Artifact 2: Feminist Realities: Living, Learning and Working in a Man's World

Admittedly, the term 'feminist' never really resonated with me - although I am a woman, I never perceived my position in the world as being secondary to or dictated by a man (or men, more generally).  Of course I had heard stories of women throughout history being excluded from society in all sorts of ways including but not limited to the inability to make decisions about their own bodies, their relationships, their career, and of course their inability to participate politically - even within my own family, there are reports that my great-grandmother was a staunch feminist activist who chained herself to the gates of parliament in the UK during the Women's Suffrage movement.  Still, however, I had never personally associated with the feminist movement...after all, that was all in the past, right? 

MDDE651 - Gender Issues in Distance Education 

In Winter 2021, I decided to enrol in MDDE651 - Gender Issues in Distance Education and it became my first formal course in what feminism was really about, what it meant for me personally, and how my personal life, my learning and my professional career has (and continues to be) shaped by the notion of 'gender'.  Almost immediately upon beginning the course, my eyes were opened wide to the disparity which exists and has always existed around me, but that I had always managed to slough off as something that just didn't affect me.  

As I mentioned above, this was my first true, formal introduction to the topic of 'feminism'.  Prior to taking this course, the term feminism had negative connotations associated with it because (to me), it felt like an excuse or a 'crutch'.  I had never stopped to really think about how many aspects of my life were shaped by my femininity, whether I liked it or not.  One of the first articles which I was introduced to in the course talked about the fact that many of the federal policies in place - even in Canada - are largely shaped by androcentric values.  Upon reading this, I noticed a near immediate cognitive shift within myself as I started to understand the historical exclusion of the feminine voice in policies which affect the everyday lives of women (and men).

Mind-mapping

For this assignment, Dr. Brainbridge had asked us to present a synthesis of the issues presented in the various assigned readings from units 1 and 2 of this course.  Given my newfound appreciation for feminism and feminist theory, I decided to create a mind-map presentation which I entitled Feminism and Distance Education: Thoughtful Considerations for the F-Word.  I've chosen this as the second artifact for my e-Portfolio because I believe it is a great representation of my ability to synthesize information, as well as think critically and reflexively about ideological theories with the aim of developing a deep understanding and constructing meaning which is personal to me (5.8). Additionally, I felt that the visualization of a mind-map would be a unique and visually appealing way to convey the information, as well as an effective way of demonstrating relationships between subtopics related to feminism (4.7; 5.9).

Feminism, as a movement, has a long and storied history  which (initially) left me struggling to wrap my mind’s eye around the topic entirely so that I could condense and organize it in a manner which would make sense.  However, I soon realized there would be no way for me to cover absolutely every aspect of it and so I simply began by conceptualizing what I perceived to be the most salient points (i.e.: subtopics) of relevance.  The first of these subtopics included: Feminism in History; Feminist Identity; and Feminist Theory.  Of these, the most obvious place to start conceptualizing for my mind-map was the various moments throughout history which have shaped feminism overall, such as the mid-19^th century suffrage movement and the more recent “Me Too” movement.  From there, I proceeded to grapple with the concepts of ‘feminist identity’ and ‘feminist theory’ – and how the two terms intersected with one another (5.8).   

Following my review of the above three feminism subtopics, I then started to rationalize the ways in which they intersected with distance education, and so I came up with the remaining four subtopic areas which would complete the broad formation of my mind-map: Barriers and Challenges; Gender Differences and Similarities; Advantages; and Administrative Solutions (5.10). 

Alt-Text: Image of mindmap

Feminism and Me

In this course, we examined the topic of feminism and feminist theories from many different angles.  As alluded to earlier, this was my first time truly coming to terms with what the term 'feminism' meant to me; it would be one of the first (if not the only) time I had truly contemplated whether or not I would/could/should identify with this term that (up until that point) I had scoffed at.  This time, I found myself internalizing it on a much deeper level than ever before.   

When I entered this course, I was about to become a first-time mother myself - I was nearly 9 months pregnant at the time when this artefact was due (in fact, I completed it early because the assignment due date was my actual due date) (6.6).  This artifact is one of my most treasured - not because it is overly complex in nature - it is not - but rather because it takes me back to a moment in my life when I was able to tap into and understand the concept of feminism on a completely different level than ever before and it is the last assignment I completed before entering motherhood.  The knowledge and the new perspective(s) I gained in this course allowed me to consciously consider the ways in which my life would change upon the birth of my daughter and, specifically, how both of our lives would be affected by many of the androcentric policies which make up our society (1.13; 2.1).  I found this to be an interesting juxtaposition which I had (again) never truly considered.  For example, on the one hand, I was thankful for the (fairly recent) example of feminist policy decision making shown by my government when it decided to allow women to take up to 18 months of maternity leave rather than the standard 12 months, but I also anticipated the sadness of knowing that at the end of my maternity leave I would have to place my daughter in childcare because, financially, I would not be able to afford to take additional time off work to care for her myself (1.12; 1.13).  I thought to myself "Look how far we've come - women used to have to fight to go to work, and now I have to fight to stay home."  I felt empowered by my decision to become a mom, but trapped by societal expectations.  And while I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice when it came to the example provided above, I thought about how fortunate I was to not have to choose between my studies and my career or between studying and becoming a mom, as so many do. 

In reflecting upon the inherent challenges faced by women, as well as how those challenges have been disguised and layered throughout society, organizationally, governmentally, and of course societal norms (1.1; 5.10), I was able to crystallize the vital role distance education plays in the advancement of equity and the creation of new social norms.  For example, distance education has had a profoundly positive impact on my life because it has allowed me to continue striving for my personal and academic goals of achieving my Master degree while simultaneously maintaining my other roles of "mom", maintaining my household, and even working full time.  Another example of how I believe distance education has contributed to the formation of new societal norms lies in the current climate of the pandemic in which parents are in many cases now realizing the benefits (e.g. safety; flexibility) of having their kids learn online rather than sending them back to traditional school.  While this might not initially appear to be a gender-associated decision, I believe the simple fact that many school boards now offer remote learning as a 'choice' which can be made based on what the parent feels is most appropriate, is the direct result of feminist policy and decision making in action (2.1; 2.7).