The Womens studies department put together a panel to discuss anxieties of women in

Academia on Friday as part of their Friday speaker series.

The board consisted of Dr. Lauren Bierema, Dr. Janet Frick, Dr. Anne Bothe Marcotte,

Evelyn Suavedra Audry, and was Moderated by Dr. Bettina Kaplan.

One of the main focuses of the panel was the anxieties associated with being an

academic, specifically being an academic in a marginalized group under the new administration.

Dr. Janet Frick was on the panel to represent women in sciences. She showed that women

are earning more STEM degrees but are tending to gain them in social sciences. Women are still

underrepresented in the fields of Engineering, chemistry, earth sciences, math, and Physics.

Dr. Frick said that the reason for this lack of representation came from two main barriers.

The first being women feel a greater need to balance work and family. The second being a lack

of professional networks for women.

Dr. Frick also pointed out that womens feelings of need to balance work and family has

caused women with children to do less well than those who do not. Ironically men whos

partners have children do more well.

Dr. Kaplan also talked about Structural barriers for female academics but her perspective

was from the side of the Humanities. Dr. Kaplan said that while the humanities are a special

place, it reproduces structural inequalities.

 According to Dr. Kaplan issues in overarching structure cause issues within the

humanities. One of the structural issues she cites is the threat to funding of the arts from the new

administration.

She said that despite the narrative that those in humanities are liberals pushing agendas,

activism is not rewarded in academe.

Evelyn Autry, a Peruvian immigrant and graduate student at UGA, weighed in on how

immigrants in academe are affected by structural issues, especially under the new administration.

Autry said that she has been an academic for her whole life and felt like she was in a

bubble. After the election she felt like she had a second culture shock bringing on new anxieties.

Autry said she feels anxiety as an Academic and as an immigrant. As an academic she

said she feels anxiety from loss of funding for the arts, and as an immigrant she feels anxiety

from the new administrations policies toward immigrants.

Autry said that both these factors affect her academic performance. She finished on a

positive note though, saying she feels a new sense of community that is more politically

conscious.