Want Help Staying Informed? Women in Academia is your source!

Hello all,

First, a belated thanks to Lisa Kahle and Carolyn Mattiske for the follow ups on the topic of Imposter Syndrome...so great to have additional resources and perspectives, and thanks for taking the time to post!

This week's topic, want Help Staying Informed about the larger higher education landscape and the progress of women identifying folks?

You can link to, occasionally review, or subscribe (as I do) to this source. It's full of news, opportunities, and links to analysis reports. For instance, this issue includes stories of academic appointments, links to research on Millennial Teen Mothers Educational Attainment Gap, Gender Equality in Research and Innovation, so much more...and there is always a Statistic of the Week, job ads, and news you might be interested in reading.

I'll give it 5 stars!! Women in Academia Report

I'll be off much of next week for the 4th of July holiday- and hope you all will be relaxing as well.

Regards,

Holly

Juneteenth Celebration: Reflecting on Our Freedom, Equality, and the Ongoing Journey

Hello all,

Happy Juneteenth, 2024

While this is a fairly new holiday for some of us, this day has been celebrated for many years in some communities with significant black populations.

As described in this Washington Post article:

"Juneteenth, also known as Emancipation Day, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. It has gained new prominence as the country wrestles with race relations. On June 19, the United States observes Juneteenth to commemorate the end of slavery, a painful chapter in the nation’s history whose legacy continues to reverberate. Juneteenth — a combination of the words “June” and “nineteenth” — has been celebrated for decades by Black communities as Emancipation Day, but the recent broader reckoning over racial injustices and deepening political polarization has thrust the day further into national and cultural prominence."

And we all should indeed be celebrating this day. The day when our nations' progress towards fulfilling the real American promise of liberty for all gained some real momentum.

As we know, that momentum has faltered, frozen, stalled, and then gained, regained, and often faltered again...but has never completely stopped. And yet has never completely been fulfilled.

We still have to do our part.

Enjoy this holiday! And keep striving towards freedom and equality for all.

All the best,

Holly

Embracing Pride - The Celebration of Inclusiveness

Hello all,

Hey it's June!

It's Pride Month, and I hope you are doing something to help celebrate Pride and the people you know who deserve and need to feel included in our lives and in our workplaces and in our communities.

Members of the gay community- in all the variations and nuances that exist - are to be celebrated and lauded this month, for their achievements, strength, and beauty, and protected from isolation, dismissal, ignorance, and hate.

Check out the SUNY Pride website: Educate, Empower, Embrace. You can learn more about campus resources and SUNY's commitment to equity.

There are so many issues that are still considered too private to discuss, too personal to share, or too gender specific to be widely known by other genders. We are often scared to ask, and then scared to tell. I came of age in an era when gay and lesbian people were hiding in the US, but I'm happy to have outlived that and hope that I will always live in a US that values a diversity of sexuality, love, and personhood. In my time, we learned about puberty through terribly embarrassing class films and had to ask our older siblings or friends what the heck those films were talking about...and was it real? No-one spoke about LGBTQIA + issues in my community or school until much later- unless it was as a slur.

Can we finally stop that now? Let's get ourselves ready to let people be who they are!

Getting ourselves ready means learning more about the issues and lives of people a bit different from ourselves. And learning fact from fiction as in this great website from Case Western Reserve. Read a book!! You know I had to include that as a librarian! This list of 41 books has lots of options

And just for fun, not specific to Pride month, but speaking to women and feeling unknown and misunderstood...please listen to this funny little song about the time before 1984 when NASA was getting ready to launch Dr. Sally Ride into space for a week and they planned to provide her with...100 tampons. Yup, you read that right- 100.

"BELSKY: She was the only woman in a super male organization, and I think that's where the song connected with a lot of people, too, is - I had tons of women messaging me from all sorts of professions being like, I'm the only woman at my job. I really connect with this feeling because it's more about that, as well. It's more about all of these little things that happen when you're working with men who just don't even know that they don't know about women's lives."

All the best,
Holly

You're Not an Imposter!

I'm feeling very lucky to be in attendance at the 2024 SUNY Technology Conference in Lake Placid - and I would love to chat with any WIT subscribers also at the conference.

There are 2 sessions with direct connections to the WIT, one tomorrow morning "What's With All These 'OA's" and How Can They Help Me, covering some of the great professional affinity groups that SUNY members can join, and one tomorrow afternoon "Landing Your Dream Job" covering career stories on how to set yourself up for success. And of course, 3 days of other fabulous sessions and speakers. If you are not here this year...start planning for next year!

This week I'm revisiting the concept of Imposter Syndrome. You know, that sense that even very well qualified people - and according to a lot of articles mostly women and underrepresented group members - have that they aren't really good enough, don't belong, and aren't ready for the tasks or jobs they are doing. This is a common topic of discussion in women-identifying affinity groups because naming an issue and recognizing that it's not personal and it can be overcome is very helpful.

But what if the whole concept is just plain wrong?

Christine vs. Work: The Truth Behind Imposter Syndrome by Christine Liu

"Typically, imposter syndrome is framed as something an individual should mentally tackle, but there’s something much larger underneath these personal feelings of insecurity, doubt, and fear. The concept itself (described as the “imposter phenomenon”) was coined in a psychology study from 1978. What was that study about, why has imposter syndrome become so popular, and what have we learned since then?

I sought answers from Jodi-Ann Burey, a speaker, writer, and podcaster working in the intersections of race, culture, and health equity. If you have feelings that are commonly attributed to imposter syndrome, Jodi-Ann suggests asking yourself questions to better identify the root cause of these “imposter-y” sensations — whether what you’re feeling is a natural human response to acclimating to a new challenge or, more seriously, an indicator that systemic discrimination needs to be addressed.

Jodi-Ann argues that imposter syndrome is a distraction. It’s a false narrative that people in power use to draw attention away from systemic problems in the workplace, like lack of opportunity, lack of fair pay, lack of diversity. The list goes on."

Wow!! That just blew me away! I encourage you to read the whole article (It's short!), to learn more. And then, consider this article suggesting that there is still value in modifying the Imposter Syndrome term for underrepresented group members.

It’s Time to Reconceptualize What “Imposter Syndrome” Means for People of Color by Kevin Cokley

"As a professor of psychology who has published research on IP for the past decade, I am sympathetic to many of the criticisms surrounding IP. I believe there are aspects about its conceptualization that need to be revisited and reconceptualized in light of emerging research findings. However, I am concerned that recommendations to get rid of the concept for people of color in particular risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. In other words, people may categorically dismiss the imposter phenomenon without understanding the important insights we have learned that can help people live happier and healthier lives.

As a result, I, along with Bernard and our research labs, have begun to define racialized imposter phenomenon as persistent beliefs or actions of intellectual and professional self-doubt among racially minoritized people due to experiences, systems, or principles of racial oppression and inequity. This definition differs from the original IP definition in that it focuses on the role that racism in the environment contributes to the self-doubt of people of color — but still recognizes the feeling of being a phony or imposter as part of the experience. We seek to bridge the individual psychology with the external structures that can cause distress."

Finally, Imposter Syndrome Is A Scheme: Reshma Saujani’s Smith College Commencement Address Reshma (founder of Girls Who Code), explained the connection between Imposter Syndrome and another older syndrome that women were tagged with - Bicycle Face! Yes that's right, and so wrong!!

Please share your thoughts about this with us on the list, I'd love to hear what you think...

All the best,
Holly