Hey all!

It was great to see everyone again for this month’s meeting, thanks to everyone for another great time!

Here’s a summary of what all we talked about (thanks Gabi for notetaking!):

• Introductions
  • About 10 people showed up! I was really glad to see everyone.
  • Note: I forgot to take roll, and also didn’t give “new member surveys” to any of the first timers, but I’ll try to remember next time. Bad Tessa.
• Halloween-ish Themed Discussion: Witches!
  • Trinity had the great idea to bring up ancient witchcraft as a form of science, specifically in the medical field, with tinctures and herbalism and whatnot.
  • I found a really great article about women healers, including witches, by Barbara Ehrenreich, acclaimed author and feminist – read it here!
  • Pauline gave a great brief history of women practicing medicinal herbalism:
    • Since they were unable to be formally educated, women taught themselves and passed down the healing properties of herbs and tinctures.
    • Hildegard von Bingen was a Catholic nun whose medical and scientific texts are still widely respected documents, and she helped establish the teaching of herbalism. Also, Catholic medicinal herb knowledge was applied to making beer, whereas Protestants broke off to make beer with hops instead.
    •  Herbalistic knowledge seems to originate from ancient hunter-gatherer humans, where the women would orally communicate the knowledge of cultivating herbs across generations. Indeed, even in modern culture a lot of agricultural knowledge is retained by women.
    • Were women delegated to this informational gatekeeping because they were held back to keep the social construct of women as domestic housekeepers alive?
• Official Student Group Stuff
  • For some reason, our initial startup budget of $90 still hasn’t come through, even though I put in the request weeks ago.
  • This might have something to do with our status as a Registered Student Organisation… but since we did all the stuff they wanted (and booked a room for meetings, which only official RSOs can do), I think it’s a problem on Student Activities’ end. Updates to come.
  • Maybe next quarter we should relocate to a room with media capabilities to avoid another projector mishap?
• Tessa’s ILC: Feminist Epistemologies
  • So far, I’ve read chapters from John Alcock’s Animal Behavior, Sexual Selections by Marlene Zuk, and Delusions of Gender by Cordelia Fine. Next on my list is Queer Ecologies by Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erickson.
  • Keeping in mind that I read the 2001 edition of Alcock’s book, I noticed various expressions of sexist language, many of which were stark enough that I was surprised at their presence in such a commonly used animal behaviour text. One can only hope that these excerpts have been edited out in later versions.
  • Sexual Selections ties in directly with what I noticed in Animal Behavior, and after reading it I was able to make more comprehensive critiques. Zuk describes the various ways in which scientists have described and observed animal behaviour, specifically reproductive behaviour, that have been shaped by our human biases, and suggests ways to be more objective in our search for the truth about what animals really do. It’s a great read, and if anyone is interested in behaviour studies, I highly recommend it!
  • Delusions of Gender is a book that, in my opinion, should be read by all of us – Fine debunks stereotype after stereotype about gender and ability, illustrating that men and women do not differ significantly in spatial reasoning skills or empathetic care, but that societal norms, neurosexism (“it’s biological”), and our own perception of ourselves is what causes more men to be employed in the sciences, why they are paid more than women for the same job, and why so many women turn their backs on their dream career in a male-dominated field. Seriously. Read it.
• TED Talk: Alyson McGregor – Why Medicine Often Has Dangerous Side Effects for Women
• Closing Thoughts
  • Since many of us discovered that we’re studying and doing homework in the library almost every day, we decided to try something new – weekly WISE study sessions!
    • Be productive while surrounded by other cool people also being productive!
    • Weekly schedule TBD based on everyone’s availability

Have a great weekend everyone, and keep up the great work!