Wrong time of day to run this, but there’s too damned much breaking news around. A reminder that Gary Wills remains an excellent political commentor as well as an astute writer… and that the New York Review of Books deserves to be more widely read:
In 1962, I began teaching ancient Greek in the graduate school of the Johns Hopkins University. I was twenty-seven and looked younger, and some of my graduate students were almost as old and looked older, so I tried to adopt the manner of a Hopkins “Herr Doktor Professor,” hoping that would give me some authority in the classroom. In my first course, which was on Homer’s Iliad, an argumentative student kept up a disagreement on one Homeric point. When I could not convince her of my position, I huffily quoted Dr. Johnson to her: “I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.”
When I told my wife, Natalie, about that day’s class, she was shocked. I had used my position to humiliate a student who was just trying to get to the truth. When I told her the student was a woman (the sole woman student I had amid that hostile university atmosphere of 1962—undergraduate “co-eds” would not be admitted to Hopkins for another eight years), Natalie was distressed. I was not only humiliating a student but bullying her. She asked how I would feel if that happened to our then one-year-old daughter, Lydia, when she went to college. After being put in my place by Natalie, I tried to stay there (it is very helpful to marry someone smarter than yourself).
Even after that correction, I was ill-equipped to cope with the presence of women in a university. There were none in my classes when I was a graduate student at Yale, where they would not be admitted as undergraduates until six years after I got my doctorate. The fact that there was a woman in my graduate class at Hopkins was an oddity, as it would have been at many of the major universities in America…
But our day at Hopkins was not much better than Gildersleeve’s. Though I kept the respect instilled by my wife for the one woman in my class, I did not appreciate the effort that student had had to make just to get there. I learned a little about that at my first faculty meeting to allot fellowship money to applicants for the department. When the résumé came up of a woman who clearly merited admission, our archaeologist, John Young, said that no fellowship money should be given to her. “That is just throwing away money that should be saved for those who will advance the profession. Why give money to a woman who, as soon as she becomes pregnant, will drop the profession and start taking care of her babies?” Young was no shining star of the classics world himself, and I would find over the years that some of the people most intent on showing that women could not meet high standards had barely met those standards themselves, if at all. Yet I did not argue with Young. Since I knew that the head of our small department was with him on this, I went along with the policy. No woman received any money over the six years I was in the department.
I knew that opposing the admission of women to protect the standards of the classics profession was a phony argument. I had come to Hopkins from the inaugural year of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, where I was part of the first class of six junior fellows (young scholars of promise given time off from teaching to develop their research). There were three fellows from America and three from abroad—one from Germany, one from England, one from Italy. The Italian, and our lone woman, was Anna Morpurgo. She was the youngest and clearly the brightest of us. She knew more languages than we did and knew them better…
Sab
Urk. (Enraged, but what is the point.)
Sab
Also, completely off topic. Hats off to schrodinghers cat (sic).
Re : cooking. I have two coffee grinders. One is my own, other I inherited from my mom. Mom’s is good for coffee. Mine was not so much. Never occured to use mine for spices. SO MUCH easier than a mortar and pestle.
Just made my usual kale lentil soup with new mexico chiles. Used to use the powdered chiles. This time I had actual n mex chiles sitting around. Ground them in the second coffee grinder. Soup is amazing. Big change in taste.
Mary G
@Sab: I grind nuts in mine for cookies.
frosty
Ain’t that the truth. I’d prefer a little less so I can quit obsessively reading B-J and the news and get back to something useful … like a good night’s sleep, or naps, or work.
Cermet
Uh, the spell check function is not working for me – is this just my system or are others having this issue, toK ,,, I mean too (and it thinks that is spelled correctly!)
joel hanes
Backward and in high heels
Sab
@Mary G: I have a hand grinder for cookies. I just made brownies today. Wonderful recipe, and quick. I stick butter, 4 oz bakers unsweetened chocolate.Melt together. Blend in mixer I cup sugar blended with one egg. Add one half cup flour. Add in melted butter with chocolate. Add in one half cup ( or one cup, doesn’t much matter to recipe) chopped nuts. I use walnuts, but pecans and or peanuts also work well. Bake it all in a buttered pan. 35 to 40 minutes. Fresh out of oven slice into squares. Let cool in pan.
JWR
@Cermet: I’m having loads of problems tonight that I’ve never seen before. Now, instead of not saving my nym, it eats (some of) my comments, leaving the name/email addy in place. So it ain’t just you.
frosty
I just told a friend at work that all my docs are women because they have to be twice as good to get half the credit.
In better news most of the engineers we’ve been hiring out of college have been women. I’ve seen their resumes…. I wouldn’t have gotten an interview.
barb 2
No mentoring for female grad students. All male professors way back in the dark ages of the patriarchy.
In Psychology ALL the full Professors were male — also true in Canada. It did not matter that the females were doing stellar research and teaching full time plus publishing.
Then there is/was the use of the pronoun “he” for everything.
So I fought for and got a M. A. and then just gave up –did research and said screw academics. A few women made it through and to PhD — but full professorships went to males.
One battle that happened in Anthropology — the Hunter/Gatherer battle. The males we male were out and slew the beasts and brought home the food to the wommens. Oh no way in hell — look at all the gathering, planting tools found at the digs. Indigenous women also were interviewed by women — who gave very different versions of life to women. There were so many battles from the good old bad days. Sexual harassment — much history there.
Now the battle to get a woman in the white house. I just can not make myself vote for a male for Prez — unless he is a guy like Cory Booker who gets it. So far the white guys do not get it and many of the younger women do not comprehend what the bad old days were like for women in academia.
One example from the last debate Biden wanted credit for something Warren did. The male legislators who were there when Warren’s bill was pass tell us that Biden was not involved in fighting for consumer protections. (According to an article in HuffPo and Warren’s book). Biden was a sexist jerk in the last debate. As he has always been. He is an example of the bad old days.
/rant
‘
moonbat
I’m confused. We go from a thread where front pagers are saying Warren will not win the nomination, but good on her for starting the conversation of how we might someday have a better nation to “Down with the patriarchy” where we collectively shake our heads and fists over the long history of brilliant women in academia being shunted aside in favor of less intelligent/prepared male colleagues. Having survived the last national election and having survived the Ph.D. gauntlet to reach an academic professorship I can tell you I am ready NOW for a smart, prepared, and compassionate woman to win the nomination. No more this “starting the conversation”, “clearing a space for”, “pushing the envelope” bullshit.
Hope this makes sense. I am not used to commenting this early in the morning…
Ruckus
@frosty:
Over the years my best docs have been women. Not just what they know but how they comport themselves, how they actually work. Anyone smart enough can learn and do the work but presenting your self as someone who wants to see you feel and be better is the point, someone on your side. I’ve had and have some men who can do that very well, far more of the women seem to be better at it. I’ve had, in the last 25 yrs only one woman who wasn’t good at the being a doctor thing, in the last 6 yrs I’ve had 2 men. And I’d guess that I’ve had about 60% women docs in the 25 yrs. At the VA you almost always see a resident or even medical school student first and then a review by an attending. It’s a great learning experience and about 4 months ago I had a medical school student as my intake. She was extremely good and this is a clinic that I get seen at regularly for over 4 yrs now so I’ve seen a lot of intake people. She rated an A+, in attitude/professionalism/knowledge. I told her boss that. He agreed with me. I like women docs. And yes I’ve seen a number of outstanding men, but overall, the women do better. The women mostly are docs, too many of the men are mechanics.
Lymie
@Sab: that is the same recipe my mum passed on to me from a 1950’s Canadian Flour cookbook!
Ruckus
@moonbat:
This. I discount EW only because she is very ambitious about doing so much change and that doesn’t really take into account how the system works/doesn’t work. Just like many have complained about the pace of impeachment, it is a process and that process takes time and effort because it really is a big deal. Politics at the national level is a big deal, in theory one wants to get it at least close to right. Which means having a way to make great plans work. EW has great plans. I don’t actually agree with all of them, because there are always downsides to massive change rather than incremental change – which itself also has downsides. However it’s also great that she’s thinking about the ideals and presenting them as possible programs because so many people in this country need those things. I’ll be happy to vote for her if that is how it works out. I’m just not expecting nearly as much as she is presenting. IOW we’ve heard the concepts but not the how to make them happen, given our government structure. It’s structure almost insures slow change.
WereBear
@Ruckus: Yes, we move at the pace of the slowest member. Even if we have to drag them :)
Thing is, we are past the point where incremental change works. If we had done it all along, sure. But we had these cement-headed, parasitic, and just plain deranged people always in the way, so it didn’t get done.
Now everyone has to move and pick new carpet. It’s deadly mold, and we can’t be leisurely about it.
Central Planning
I heard on the 5 minutes of NPR news this morning that a study was done of boys and girls doing math while being scanned in a MRI (or whatever tool they use to monitor brain activity). The result was at a young age the brain activity for that kind of activity is (not surprisingly) indistinguishable between males and females.
The study went on to hypothesize why there were fewer women in the maths and sciences, and, besides being a historically male-dominated field, things like Anne’s post indicate why.
Fuck the patriarchy.
rk
There are even worse stories. A PhD student working for a known lecherous professor in our department killed herself. Came out that he was harassing her. But he was a big shot in academic circles and the conclusion was that she killed herself over a bad breakup. We all knew different, but it did not even occur to us that we could do something about it. Even if we had spoken up, I doubt anything would have happened. This was over 30 years.
Ladyraxterinok
@barb 2:
Grad school in 60s. Was shocked to learn internationally famous prof in history told his prize grad student–a woman– to apply to teach in HS. He didn’t recommend her for university position. I had been in a joint dept seminar he and my diss advisor taught, and it had bern obvious he prized her knowledge and skills.
Found out bit later he had blocked hiring an excellent woman for the dept. She was hired by an Ivy and made a major name for herself
Still remember how grad Dean’s of major schools, mine included, tried to get academic deferment reinstated during Vietnam War. In joint statement they said without the deferment they would have in their grad depts only the lame, the halt, the crippled. And,,,,,,women! It still rankles 50 some yrs later
Ladyraxterinok
@Central Planning:
PZ Meyers has had many posts at his blog pharyngula about the many obstacles women STILL face in grad school and academics in STEM fields. It’s a major disgrace.
And so frequently the male profs who have harassed and in some cases abused their female subordinates and colleagues receive no punishment. In fact they are protected and often promoted despite yrs of documented complaints.
As Meyers writes, super smart women often get out and do something else
O. Felix Culpa
@Ladyraxterinok: Truth. I was horrified by what I saw done to other women and experienced myself, so decided pursuing my passion (German literature) wasn’t worth it and left. Fast forward nearly 40 years and my brilliant STEM niece experiences the same and worse, so takes a terminal master’s and leaves. We both did fine in our alternative pursuits. But multiply our stories over unknown numbers of women and the cumulative loss over the decades….
RedDirtGirl
@Ruckus: I like to call myself a radical incrementalist!
gkoutnik
@moonbat:Got it. Thanks for that. Not sure how this species survived after spending nearly its entire history ignoring half of its intellectual and leadership resources. It really is time to stop that.
J R in WV
Won’t be supporting a male for presidential nomination. Will continue to support Senator Harris and Senator Warren. Even Senator Klobuchar would be better than Biden, a famous sexist bigot who gave us Clarence Thomas.
Ben Cisco
We’re going to need someone in the office that can fully grok our CURRENT situation, particularly with regard to the half-wit reprobates on the other side of the aisle. Several of this cycles’ candidates have already failed at this and have been disqualified in my view. Pulling for Harris and Warren in that order.
Omnes Omnibus
@J R in WV: And VAWA.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@J R in WV: Klobuchar is very hard working and extremely effective as a legislator. She would be an excellent president.
Ladyraxterinok
@O. Felix Culpa:
As a woman I experienced no discrimination as an undergrad in German in the 50s in TX or a grad student in German Language and Lit in CA in the 60s.
1 female colleague attracted the strong interest of a smart young prof in the dept, so much so that she transferred to a program in a different state. She was unofficially engaged so it especially bothered her.
Looking back, I now realize we women in that department had very few problems as women. We were very fortunate, although I did not realize it at the time.
O. Felix Culpa
@Ladyraxterinok: You were so fortunate. I didn’t experience (or was unaware of) discrmination as an undergraduate, which was why it came as a shock in grad school. I assumed that the “enlightened” 70’s would be an even playing field and recognize merit or mediocrity regardless of gender. I was wrong.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Since FYWP won’t allow me to edit, I’ll add that I was on the opposite coast and perhaps the old guard was more firmly entrenched. I was unprepared for the cold disdain and barely veiled hostility, and so fled.
Ladyraxterinok
@O. Felix Culpa:
I preferred the study of old languages to lit. Authors .I liked/like are Hofmannstahl, Eichendorff,some of Kafka, Zweig, Brecht
May have helped that there was a long-term woman prof in the dept in grad school.
O. Felix Culpa
@Ladyraxterinok: I enjoyed the old languages too! I fell in love with Hoelderlin while studying in Tuebingen. To me, he was one of the most genuinely lyric of German poets, unlike so many of the others (**Lessing, Schiller** cough, cough) who – to my undergrad mind – wrote moralistic improving literature. Was also fond of Heine.
Ladyraxterinok
@O. Felix Culpa:
Love plays of Barlach.
I’m really sorry you had to leave your study. My experiences studying the language, visiting Germay, Austria, Switzerland, being able to rediscover and communicate with Swiss relatives have been some of best experiences if my life
O. Felix Culpa
@Ladyraxterinok: I’m glad for you. I have (had) some understanding of Schwaebisch) but never had the opportunity to manage Swiss German. My major regret at this point in that my language skills have atrophied due to neglect. I’d like to revive them again. It took a lot of work to become fluent!
O. Felix Culpa
@Ladyraxterinok: Haven’t read much of Barlach. Will dive into his plays, at your recommendation. It was great to connect with you! No wonder I’ve always enjoyed your comments. ;)
VeniceRiley
I join my fellow females in insisting on female leadership NOW. Now now now. Not later. N O W.
smintheus
25 years later the old and once distinguished Classics program at Johns Hopkins was all but shut down by the administration in order to rid the university of this dysfunctional faculty. Unfortunately the graduate students weren’t told, so they struggled for years to try to cobble together the coursework they needed to finish their degrees. I ended up teaching a grad seminar there as a freebie to help them out…while I was still finishing my own doctorate, and teaching full time, elsewhere.