Gender-Based Asylum in the United States: A View from the Trenches

Author(s):  
Paul Nejelski
2021 ◽  
pp. 107780122110357
Author(s):  
Erin O’Callaghan ◽  
Veronica Shepp ◽  
Anne Kirkner ◽  
Katherine Lorenz

Higher education is not immune to the epidemic of sexual harassment in the United States, particularly sexual harassment of graduate workers. This is due largely to power differentials of status and income, as academia relies on low-wage work. While the literature shows sexual harassment is prevalent across disciplines, current work to address the problem does not account for graduate worker precarity. The graduate labor movement, which addresses precarity, is beginning to tackle sexual harassment. We review how the labor and anti-gender-based violence movements in higher education should come together to prevent sexual harassment, presenting recommendations for structural changes to academia.


In the midst of unprecedented attention to gender-based violence (GBV) globally, prompted in part by the #MeToo movement, this book provides a new analysis of how higher education cultures can be transformed. It offers reflections from faculty, staff, and students about how change has happened and could happen on their campuses in ways that go beyond implementation of programs and policies. Building on what is already known from decades of scholarship and practice in the United States, and more recent attention elsewhere, this book provides an interdisciplinary, international overview of attempts to transform higher education cultures to eradicate GBV. Change happens because people act, usually with others. At the heart of transformative efforts lie collaborations between faculty, staff, students, activists, and community organizations. The contributors to the book reflect on what makes for constructive, effective collaborations and how to avoid the common mistakes in working with others to end GBV. They consider what has worked to challenge the reluctance—or outright hostility—they have encountered in their work against GBV and how their collaborations have succeeded in transforming the ways GBV is considered and dealt with. The chapters focus on experiences in Canada, the United States, England, Scotland, France, and India to examine different approaches to tackling GBV in higher education. They reveal the cultural variations in which GBV occurs as well as the similarities across cultures. Together, they demonstrate that, to make higher education a safe environment for all, nothing short of a transformation is required.


Author(s):  
Marianne Robin Russo ◽  
Kristin Brittain

While battling great odds in terms of discrimination and bias, women within the United States have made valuable contributions to the workforce. Now that the second decade of the 21st century is upon us, women have come into all facets of the workforce, finding a niche in Internet Communications Technology (ICT) as well as within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which should allow women more of an opportunity to pursue occupations. However, it seems that women are lagging in this part of the workforce within the constructs of science, technology, education, and mathematics also known as STEM. This glass ceiling, or gender barrier, may make matters worse in terms of reporting these kinds of women's issues because these reports are often written by men. In addition, the ideas and perceptions of masculinity and femininity have been scrutinized and analyzed in this chapter, and it is not difficult to realize the differences in gender based on biological functions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea L. Wirtz ◽  
Tonia C. Poteat ◽  
Mannat Malik ◽  
Nancy Glass

Gender-based violence (GBV) is an umbrella term for any harm that is perpetrated against a person’s will and that results from power inequalities based on gender roles. Most global estimates of GBV implicitly refer only to the experiences of cisgender, heterosexually identified women, which often comes at the exclusion of transgender and gender nonconforming (trans) populations. Those who perpetrate violence against trans populations often target gender nonconformity, gender expression or identity, and perceived sexual orientation and thus these forms of violence should be considered within broader discussions of GBV. Nascent epidemiologic research suggests a high burden of GBV among trans populations, with an estimated prevalence that ranges from 7% to 89% among trans populations and subpopulations. Further, 165 trans persons have been reported murdered in the United States between 2008 and 2016. GBV is associated with multiple poor health outcomes and has been broadly posited as a component of syndemics, a term used to describe an interaction of diseases with underlying social forces, concomitant with limited prevention and response programs. The interaction of social stigma, inadequate laws, and punitive policies as well as a lack of effective GBV programs limits access to and use of GBV prevention and response programs among trans populations. This commentary summarizes the current body of research on GBV among trans populations and highlights areas for future research, intervention, and policy.


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