Week 10 - Jo Kawabata

In this week's reading by Professor Valverde, "'The Time to Fight is Now': When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue," she discusses the importance of Asian American women speaking up for their own opinion, especially in the academia as Professor Valverde experienced. I think it is imperative that at the forefront of the fight for gender equality in academia, we have a strong leader like Professor Valverde. I think it is very courageous for Professor Valverde to take action for this. Not only does talking and writing about personal experience valuable enough, being able to openly talk and fight against this amidst politics revolving academia is very respectable.

After hearing about Amy Block Joy, I know Professor Valverde is well aware of the risk of speaking up in this system. However, without somebody speaking up, there will not be any change. I believe that there should not even be a risk in fighting for what is right. It is very unfortunate to see that people have been punished in the academia for voicing their concern. Hopefully Professor Valverde's concerns will become voiced louder and eventually change will be made.



Gender equality is not just something that is an issue in academia. It is an issue across almost all aspects of life today. Hopefully we get to see our country and our world transition from a male dominant culture like it seems we have to somewhere where any gender can equally work for what they want and deserve.

Question:
Prof. Valverde, do you think STEM is especially under representative of women in the field or is it a natural process where we naturally do not see as many STEM inclined women?

Resources:
Valverde, C., & Dariotis, W. (2017). "The Time to Fight is Now": When Asian American Women in Academia Go Rogue. Retrieved June 4, 2017.

Marketing Gender Equality. (2014, July 10). Retrieved June 04, 2017, from http://www.bandt.com.au/marketing/marketing-gender-equality