Creating Temperate Campus Climates for Women across Difference

California State University-Stanislaus

In Washington, DC, the winter of 2009–10 stands out for its record-breaking snowfalls. Those living in the DC metro area saw snow accumulation more dramatic than many had seen in their lifetimes. People who stubbornly refuse to believe in the reality of global warming continue to cite these blizzards as evidence of its implausibility. They ask, if the climate is warming, why all the snow? Setting aside the connection between warmer air and increased precipitation for a moment, one obvious answer lies in averages. The overall average temperature may be rising, but not every microclimate will reflect the increase uniformly, as anyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth can relate. Fortunately or unfortunately, this rule of averages applies as much on campuses as it does in climatology.

Since Roberta Hall and Bunny Sandler first wrote of the “chilly climate for women,” much has changed on American college campuses. Indeed, it would be hard to dispute that the overall climate for women in higher education has warmed considerably since the early 1980s. Yet microclimates across colleges and universities continue to affect the educational and workplace experiences of particular women: those from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds; those whose sexual identities don’t conform to the standard; and those who pursue male-dominated majors, work in male-dominated fields, or behave in other ways that deviate from gender norms. This issue of On Campus with Women explores the many microclimates affecting women on campuses and asks how higher education might make them more genial for all its stakeholders.

Although it would be impossible to describe every microclimate in a single issue of OCWW, this issue’s authors reflect on a wide variety of places where the climate for women remains chilly. Annemarie Vaccaro presents an overview of where women—and which women—still face microaggressions, while Sherry Yennello and Catherine Fiore discuss steps to improve one of these locales (academic physics). Reflecting on her experiences at a predominantly white institution, Shari Dade discusses a support group she formed to improve the climate for African American women. Turning to faculty positions, Carol Hollenshead describes ways institutions can create supportive working environments for the women and men in the growing non-tenure-track sector. Finally, Mary Antonaros illuminates the atmosphere for leadership styles that have traditionally been gendered as female. Together, our contributors describe an ecosystem where despite global warming, many chilly microclimates remain.

The articles in this issue of OCWW represent only a few data points sampled across the scale of possible measurements. But their evidence is telling: in many places on campus, many women still face considerable impediments—just as many now see those barriers as relics of another time. Until higher education has created institutions that are truly inclusive of all stakeholders, the anomalies mar progress. This issue represents one attempt to recognize those anomalies in the hopes that someday, every climate across a campus will be temperate.

—Kathryn Peltier Campbell