to a thought-provoking start with the following post... Holiday Knitting & Other Thoughts![]() I hope everyone relaxed over the holidays. As you might expect I did a fair bit of knitting over the holidays. I belong to an international online knitting community. In the last couple of weeks a lot of discussion has taken place about racism in the knitting and fibre arts community. Much of this is in USA where African – American and Latino women have experienced being harassed and belittled in wool shops and knitting groups. But this also takes place internationally which people in other parts of the world have been quick to point out, even though it may be more subtle.
In acknowledging “white privilege” we must ask what we (the collective we) should do to end or mitigate this. Here is a list of a few things that Peggy McIntosh (Wellesley College Center for Research on Women) felt she had through white privilege. How many of our colleagues and students don’t have these advantages?
I’m writing this to generate reflection and discussion of how we function both on a personal and institutional basis. As a result of reflection and/or discussion will you make any personal changes? I’m not saying we are racist or promote racist practices. Although these points are written from a USA point of view, do any apply here? I have a short version of the essay if you would like to read it. ~Kris Claman
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I had an interesting conversation with Rose the other day. It was triggered by 2 things; an article about how women in “non-traditional” study areas cope with their male colleagues, and a conversation on mentoring day about a coping in a career that has its fair share of men who see women in the profession as ”only there until they have babies, so why would you employ them?” I am the eldest of three girls and we were brought up to believe that we could achieve anything with effort and the right education. I still believe that, but with a caveat. Girls/women can achieve anything with effort and the right education, but if you choose a “non-traditional” area to work in, don’t expect all the men to make it easy. I think of the battles the women in my family have fought to find their place in the world. My mother was told at 15 by her father that she was no longer going to school because she was needed to work on the farm. Her education ceased and she spent the next 20 years of her life working on the farm and looking after her grandmother and parents until they died. At school, I was encouraged to enter “traditional” occupations – teaching, nursing. I didn’t know about a lot of career options. In my sport of kayaking, I coached mixed groups where the males would often seek out a male instructor rather than take advice from me. I had to prove to these males that I was a much better kayaker than them to gain acceptance as their instructor. My eldest daughter is retraining as a midwife. A career option dominated by women, but the pay is managed by legislation that forces independent midwives to set up their own business. The rules about how their businesses function is again managed by legislation, which limits the earnings of midwives. These days in NZ it is really possible for women to have a career in any area, but it seems me, the battle is for equal pay and acceptance. There is still plenty for women to fight for to gain their place in the world. So what does this mean for the students I teach? We actively encourage our students to aim high in whatever area they are passionate about. They achieve amazing things at school and when they leave. Recent research and legislation has shown that women are not always paid equally for equal work. For those going into “non-traditional” areas, do we have a conversation about the work environment they can expect and how to deal with it? Or do we leave them to find out the hard way? Should we teach our students that they may need to fight for their place in their world? ~Kris Claman
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AuthorsWe'll have a variety of authors from OGHS over the year sharing their thoughts and experiences about education, teaching and learning Archives
June 2019
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