Women's experiences in early physical anthropology

Abstract

At the establishment of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in 1930, women comprised 2.4% of the total membership, and 9.7% a decade later. By 2014~70% of members were women. Despite these numbers, there are continued gender disparities within the discipline. While there is considerable interest in promoting equity, there is little documentation of the historical experiences of female anthropologists. This article introduces the women active in the discipline during the first decade of the Association, compiles descriptions of their experiences related to their treatment based on gender, and examines these historical perspectives in conjunction with documented trends of continuing gender disparities. A pattern is evident for these early anthropologists of receiving personal and financial discouragement during their education; experiencing discrimination in hiring, promotion, and pay; studying women and children as entrée into professional work; working within the federal government or military; leaving anthropology early in their careers; having their work credited to their male colleagues; experiencing additional limitations if they married; and outwardly downplaying their own experiences of sexism. This pattern is echoed in the experiences of female anthropologists today. K E Y W O R D S gender disparity, history of physical anthropology, women in STEM

Biological anthropology's critical engagement with genomics, evolution, race/racism, and ourselves: Opportunities and challenges to making a difference in the academy and the world

“…Substantive internal structures and problems con- There are traditional ways in which biological anthropology is conducted. Through much of our history, the production of knowledge-not just the research, but the training, the mentoring, the focus, the choice of research topics, and so forth-have been primarily determined, structured, and shaped by men-largely, what we would call "white men" with a heavy influence of Western European origin (see Ellison, 2018;Little, 2018;Turner, Bernstein, & Taylor, 2018;Wilson, 2019a).…”

“…This history, or I should say these histories, have shaped and structured biological anthropology in important ways, often negatively. Numerous authors have recently reviewed such histories and their impacts (e.g., Athreya & Ackermann, 2019; Caspari, 2018; Ellison, 2018; Marks, 2009; Nelson, 2019; Perez, 2019; Saini, 2019; Sussman, 2016; Vergara & Lopez‐Beltran, 2019; Watkins, 2012; Wilson, 2019a) so I will not go into any detail here, but I encourage everyone teaching and doing Biological Anthropology to include such readings in your cannon.…”