I first learned about F.A.A.D. over fifteen years ago when I went to a conference session in which women faculty who had been helped by this organization talked about their academic discrimination cases. Many years later I found myself talking to other women about my case and how I had been helped by F.A.A.D.
By attending F.A.A.D.-sponsored conference sessions every year, contributing to the organization newsletter, and reading about the cases that were described in the applications for funding--I have gradually learned a great deal about how women faculty become subjected to discrimination based on sex, gender orientation, marital status, age, and disability. I have also learned about the often crippling effects of discrimination on one's self-esteem, physical, mental and emotional health, socioeconomic status, and professional life. And, very importantly, I have learned about strategies to prevent and fight against academic discrimination as well as ways to mitigate its terrible effects.
Despite the influx of women Ph.D.s into the profession since the '70s, they continue to be eliminated by an entrenched male power structure. The FAAD Board consists of academic feminists who have fought and won Title VII cases. Because we know first-hand how difficult and ruinous these suits are, personally and financially, we do everything in our power to help women faculty and students.
Our primary work consists of evaluating a plaintiff's case: we interview her extensively and read all of her material about the school and the department. We read all the legal documents, and we look at her attorney's work as well. If we conclude that but for discrimination she would have been tenured, we accept her case.
Sadly, the primary champion of women faculty, the American Association of University Women, has drastically cut back its support despite the vital importance of female faculty as role models. That leaves FAAD and We Advocate Gender Equity (WAGE).
FAAD has several concerns when it comes to discriminaton: we are concerned about faculty women who are targeted because they are supposedly "abrasive," "strident," or, the current favorite, "uncollegial." As everyone knows, these are male code words for assertive, independent, and most importantly, NOT submissive! We are concerned with women in male-dominated fields such as the sciences, and those labelled "too political." We don't think it's a coincidence that these supposedly over-political women just happen to teach Women's Studies. Clearly, teaching about oppression gets in the way of those who oppress.
In addition to awarding funds to women faculty who are litigating discrimination based on gender, race, ideology, and sexual orientation, FAAD also writes letters on behalf of a plaintiff to those who could make a difference in her case. We also do counselling and attorney referrals.
The need is great, unfortunately. We are all volunteers, and every penny goes to academic women waging David and Goliath struggles. But nothing will change unless women, with their vastly improved earning ability, start donating in significant numbers and amounts. Justice is not a right; it is a commodity like any other--except that it is far more expensive than most commodities. For more information and donations, please visit the FAAD website: www.f-a-a-d.org.
I first heard of FAAD from a Feminist Philosophy blog. I was in the midst of considering whether or not to file an official complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario over sex discrimination, bullying and mobbing of women occurring in my department in a male-dominated discipline, in a male-dominated university. Meeting the wonderful, intelligent, strong and courageous women of FAAD, witnessing their wisdom as persons having survived the ordeal of fighting for women's well-earned rights, gave me tremendous strength. Indeed, I would say it was life-altering, especially when at a conference organized by FAAD, I met a young woman, much more vulnerable than I, finding herself in a very unenviable position similar to mine. That I would be joining such a fine group of seasoned women in fighting for the future of that vulnerable young women, impassioned me like little else. When FAAD offered me seed money to hire a lawyer, I knew I was supported. Even though I did not need and so did not use this money (yet!), the fact that I had this organization backing the very scary venture I was about to embark upon gave me the strength to go ahead and do it. I hope to win this case, and to be able to support this organization with the proceeds, so as to enable more women to do the right thing, and denounce our abuse on campuses everywhere.
With fellow English Professor Annette Kolodny, I founded Feminists Against Academic Discrimination in the early 1980s. At that time, women were severely unrepresented at the tenure level in university departments. I had experienced gender discrimination myself when looking for my first position, and I wanted women coming up against unfair roadblocks to their advancement to know that they were not alone.
Although our principal activity was to make donations to such women to pay their legal expenses, I always felt that our phone calls and our correspondance with plaintiffs, some of whose cases went on for years, was as important in lifting their spirits.
Over the years, I wrote a column called "Dancing Through the Minefields" and edited a newsletter called "The Strategist: Tips and Tactics for Women Faculty," to further women's advancement in the academic world.
During my years as Co-ordinator of FAAD, 1984-2004, we aided 78 women in their cases against colleges and universities.
FAAD provided funding to support legal involvement with a university that denied tenure to three female assistant professors. They understood the issues pertaining to gender, sexual, and age discrimination, and the university's disregard for qualitative, collaborative research and publications. Their financial support is so helpful and greatly appreciated.
I am currently litigating my tenure denial, and have received assistance from FAAD. I was grateful to find their organization in the first awful days after the denial and to took great comfort from learning that others had been through this and survived, and that there are people committed to fighting discrimination against women in academia.
I am not happy to know about this organization, and I wish it did not need to exist. But it does. Academia remains hostile to women, and qualitative judgments about the "merits" of research mask institutional biases against feminist research and pedagogy. In these days of financial crisis, as universities make "hard" decisions about which programs and faculty to support, female faculty, especially those whose research and teaching focuses on women, seem to be especially expendable.
Thirty years after it started, it seems like this organization should be irrelevant. I wish it was, and will do anything I can to work towards the day when feminists enjoy security within higher education, and we no longer need FAAD.
Last year, when I first met FAAD, I had just been denied promotion to full professor from my home department and chair in Communication. Despite the fact that I had been a full-time Women and Gender Studies director for 8 years, I still fulfilled the Communication requirements. I had provided a written response to the denials, but was very upset (as I felt betrayed), and was not sure what to do.
I met with one FAAD leader at the book fair at the National Women's Studies Association meeting, and she assured me that I could find support through the organization. She invited me to a panel discussion and to the organization's meeting. The women in this group listened to my story, empathized, and provided a wealth of advice. Mostly, though, the members provided support and comfort in a very stressful time.
I also witnessed them interacting with another woman who was having challenges to her line of research. They took the same time and care with her.
This year, I attended their meeting again, and am now fortunate to be able to participate from the perspective of full professor, having had my decision reversed in the college, and with the dean and provost.
I am definitely in support of this organization and feel it deserves this award status.
I am writing in support of FAAD because I belong to a sister organization called WAGE. We Advocate Gender Equity (WAGE) is an academic feminist organization, organized in 1993 and based in California. It grew out of a meeting by a large group of academic women who were experiencing sexual harassment and gender discrimination at University of California but over the years has broadened to include other institutions.
As part of our support for women fighting gender discrimination in academia, members of WAGE have been involved in supporting individual women who have brought suits against institutions for their practice of gender discrimination.
For five years in the 2000s, several WAGE members were active with a group supporting the legal case of Graciela Chichilnisky, an academic at Columbia University, a woman with PhDs in mathematics and economics who had been a member of the Columbia faculty since the 1970s and who was experiencing severe harassment at Columbia, supported by the highest levels of the administration.
In the face of an all out attack on her by her colleagues and administrators, Chichilnisky, like other academic women who dare to publicly charge their colleagues with discriminatory behavior, was isolated on her campus and very badly treated. During the time she was bringing her case, we learned of the existence of FAAD and applied for their support of her case. This, they not only gave (with a substantial check) but they also helped publicize Chichilnisky's experiences and showed other academic women a model of mutual support.
The isolation and exclusion of women who dare to complain of discriminatory treatment is severe. FAAD's work helps relieve that isolation and create solidarity. Were there were many more such organizations.
Pat Washington, PhD
Co-Coordinator, We Advocate Gender Equity (WAGE)
4537 Alamo Drive
San Diego, CA 92115
Email: PatWashingtonPhD@aol.com
I have been working as a board member in FAAD for twenty years, and before that, I was helped by FAAD when I litigated against the institution that had denied my tenure in Women's Studies. I felt so grateful to FAAD for understanding that my credentials for tenure were equivalent and in some cases better than those of my male peers who were receiving tenure. FAAD understood how "confidentiality" was being used to hide the fact that evaluations of academic work were subjective and biased in favor of the Old Boys Network. There are patterns that occur when administrators deny tenure and promotion to qualified female faculty, and FAAD helps women faculty identify those patterns when they surmise that discrimination is taking place.
Feminists who are litigating against academic institutions for sex, gender, racial, ethnic, and other kinds of discmrination can apply to FAAD for seed money to help underwrite their legal fees and costs.
We have helped scores of women over thirty years of operation, several of whose cases have helped to expand legal precedent. Unfortunately, the political climate is experiencing backlash, and many women today continue to find academic culture anti-gay and anti-feminist, so that scholarship on women is devalued and discouraged. Women who engage in collaborative research, which is encouraged in fields like Women's Studies, are being evaluated negatively, while male peers in the sciences who work with others are encouraged to do so and are rewarded. These are the kinds of inequities FAAD helps to identify.
We need continued funding to help women fund lawsutis when they are courageous enough to blow the whistle on issues like pay inequity and discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and race. Can you help us keep our resources plentiful, so that women's voices for gender equity remain alive and well in academia?
I have been serving on FAAD for the past two years and have learned much about workplace discrimination against women in academia and the strategies we need to use to help our clients. Reading about our clients' cases and discussing them with the other members has been an eye-opener. I admire how FAAD is a cohesive and supportive group that is constantly seeking to expand its expertise by consulting lawyers and other experts in the field of jurisprudence, as well as raising funds in order to help our clients toward paying their legal fees.
As part of FAAD, I have benefited from the panel discussions we have set up at the annual National Women's Studies conference, in order to make the larger academic and activist community in the U.S. become aware of academic discrimination against women in different fields.I have also learned how a non-profit organization works, as well as the importance of non-hierarchical governance, and decision making that is based on a democratic process aimed toward consensus.
The existence of FAAD and my work in it has given me the courage in my own college to speak out against discrimination in the hiring, tenure, and promotion of faculty.
The main drawback FAAD faces in its courageous work is the challenge of finding enough funding to help its deserving clients. With enough funding, FAAD will be able to make its voice heard loud and clear in the academic world, which will make administrators and faculty promotion committees think twice before discriminating against their female members, especially when it comes to tenure and promotion.
Throughout the nation, across institutions of varying sizes and purposes, and within as well as between academic disciplines, women faculty and staff endure subtle and not so subtle attacks to their professional selves. In an age when many do not remember why there was a women's movement and genuinely believe that women and men have an equal space in society, FAAD provides emotional support, validation, mentorship, and concrete strategies to help women survive, rebuild, regroup, and even thrive in the academy. As one who teaches about discrimination in higher education, I was glad to find an organization that contemporarily continues to support women in academe during times that can be some of the darkest in their professional lives.
"Sex discrimination in tenure decisions is not just unfair; it also has
repercussions in the workplace and in society in general. Universities
and colleges have been powerful cultural institutions in western culture since medieval times. Today, the college degree has become the standard credential used by employers to screen applicants for most better-paying jobs. Tenured faculty control curriculum and grading and, in so doing, play a central role in determining this credential. As teachers and mentors, professors help shape the intellect and social conscience of their students and, hence, of our society. Offering students a faculty as diverse as the world they live in and ensuring the fairness of the promotion process is thus of tremendous importance." (http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/TenureDenied.pdf)
Filing a complaint of sex discrimination for denial of tenure and litigating that case are not easy tasks. A plaintiff must have capable and committed counsel, compelling facts, emotional strength, and a will of steel. Feminists Against Academic Discrimination (F.A.A.D.) helps women faculty, especially those associated with women's studies programs and departments, who are subjected to different types of academic discrimination, including but not limited to discrimination on the basis of sex/gender, race/ethnicity, marital status, disability, or sexual orientation.
Please support F.A.A.D. Provide assistance to women faculty who experience academic discrimination by making a tax deductible donation . To make a donation, please send an e-mail to sharon@teichmangallery.com. In sisterhood, THANK YOU!