I have been making valiant efforts to clean out old files and downsize against the day that I may again move (audible groan form my entire circle of friends and family). Anyway, I was watching an interview with three women supreme court justices--Bader-Ginsburg, the first woman supreme court justice in Israel and in Canada (forgive me, I did not retain their names) and they were talking about their careers and some of the realities they faced entering law in the 1960s and 1970s and practicing through present times. Probably that was a setup for my mood, because as I was watching, I came across correspondence regarding one of the most egregious instances of hostile environment I endured in my seminary experience. It came at the hands of a female faculty member, acting as a surrogate, I think, for what she perceived was the party line of her superiors--the boys who held the power in her department. She had very little power herself, was untenured and never would be tenured because she did not posses aPhD and yet held on to her job as a more economical version, an adjunct Greek teacher. At any rate, it was one of those times when one does not know whether to be more taken aback by the assault or the nakedness of the bad behavior that lay behind the assault. I wish I could say I have forgiven her; part of my difficulty in extending forgiveness comes when there is no regret on the part of the person giving offense. If she were to ask, I certainly would forgive her, but in our encounter and its after effects, there was never any sense of self-awareness of how she had transferred a good deal of energy to me as she kicked the dog which happened to be me in this instance. In looking back I am only more shocked by its inappropriateness, its beyond the pale aspect, as one of several obstacles I (and most of my female colleagues) encountered in the more supportive environment of the Reformed Seminary I attended. We came to learn about covert discrimination instead of the overt hostility that marked the other seminary in our area, the more conservative Reformed Sem. At the end of the day, both of them were very similar in substance, if not style, and I wish I could say I can look back and see the vast changes that these Justices have witnessed in the area of law. Alas, I do not, but then when you look to systems concerned with power, the law pales in comparison to organized religion.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 04:47:24 +0000
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