http://www.aarweb.org/About_AAR/Committees/Status_of_Women_in_the_Profession/Default.asp
Status of Women in the Profession Committee
Charge: The Status of Women in the Profession Committee recommends policies and good practices to assure the full access and academic freedom of women within the Academy and develops programs to enhance the status of women in the profession.Composition: Up to six members.
Terms of Office: For appointments prior to 2011, three years, renewable once. After 2011, four years, non-renewable.
Current Members:
Su Yon Pak (Chair) Kecia Ali Jacqueline Hidalgo Monique Moultrie Michele Saracino Andrea Smith Aislinn Jones (Staff Liaison)
Committee Activities:
- Work/Life Balance Project
- Academic Abby: An Advice column
- AAR Sexual Harassment Policy
- A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z
- Annual Meeting Events and Activities
- Religious Studies News features and articles
- Other Resources
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The Committee on the Status of Women of the American Academy of Religion would like to invite you to participate in an examination of issues surrounding work/life balance. The committee is planning to develop a guide on this subject and is hoping that small groups all over the U.S. might meet to generate ideas about the topics and challenges that such a guide should cover and the potential solutions that it might lay out. You will find here our invitation to participate, guidelines for setting up a group, and reports from our initial meetings.
- Guidelines for Work/Life Balance Focus Groups - A How-To Guide
- Invitation to Participate in a Work/Life Balance Focus Group (sample)
- Work/Life Balance Focus Group Report - Graduate Students
- Work/Life Balance Focus Group Report - Mid-Career and Tenure Track Faculty
- Work/Life Balance Focus Group Report - Tenured and Senior Faculty
- Complete report on Work/Life Balance Focus Group activities - includes all above documents.
- Work/Life Balance Focus Group Report - 2012 Annual Meeting, Chicago
Work/Life Balance Resources:
- Enabling a Family-Friendly Institution: Creative Practices
- Balancing Scholarship with Family Care
- UC Faculty Family Friendly Edge
- Marriage and Baby Blues: Re-defining Gender Equity
- AAUP Balancing Family and Academic Work
Academic
Advice Column
Ask "Academic Abby" about what's bugging you
right now. Several women in the profession have volunteered to
answer your questions about professional concerns. Contact them!
A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z, ed. Mary Hunt, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. For more information, visit Palgrave Macmillan and search for ISBN 1-4039-6648-6. List price is $15.95.
Mentoring Roundtable
Each year, the Status of Women in the Profession Committee organizes a luncheon during the Annual Meeting. Several mid-career and senior AAR scholars gather with newer and emerging scholars in the field to discuss pertinent issues like choosing an adviser, getting published, contract negotiation, and the challenge of balancing work and personal commitments. The lunch is cosponsored with the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities and the Women's Caucus. Pre-registration is required and the lunch costs $10. Click here for more information on the Mentoring Lunch, including registration.
Special Topics Forums
The Status of Women in the Profession Committee holds at least one special topics forum on a subject of concern to women in religion. You can search the current year’s program in the online Program Book.
We will continue our initiative to increase the visibility of feminist scholars of religion on issues of public concern. Feel free to contact committee chair Judith Plaskow with other ideas and topics:
- 2011: Mentoring Matters (Part I and II)
- 2010: Overcoming Institutional Resistance to Underrepresented Scholarship
- 2009: Got Life Yet? A Structural Analysis
- 2008: Making Room, Making Sense: Re-visioning our Fields, Re-bordering Scholarship
- 2007: Fifty Years of Women in the AAR and SBL: The Battles of Yesterday and the Challenges of Tomorrow
- 2006: Women Speaking to Religion and Leadership: Honoring the Work of Mercy Oduyoye
- 2005: Got Life? Finding Balance and Making Boundaries in the Academy
Childcare at the Annual Meeting
Through the work of the committee, childcare will again be on offer at the Annual Meeting. Please see the Annual Meeting page for more details.
"Not for Women Only" is a biannual feature published in the Religious Studies News, written by members of the committee. "Not for Women Only" examines the political and professional issues that affect women - but not just women - in the profession.
- March 2012: Failure to Thrive: Graduate Advising in Tough Times
- October 2011: Multicultural White Supremacy and Heteropatriarchy: Fostering Insurgent Scholarship in the Academy
- October 2010: Sexual Harrassment
- March 2010: Confidentiality
- October 2009: The Problem That "Lies" Within: How "Collegiality Undermines the Academy (Issue Available in PDF)
The committee also published a "Focus" feature on Work/Life Balance in the October 2010 issue of Religious Studies News:
- Focus on Work Life Balance - introduction
- Are We Productive Yet?
- Freeing the Mother-lode from the Mother-overload: The Difference That Institutions Can Make
- Checklist for Getting a Life Soon
- Diversity and Sanity: How an AAUP Chapter Helps
- Women and Religion Section
- Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group
- Lesbian-Feminist Issues in Religion Group
- Womanist Approaches to Religion & Society Group
- Status of Racial & Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee
- SBL Status of Women in the Profession Committee
- Surviving and Thriving in Academia
- Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
