A fellow classmate mansplained a paper to me during my first month at college. It was my own essay.
Yes. Sitting in my U.S. Diplomatic History lecture, the stranger sitting next to me asked me how I thought my first paper went, which was due a few days before. I told him I was confident about my essay, and he suggested we swap papers and read them. After looking over my paper for less than 90 seconds, he turned to me and said “I think it’s brave of you to argue that President McKinley had a greater impact on the Spanish-American War than John Hay.” Slightly confused, I tried to respond and clarify that he misinterpreted my argument. “Actually,” he remarked, cutting me off mid-sentence, “you are arguing that because you mention…”
I was completely caught off guard. My classmate was explaining my own essay to me as if he wrote it – as if I wasn’t smart enough to understand the nuances in the argument that I was making. He handed back my laptop looking almost proud of himself, as if he had somehow helped me understand a concept I was already familiar with. My cheeks were tinged red with embarrassment, and I was overcome with a sense of horror as I realized that although I wasn’t used to this blatant display of misogyny, plenty of other girls at GW were.
I spent my four years of high school at Notre Dame de Sion, an all-girls Catholic school in Kansas City, Missouri. I spent the latter half of my teenage years unafraid of speaking up in class, confident in my place in an academic setting and uninterrupted by boys who were instilled with a sense of superiority over women. The all-girls environment at Sion, while benefiting me in countless other ways, left me unprepared for a co-ed higher education experience. Although I was blindsided, I am more upset at the fact that this is something many of my female classmates are used to.
During the six weeks I’ve spent as a college student, I have seen more women interrupted, talked over, dismissed and ignored in an academic setting than I have in the previous 18 years of my life. When discussing this with my female friends who graduated from co-ed public high schools, I am faced with a resounding yeah, that’s just how it is. It’s disheartening, especially when attending a university that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity. Although GW has a majority female population, the University’s academic culture ignores and perpetuates misogyny in the classroom, leaving male students with a sense of entitlement and female students like me feeling out of place.
Honestly, I expected more out of such a liberal, progressive school. Coming from a majority conservative state – albeit a relatively liberal part of it – I was excited to come to GW and be a part of a college that presented itself as a dynamic, forward-thinking institution. In many ways, GW fulfills that expectation. Through the Women’s Leadership Program, the Title IX Office’s large presence on campus and the countless women’s organizations affiliated with the University, GW on paper seems to value and support women in every aspect of their time on campus. But from what I’ve learned and experienced in my short time being enrolled at GW, it feels largely performative. My roommate Chloe, who also attended an all-girls high school, goes home at least once a week frustrated with a male classmate who dismissed or belittled her in a discussion or lecture. And more often than not, I come home complaining about the same thing. Women studying at GW deserve to be supported in every aspect of life while studying here, not just through extracurriculars and organizations.
This is not to say that the majority of the male community at GW is intentionally malicious or see themselves as better than women. But the academic community leaves unconscious bias against women unchecked and unaddressed. I have not had a single professor reprimand a male student who has interrupted me. My teaching assistants fail to stand up for my female classmates when they are talked over in discussions. While unintentional, it is a systemic failure that GW needs to address. Whether through quarterly rather than yearly mandatory staff and student bias training, hiring more female professors or bolstering Title IX services, it is imperative that GW focuses resources on protecting and supporting women in academics.
Students have mandatory bias training at the beginning of every school year, as well as mandatory Title IX training. But these one-time programs do not go far enough to make sure that women are actually protected throughout the school year. Other than Title IX, women don’t have avenues to report gender discrimination in the classroom, and reporting an incident of discrimination to the Title IX office does not guarantee punishment for the perpetrator. This leaves no incentive for male members of the GW community to confront their biases and change, as they are not punished for treating women as they always have. The University needs to implement more oversight, more resources and more punishment for those who commit gender-based discrimination in the academic setting, or else nothing will change.
I have experienced some of the most disheartening and humiliating displays of misogyny I have ever faced in my life during my first six weeks at GW. It is heartbreaking, discouraging and most importantly, eye-opening. Women deserve an equal place in the classroom, and GW has an obligation to make sure that place is protected on campus.
Maggie McKinney, a freshman majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.
