Misogyny in English Departments: Obligation, Entitlement, Gaslighting

by Amy E. Robillard

When Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign as governor of New York in August 2021, a commentator on CNN remarked that he had "not gotten his own memo" on sexual harassment that he had signed into law two years earlier. Misogyny in English Departments theorizes the results of a qualitative empirical study of the ways women in U.S. college and university English departments experience misogyny, and the effects that misogyny has on their personal and professional lives. It seems that we in English departments, too, have not gotten our own memos. English departments market themselves as spaces of equity and diversity, as dedicated to inclusivity and social justice, as committed to rooting out injustices like misogyny via such means as socially just, feminist, and critical pedagogies. We are some of the very people who teach students to recognize and fight back against social injustices like misogyny, and yet, as the women the author interviews demonstrate in this book, we are no less likely to engage in gender-based discriminatory and abusive practices.

164 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2023

Reviews

[Jenna Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So necessary. Highly recommend.

[Jennifer Kanke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A methodologically sound piece of qualitative research on an important and useful topic. If you're a woman in academia, you will see yourself in many of these stories. As someone who left academia four years ago, reading this was simultaneously comforting (in a "you're not alone" way) and very triggering. I'm still processing it all. There were so many stories in the book that are similar to things that happened to me, things I beat myself up about because "I must have handeled it wrong. If only I had done X differently." My guess is this book won't get many reviews or ratings because women still in academia might not be able to admit in a public forum that they've read it. And if you don't understand why that might be the case, then read the book and you will.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helps to make sense of one's own experiences of misogyny in academia... but no real answers. It just seems that this is how it is, and there isn't much we can do to change it.