'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics
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| Sabrina Stevens Shupe: 'Bad' Women, Teachers, and Politics |
Just three months into 2012, as the Republican primary season continues, the tenor of the political conversation around contraception and other "women's" issues has grown increasingly alarming (to those of us firmly grounded in the 21st Century, anyway). Though there is a long historical tradition of projecting social anxieties onto women's (especially 'bad' women) behavior, it's still jarring for those of us who've grown up hearing about, thinking about and believing in our equality to be reminded of how tenuous our freedoms really are.
But for those of us who work in education, these gendered frustrations haven't just resurfaced because of primary season. Our field has been under bipartisan attack for a while now, as our feminized profession (76% female) has joined the ranks of all the other "bad" women throughout history who've been accused of threatening society's well-being.
To those with a mind for history, none of this is news. They already recognize the predominantly female teaching profession among the latest in a long tradition of projecting community/societal anxieties onto "bad" women -- from "witches" to bad mothers to feminists and beyond -- of all kinds. But given how much of the field has been placed under political control, in this election season it seems important to offer a reminder (and perhaps
