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Unstable networks among women in academe: the legal case of Shyamala Rajender.
- Source :
-
Centaurus; international magazine of the history of science and medicine [Centaurus] 2009; Vol. 51 (1), pp. 37-62. - Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- Scientific networks are often credited with bringing about institutional change and professional advancement, but less attention has been paid to their instability and occasional failures. In the 1970s optimism among academic women was high as changing US policies on sex discrimination in the workplace, including higher education, seemed to promise equity. Encouraged by colleagues, Shyamala Rajender charged the University of Minnesota with sex discrimination when if failed to consider her for a tenure-track position. The widely cited case of this chemist was not, however, settled easily and involved nearly a decade of university grievance procedures and litigation that grew to a class action lawsuit. As the case gained national attention and internal resistance stiffened, the clusters of women who had been encouraging flickered, faded and sometimes regrouped. A negotiated settlement (consent decree) ended Rajender's case, and it opened the door for hundreds of other to present their grievances regarding gender discrimination. Networks and support groups proved important but also unstable for individuals who sought equity before and during the implementation of the decree. The Rajender case thus exposes the painful, balky and inevitably contentious process of fighting discrimination. It also demonstrates the power and limits of institutions and litigation, as well as the possibilities and disappointments of informal and formal women's networks.
- Subjects :
- Civil Rights economics
Civil Rights education
Civil Rights history
Civil Rights legislation & jurisprudence
Civil Rights psychology
Feminism history
History, 20th Century
Interprofessional Relations
Science education
Science history
Self-Help Groups history
United States ethnology
Faculty history
Gender Identity
Judicial Role history
Prejudice
Research Personnel economics
Research Personnel education
Research Personnel history
Research Personnel psychology
Universities economics
Universities history
Women's Rights economics
Women's Rights education
Women's Rights history
Women's Rights legislation & jurisprudence
Women, Working education
Women, Working history
Women, Working legislation & jurisprudence
Women, Working psychology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0008-8994
- Volume :
- 51
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Centaurus; international magazine of the history of science and medicine
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 19618550
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0498.2008.00131.x