In Akiko Takeyama's story, "Opening the Box: An International Asian Woman Scholar's Flight", the author recounts her struggles in attaining tenure as an international woman. Like many scholars, Takeyama suffered from anxiety on whether her papers will be approved. She looked through it over and over to find any faults. When the deadline was reached, she knew from the mood of the meetings that she was not approved for tenure. Part of this may be because she was a person of color and a woman. While Takeyama did work hard and eventually attain tenure, she learned valuable lessons in doing so. She learned that universities are not prepared to deal with minority scholars. One lesson she learned that stood out to me was that she didn't get help and tried to do everything herself. She also admitted that she could've tried to understand the different cultures. It's really interesting how the author also reflected that she could have done things differently instead of listing faults with the institution. It helped me connect with her on a personal level. Still, I feel the university is still at fault for handling her tenure incompetently and I hope the institutions would cease discrimination once and for all.
Reference:
Valverde, K.-L. C., & Dariotis, W. M. (2020). Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars' Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press
Steinmeyer, Theresa, and Theresa Steinmeyer. “The Tenure Game.” Yale Daily News The Tenure Game Comments, yaledailynews.com/blog/2014/03/22/the-tenure-game/.
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