op-ed Misconceptions of the Task Force report explained

Author: Task Force on the Status of Women

Readers of The Campus' article on the report of the Task Force on the Status of Women may have drawn inaccurate conclusions about the issues it addresses from the polemical nature of the article. The title, "Task Force finds sexist social scene on campus," projects the report as a quintessential man-bashing rant. The reporter failed to understand the findings in the report relevant to the social scene, and we question whether he thoroughly read the just-released report. He states, "the root of all of these social problems, according to the report, is male treatment of women on campus." Additionally, he describes the report as pointing to "students who are 'male, upper-class and athletic'" using alcohol to take advantage of women. This is inaccurate. Such a narrow misinterpretation undermines the complexity of the report and only begets negative, unjustified responses. What we DID say is that influence in the student social scene is unevenly distributed by gender, class and interest group. This is not an attack on a group - this is a descriptive analysis of what the campus community taught us about the social scene.

It is important to recognize that the report IS NOT - contrary to The Campus' interpretation - about bashing men as sexist pigs, and sympathizing with victimized women. The basic message is that although some people find that gender relations on campus are fine, some people find it very unhealthy. The second message is that this is not about "men = bad oppressors, women = good oppressed". One of our major points is that reducing the debate to statements that 'men are like this, women are like that' misses the basic fact that gender is a relationship, NOT an inherent and fixed characteristic of a group (in biological terms, that's what we call 'sex'). This may sound like academic jargon and hair-splitting - but the point is that relationships can be chosen and changed, while we're stuck with the status quo if we are cursed with essential biological characteristics that drive behavior. The third message is that as long as a lot of people on campus are experiencing sexism and an unhealthy environment, that's a problem. Just because you didn't experience problems and think that everything is OK doesn't make that true for everyone else. The Task Force - which was composed of students, faculty and staff, female and male - didn't write this report as part of some crusading feminist conspiracy, and there was no set agenda going in. This is our organization and presentation of what hundreds of people on campus told us about their lives. Our information was based on - 1) a campus-wide survey to which we had over 900 respondents and hundreds of comments, and 2) on numerous focus group meetings where we reached out to all groups on campus.

Those who read the report will see that we discuss gender relations in order to recommend ways to create a healthier community. Our major conclusion is that gendered social problems at Middlebury are complex and do not reduce down to a single 'root'. Playing the 'blame game' is, in our view, counterproductive.

Tina Coll '08, Economics major

Michael Sheridan, Assistant Professor of

Anthropology

Vicki Backus, Associate in Science

Instruction in Biology

Karin Hanta, Director of Chellis House

Shirley Ramirez, Dean for Institutional

Diversity

Alison Byerly, Provost

Michelle McCauley, Associate Professor of

Psychology

Carrie Ramp, Area Director, Library &

Information Services

Erin Quinn, Director of Athletics

Rayna Rogowsky '09

Hallie Fox '09