Suggestions for teaching a class during Mexico’s “A Day Without Women”

February 28, 2020 12:49 PM

On March 9th there will be a nationwide protest in Mexico in which women will not go to work or school, and not participate in public activities, in order to highlight the problem of violence against women. My university supports this. Men are not being asked to strike, as the point is to emphasize the impact of the absence of women. So I (male) will still teach my Industrial Engineering class that day to the male students. My question is: Should I use the class to address issues related to women’s rights, and if so, how?

The course stresses systems thinking and consideration of non-technical issues, and looks at application of Industrial Engineering methods (quality improvement, process improvement, worker safety...) to many different areas. Any suggestions on how I might give a class that fits with the course theme but also pays heed to the important issue of violence against women in Mexico?

posted by neutralmojo to Education (24 answers total)

How about deriving some safety standards or process steps from the average physical measurements of the (male) students present?

Then, next class, you could demonstrate how that leads to unsafe environments or discriminatory process, because your female students weren’t represented during the design process.
posted by sixswitch at 12:58 PM on February 28, 2020 [34 favorites]

(The general frame being ”what can go wrong when women aren’t in the room / on the team”)
posted by sixswitch at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Along the lines of the suggestion by sixswitch, traffic crashes are more dangerous to women, because crash test dummies are based on men's bodies.
posted by NotLost at 1:02 PM on February 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

I'm sure this is something you're already thinking about, but whatever you do, you should design your class so that the striking women aren't at a disadvantage because they didn't attend. That means not teaching important material that day, etc.

I think it would be ideal if you could come up with a class plan that shows that the class is worse off in some way because the women aren't there. You don't have enough people to do an activity, the person who knows about X isn't there, etc...

Discussing the ways women are left out of industrial engineering is great and I think you should do it. But it's about the presence of women benefiting women - I can easily imagine some men brushing it off as a "women's issue", because it doesn't affect them personally.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:22 PM on February 28, 2020 [16 favorites]

If you are applying engineering principles to solve non-traditional problems, perhaps focus on areas where that might help women's safety. Some ideas off the top of my head that may or may not be top of mind concerns for women in your region. How would you restructure transit systems to make women safer? How would you change the way home automation systems work to better protect women in domestic violence situations? How would you address the process failures in rape reporting and investigations?

Then do the same exercise again with women in the room and see if the results are completely different because involving the women who actually face these problems instead of solving them without them only makes sense.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:24 PM on February 28, 2020 [15 favorites]

I was going to say what sixswitch said. I'm a woman and a chemist. Having worked in manufacturing environments, finding safety shoes and other PPE that fit properly is a challenge. (Even though I'm 5'9" and not petite, I'm definitely not built like a dude.)

Other challenges I've faced in the workplace: being told I dressed too sexy and it was distracting to the men, having to take more time off for caregiving and being seen as less productive because of it, not being listened to in meetings, being told I don't talk enough in meetings, being told I "sure am mechanically inclined for a lady", being told that my husband has a good job, why don't I just stay home? So telling the Male engineers to knock that shit off would be great.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:35 PM on February 28, 2020 [12 favorites]

Part 2: that crap is why women leave Male-dominated fields. And we need to be there because we are valuable! I'm smart! I've solved more than one problem that nobody else could! I have unique insight due to my experiences! You need us!
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 1:43 PM on February 28, 2020 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: Let me just jump in to say that these are all fantastic points. The idea of demonstrating the importance of different perspectives & experiences in problem solving (in particular, those of the 50% who are under-represented in engineering) is very interesting.

Kutsuwamushi - good point about not undermining the students who participate in the strike

Green Eyed Monster -- mind if I use your answers in my class?
posted by neutralmojo at 1:56 PM on February 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

How about deriving some safety standards or process steps from the average physical measurements of the (male) students present?

Yes! Alternately or additionally you could emphasize stress related injuries/alleviation with a mention of proper sizing of work spaces with a focus on data driven ergonomics and anthropometric measurements.
posted by RolandOfEld at 1:57 PM on February 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

And yes, do what the organizers of the strike tell you to do, above all else, if you want to support their voice. It sounds like you're doing that but any information or direction from them would be premier in your considerations obviously.
posted by RolandOfEld at 1:58 PM on February 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Mary Robinette Kowal has some great Twitter threads within the last few months about how engineering/designing for male astronauts impacted work on the space station when women astronauts were involved. I don't have a direct link but I'm sure it will come up on a search.
posted by matildaben at 2:03 PM on February 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

Discussing the ways women are left out of industrial engineering is great and I think you should do it. But it's about the presence of women benefiting women - I can easily imagine some men brushing it off as a "women's issue", because it doesn't affect them personally.
posted by Kutsuwamushi

I wonder if it would be possible to set up a practical exercise demonstrating how easy it is to overlook things that you don't have personal experience of, or how it feels to deal with the types of work environments Green Eyed Monster describes. This (especially the latter) might be tricky to do well, and I think you'd need to be careful to avoid potential pitfalls. But practical experience can sink in more than listening to a lecture and could better address the "it doesn't affect them personally" part. You might be able to find examples online of exercises that could work (or maybe someone here has relevant experience).
posted by trig at 3:11 PM on February 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Potentially, discuss how stereotypes would affect the job world if they were believed as stated, instead of as sexist tropes:

If women are "mature younger," why don't we tell young boys look to girls for leadership and guidance? (Funny how women's "maturity" always means they're expected to apply the brakes, not operate the steering wheel.)

If women are "better at people and relationships, rather than science and engineering," why aren't they the majority of team managers?

If women are more honest than men, why don't we put them in charge of more business decisions? Do we value unethical behavior?

If women have more stamina and are more polite and are better under pressure - why aren't they paid more as waitresses than men as waiters, since it sure seems they'd have better skills for the job?
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 3:18 PM on February 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

It would be valuable for the women in your class to be able to see or at least hear what went on in class while they were striking. Think about setting up a video camera or even a phone to record your class, or maybe just audio, depending on what you have available. Then make sure everyone in the class has access to the results.
posted by cooker girl at 3:38 PM on February 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

There's a great book called Invisible Women: Data Bias In A World Designed For Men which will give you a lot of answers. The author is also on Twitter. Maybe ask her!
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 3:43 PM on February 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

I remember reading that early cockpits were based on average measurements of sample of (male) pilots. The problem was that when you have multiple measurements that matter, even among men, almost everyone is outside of the norm on at least one measure. As a result, "average" design becomes very unsafe for almost everyone. The solution was design adjustable cockpits that allow each person to position themselves correctly.
The problem would be more obvious if they include women in the original design but impacts men's safety as well.

Edited to add my source: 99% invisible
posted by metahawk at 3:55 PM on February 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: So many great ideas and important points. Thank you all.
posted by neutralmojo at 5:33 PM on February 28, 2020

You might spend a moment reflecting on how unsafe misogyny and violence against women were for the 1989 Montreal Massacre that happened at an engineering school. We’re stronger if we all respect women and defeat gender based violence. Montreal is still recovering from that guy’s failure in December 1989. The assault was influenced by many other men (MRAs) who believed that women should not be in engineering school if the male shooter was not admitted.
posted by childofTethys at 7:31 PM on February 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Give them pertinent articles to read beforehand so they can discuss them in class rather than just you lecturing them. If you find several relevant articles assign each one to a small group and ask them to present it in class. You'll just be the moderator.
posted by mareli at 4:51 AM on February 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Lots of women will ignore the “strike.” Don’t assume all or even most of your women students will be absent.
posted by MattD at 9:39 AM on February 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I think you should try as hard as you can to change nothing about what you do, because that is kind of the point - the absence of women is inherently a problem. I think you sabotage that by piling on your own effect, because then people get to believe you created the effect intentionally. I'm explaining this badly, I know.

But I think there should be at least one exception to "act normally" - you better not teach anything that day that was discovered/developed by a woman. On that day, none of that exists. It's a day without women, or things given to us by women.
posted by ctmf at 11:35 AM on February 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ideally, also not teaching things given to us by women, and then taken credit for by a man, either, but I realize the impossibility of even knowing how many and which things that's true for
posted by ctmf at 11:37 AM on February 29, 2020

I'm explaining this badly, I know.

I guess it feels like "letting" someone win a point in sports, when they would have legitimately gotten the point on their own? I don't know. Just feels wrong to me.
posted by ctmf at 11:42 AM on February 29, 2020

Or you could cancel class completely with a statement that without women, you don't believe you can have an effective class, so there will be no class.
posted by ctmf at 11:45 AM on February 29, 2020