WILL Headlines, News, & Notes
Exploring Gender Equity
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Rethinking Assumptions: The Quest for Gender Equity in East Central Illinois
6 pm Saturday, July 25
A new radio documentary created by Urbana University High School students looks at how the fight for gender equity took place in central Illinois.
The program features interviews with 13 women and two men, who talk about how the struggle for gender equity has left an imprint on their lives. Some of the interviewees experienced discrimination or missed opportunities because of bias against their gender. Others worked to end this discrimination.
Students in the Uni High class of 2012 conducted the interviews. Janet Morford, the Uni High teacher who supervised the project along with WILL-AM’s Dave Dickey, said she found it interesting that many women in Champaign-Urbana had come here because of the University of Illinois, but had been unable to work there because their husbands were employed there. “So many talented women came here and had to reinvent themselves because of the university’s nepotism policy,” she said.
“Another interesting thing we saw in the interviews was the tension between gender and race,” said Morford. “We found that some people were torn between loyalty to members of their racial group and to their gender.” Some African-American women suggested that it was more important to stand up to racism, and to stand by African-American men, than to confront gender bias. Others spoke compellingly of the double burden of having their capabilities questioned on the grounds of race and gender, and recalled how these attitudes on the part of others only strengthened their own determination to excel, she said.
The documentary also looks at how reproductive rights and women’s safety mobilized people on college campuses in recent years. “So much work in gender equity is still going on in the areas of domestic violence and rape,” said Maritza Mestre, one of the student co-producers of the documentary.
The other student co-producer, Linda Ly, said she was shocked in researching the documentary to discover how long ago women began fighting for gender equity. “I didn’t realize how far back it went. It took so long for people to take them seriously,” she said.
Working with WILL on the project was an incredible opportunity, Maritza said. “I learned there is so much you can learn about people, but you can’t learn unless you ask. And they are so willing to tell their stories. You find out these amazing stories about their lives.”
Those interviewed for the project were Erma Bridgewater, Ann Einhorn, Marianne Ferber, Cathy Garner, Rosetta Gray, Jacque Kahn, Matt Mitchell, Pat Morey, Millie Ransom, Helen Satterthwaite, Bernadine Stake, Cecile Steinberg, Shirley Stillinger, Ross Wantland and Ruby Weathersby.
