THE GRADUATE STUDENT CORNER

Greetings, everyone. I hope that you all had a restful and relaxing summer, as the fall is no doubt in full swing!

For my fourth installment of the GSC, I decided to profile the experiences of women who have succeeded as professionals in our field. I solicited comments from DWC members about their unique experiences as professional women, either as grad students, as faculty members (both tenured and non-tenured) or as practitioners. My goal in highlighting the experiences of members who have achieved success personally, academically, and professionally is to provide some "survival tips" for all of the women in graduate school (myself included) who hope to someday follow in their footsteps!

For their contribution to this column, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to: Mary Bosworth, Nancy Hogan, Roslyn Muraskin, and the members who asked to remain anonymous. Your help has made the success of this column possible, and I thank you for making this such an enjoyable experience for me.

I look forward to seeing all of you in a few weeks at ASC!

Regards,
Amanda

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QUESTION 1
What advice do you have for women in graduate school who are struggling to balance commitments to their work and family? Did you have children while you were working on your Ph.D.? Did your being a parent affect or change how (or when) you pursued your degree, and if so, how?

ANSWER 1
"[My experience attests to the] flexibility that academics affords faculty. I had only been at my institution one year as an assistant professor when I was blessed with the news that I was pregnant. I was originally due at the beginning of April, and knew that the birth would greatly hinder my responsibilities for the semester. I immediately sat down with both my department chair and the dean and suggested a rather unorthodox schedule that included mandatory Saturday classes in lieu of 3 weeks in April. They agreed without much hesitation and I taught my regular schedule plus a 9-hour Saturday class for each course. Projects were scheduled for one week and the final test was to be administered by a graduate assistant. Everything was moving along smoothly until the baby came during Spring Break 3 ½ weeks early, 2 weeks earlier than my schedule planned. I consider myself very lucky to have made friends with my colleagues as two immediately volunteered to help (a.k.a. teach my class-no one volunteered to watch the screaming infant!) Despite a little chaos, the students loved doing something different, the faculty was supportive, and I was able to devote my attention to my preemie! There are very few fields that would allow such flexibility. It also teaches us to help our colleagues when we are able, as we never know when we will need them to help us. Enjoy your career choice, enjoy working with students, and enjoy working with your colleagues."

ANSWER 2
"I had my first (and currently, only) child while in my first year as an Assistant Professor. I am now an Associate Professor. Balancing parenthood and academic life is extremely challenging-lucky for you if you have a support network near you who can help (i.e., your parents, family members), but most of us don't. My advice: prioritize and keep your work well-organized and hire help (with housework and childcare-even if you have to go in debt for a while to do this). If you are an Assistant Professor or a graduate student nearing completion of your degree, publishing is very important. Unfortunately, most universities do not give you leeway at hiring/promotion time because of familial responsibilities!! Many research universities require at least 10-12 peer reviewed articles (if you have nothing else going on such as grants) for promotion & tenure. Thus, it becomes important to focus your work hours on writing. I had to be a little 'selfish' and say no to many requests for independent studies, student advising, and other responsibilities and be very vigilant with my work time so that it was spent productively-on writing."

QUESTION 2
What suggestions can you give to female graduate students who are seeking to make connections with other scholars or to create a network of support within their department, university, or the field as a whole? How did you manage this task while in grad school? What role has the ASC or the DWC played in helping you to form supportive professional relationships?

ANSWER 1
"I am still trying to figure this out. While the DWC helps, there is still a problem in having a network of support when it comes to publishing. This can also feed into feeling as though you're a 'gender scholar' only and so can only publish in women's journals. Somehow all the boy journals need to let us in. I'm glad to see that Punishment and Society has been including women a little more regularly now that Richard Sparks has taken over the reins. Before him, it was at best one per issue, and she was usually co-author with someone else!"

ANSWER 2
"Attend professional meetings, network with individuals who have research interests similar to yours, and within your department, find a faculty member who is willing to work with you. I find that professors always welcome reliable help. Even if at first you may not get paid, working with a faculty member may lead to other future research/writing endeavors with the same faculty member, or with colleagues of this faculty member."

QUESTION 3
How has the role of women in the field of criminal justice changed since you first received your degree? What work is left to be done to advance the position of women (particularly women of color) in a field that historically has been occupied by white males?

ANSWER 1
"There are still fairly few women working theoretically in areas to do with prisons and punishment. I think that probably we need to organize more through
journals. The DWC does a good job in the US, but anyone who is working internationally is a bit alone (unless the country is Canada where they seem to have
things together). I think that there needs to be more room made in publishing areas to nurture and mentor women scholars."

QUESTION 4
Have you ever felt pigeon-holed by being the only member of your department who studies gender issues? What would you say to female graduate students who wish to avoid being labeled "the" gender scholar in their department?

ANSWER 1
"I have felt pigeon-holed not so much by my department, since I have spent five years in a department with a number of feminist scholars, but within my field. I think that it is important to have contacts with other feminist scholars to avoid getting too frustrated with feeling labeled. Of course, the label wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that clearly those who are not 'gender scholars' act often as if we are just a special interest group with no relevance for their field. I don't really know how to break out of that. I think we can only do what we can do - which is to try to do good work, insist that others are not doing good enough work unless gender is incorporated, and not mind too much when we're either left out of power structures or invited to participate out of tokenism. If we know we're right, then that does in, large part, often have to be enough."

ANSWER 2
"I suppose I have never felt pigeon-holed as a 'gender' researcher (though I don't see anything wrong in this). It seems, however, that one is defined by one's expertise in a specific area, or what one is doing research on. Thus, it seems that the best way to avoid being labeled a 'gender researcher' is to also do research on issues that do not necessarily focus on gender. You have to be careful, however, on not looking too scattered. So, find one or two issues you're interested in (that may be marginal to gender issues), and build expertise in these issues on top of your expertise in gender."

QUESTION 6
Was there a particular event in your career that made you especially proud to study women's issues, or to be a professional woman? When did you first feel like you understood the relevance of your work to the advancement's of women's rights?

ANSWER 1
"My greatest personal satisfaction was the achievement of receiving my Ph.D. degree while working as Assistant, and then Associate Dean of my School (I did this for about 10 years). In essence I 'had made it,' and now I needed the proper credentials. I accomplished my Ph.D. with three kids and a husband home, and working full-time. It was a feeling of tremendous personal accomplishment which I look back upon and say to myself, 'How did I do it?' But I am glad that I did.

Now as a Full Tenured Professor, having left the Dean job, but now as Director of the Long Island Women's Institute for the College of Management, and as Executive Director of the Alumni Chapter also for the College of Management and with about 10 books plus under my 'belt' and as Editor for the Women's Series for Prentice Hall and Editor of THE JUSTICE PROFESSIONAL, I find myself busy but extremely happy about all that I have accomplished. I am receiving an award for Outstanding Educator by the Women of Substance Organization, an organization dedicated to women involved with domestic violence.

This is all part of the fun and enjoyment of being an academic as well as accomplishing all that you want, while enjoying it as well.

Work hard, enjoy it, and you will reap lots of benefits from the long tedious hours of being a Ph.D. student."

ANSWER 2
"When I was an undergrad doing a history honors thesis on a recently closed female juvenile detention center in Australia and I saw that they 'treated' the young Aboriginal women by playing board games with them that would teach them how to shop in a supermarket, do their hair and find a man.

I feel proud to be working on women's issues, and just to be a woman in general, whenever I bond with young women students, or get the boys talking about gender.
I found at my previous job that I was often called upon to be a support for young women who had suffered sexual violence in their lives and not told anyone.
That is when you know you're doing something important, since it is so important for people to be able to speak about what happened to them in a supportive environment."

ANSWER 3
"I especially appreciate being an Asian woman academic when I travel to other countries-especially in places where there are very few women professionals. I hope my being a woman professional in a field historically dominated by men will inspire women in these countries to achieve more than what their culture may dictate they can."