Julie Shayne blogs in honor of International Women’s Day

IAS faculty member and Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies faculty coordinator Julie Shayne was invited by the editors of State of Nature to ponder the question “What is the Biggest Challenge Facing Women Today?” as part of a blog in honor of International Women’s Day. Her response to that question argues that the current president of the US is women’s and femmes’ biggest challenge. She maintains “He [and his team] are responsible for emboldening a toxic cocktail of misogyny, racism, and xenophobia,” which ultimately translates into “the biggest obstacle women and femmes face in living with physical and emotional safety, and full embodied autonomy.” You can read the full blog post here. For Shayne, her answer fits squarely with her signature GWSS facebook refrain “reason number I’ve-lost-track why GWSS is so desperately needed.” Shayne has blogged elsewhere about leaving the tenure track, doing activist scholarship, mentoring undergraduate students, and performing emotional labor in academe.