Salon C
Challenging Sex Discrimination: Personal Reflections over Seven Decades (303354)
*Donna J. Brogan, Emory UniversityKeywords: sex discrimination, education, employment, public life
Looking back over my life, I experienced many instances of sex discrimination during my education, career, and personal life, along with many girls and women my age. Surprisingly, though, a few teachers encouraged me in the male-dominated fields of mathematics and university teaching.
I realize now that I reacted to sex discrimination in one of three ways. First, especially in my younger years, I did nothing, often not being aware of the discrimination. Second, I pushed back as an individual, occasionally with partial success. Third, I organized a group of persons (primarily women) to highlight the issue(s) and pursue action, sometimes being victorious. I will illustrate each of these three coping modes with specific examples from my life as a student, a statistician, and a woman. Some people, both women and men, may not be aware of the myriad forms of sex discrimination that existed in this country during the past seventy-five years (and earlier).
Major improvements have been made in the status of U.S. women during my lifetime, but major social movements for equality and justice rarely achieve total success, requiring continuing efforts to achieve these goals.