Ellen Mayock 
Gender Shrapnel in the Academic Workplace 

This book employs the image of “shrapnel, ” bits of scattered metal that can hit purposeful targets or unwitting bystanders, to narrate the story of workplace power and gender discrimination. The project interweaves stories of gender shrapnel with an examination of national rhetoric surrounding business, education, and law to uncover underlying phenomena that contribute to discourse on privilege and gender in the academic workplace. Using concrete examples that serve as case studies for subsequent discussion of data about women in the workforce, language use and misuse, sexual harassment, silence and shutting up, and hiring, training, promotion, and the glass ceiling, Mayock explores the deeper implications of gender inequity in the workplace.

Table of Content

Section 1: Gender Shrapnel.- Chapter 1: Gendered Stories, Hybrid Methods.- Chapter 2:  Back When I Wasn’t a Feminist.- Chapter 3: Narratives of Gender Shrapnel.- Section 2: Gender Problems in the Workplace.- Chapter 4: The Enduring Feminine Mystique.- Chapter 5: Institutional Language(s) and the Enactment of Language.- Chapter 6: The Cycle of Harassment in the Workplace.- Chapter 7: On Emotion, Silence, and Shutting Up.- Chapter 8: The ‘Glass Ceiling’ and Hiring, Training, and Promotion.- Section 3: Solutions.- Chapter 9: To be PC or not to be PC, That is the Question.- Chapter 10: Thinking about Institutional Language in New Ways.- Chapter 11: Common Denominators and Potential Modes of Communication.- Chapter 12: ‘Tempered Radicalism’ and Holding the Powerful Accountable.- Chapter 13: ‘Small Wins’: Establishing Dependable and Flexible Institutional Structures.- Chapter 14: Training Principles: Checks and Balances, Sample Training Sessions, and Recommendations for Promoting an Equitable Work Environment.- Section 4: Case Studies in Gender Shrapnel.- Chapter 15: Gender Shrapnel Case Studies.- Section 5: Clearing the Shrapnel.- Chapter 16:  Final Remarks.- Appendix:  Instructor’s Guide.  Case Studies in Gender Shrapnel.- Bibliography.       

About the author

Ellen Mayock is the Ernest Williams II Professor of Spanish and Core Faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies at Washington and Lee University, Virginia, USA. She has published broadly on contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature and cultures as well as on feminist theories and practice.