"Who's Included in #MeToo?": Difficult Discussions in the Classroom

Sample

A few years ago when Nora Webster was hired at Metropolitan University, she was on cloud nine. It had been a long process for her to earn a PhD in Gender Studies and Communication, and she attributed the end of her marriage to her dedication to work and her increasing sense of righteous indignation over gender inequities as she completed her dissertation. She had married Edward when they were fairly young and both still college undergraduates; they’d been high school sweethearts, and he had traditional ideas about gender roles. As Nora progressed in school, what she learned opened her eyes to gender inequities, but Edward wasn’t changing with her. They’d had a huge fight when Nora changed her name back to Webster, her birth name, although she hadn’t given a second thought to taking his name when they first married. That could have been her first clue that their marriage was in trouble, but she’d stayed in the relationship too long. By the time she was writing her dissertation, they both knew they had very little in common and they ended their 6-year marriage with rancor on both sides. Receiving the degree and obtaining her dream job, directing the Gender Studies program and teaching gender and communication classes at Metropolitan, seemed like her reward for a difficult and costly journey.