Week 1

Robert Zhu
A02

Fight the Tower by Professor Valverde explains some of the personal injustices she faced within academia. Professor Valverde stated that she was unable to get adequate support from the campus disability services toward her ADHD (Valverde, 2013). Even when she felt strongly that her disability was having a negative impact towards her health and wellbeing, she was basically told to sweep it under the rug. It concerns me that people who want to achieve success in academia have to hide their disorders because expressing or admitting to these disorders make the person seem incompetent.

Valverde also faced pregnancy discrimination, because she did not receive an extension for her second child. This is indirectly stating that she needs to choose between her unborn child and her career. Unfortunately, this is the case for many pregnant women pursuing academia. Pregnant women are told to withdraw from their programs, with no guarantee of readmission. According to some university policies, withdrawing can result in losing academic progress. health insurance, and fellowships (Williams, 2016).

Reading some of Valverde's prejudicial treatment because of her gender and race made me think of myself and my major as well. I plan to apply to Veterinary school after my undergrad, but I know there will be a lot of obstacles in my way by being an Asian American male. Even prior to selecting my major and career path, I always looked at the statistics of people who are either successful veterinarians or get into veterinary school. I found that the chances of an Asian male succeeding in this field is drastically small. I wonder if the common stereotypes that "Asians show no compassion to animals", or "all that Asians see in a dog or cat is their meat", helps to create this imbalance.

This short video talks about the discrimination pregnant women face at work. The video includes a personal narrative on how a woman lost her career due to maternity leave (TUC, 2014).

Question: The United States (excluding a few states) still does not mandate paid maternity leave for new mothers. What things are currently being done (if any) to prevent pregnancy discrimination?

References:

Trades Union Congress (2014). Pregnancy discrimination is not a myth. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eMrjD4ey08

Valverde, K. (2013). Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia. Seattle Journal for Social Justice, 12 (2), 385-386.

Williams, J. (2016). How Women Are Harassed Out of Science. Retrieved from The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/07/how-women-are-harassed-out-of-science/492521/