THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
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INSIDE Report expresses concerns over LGBT students’ health care
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vol. 135 // iss. 15 Mon., Oct. 9, 2017
Column: Respecting gender identity is not a matter of politics
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IN A MAN’S WORLD A recent report has shed a light on KU’s gender equity issues, including a lack of female faculty members. Retired business professor Renate Mai-Dalton talks about her experience with institutional sexism in the male-dominated school
DARBY VANHOUTAN @darbyvanhoutan In a recent report published by a committee that looked into gender equity issues at the University, the number of female and male professors — assistant, associate and full — in each of the schools on campus was compared. Of the 14 schools included, the School of Business had the least number of female professors: 12 of the 58 professors, or 20 percent — excluding adjuncts. One of the earliest business school professors was Renate Mai-Dalton who retired as an associate professor in 2011 after 31 years at the University. She taught courses in, among other things, management of workforce diversity and organizational behavior. At one point, she was one of only two tenured female faculty at the school. In addition to teaching and researching, she established the first booster club for a women’s varsity team at the University, KU Courtsiders, which supported women’s basketball. During her tenure, she also created and directed the KU Multicultural Business Scholars Program and directed the business school doctoral program. Recently reached at her home in Orange County, California, by the Kansan recently, she discussed the importance of female faculty and the positive impact diversity can have on units and individuals The following Q&A has been edited for brevity and clarity.
KANSAN: How do you view female professionals in higher education, specifically at the University? MAI-DALTON: It depends a lot on the individual ... If you’re being told you only have certain options, those are the options that you initially think you can only take. So it is not that easy to say how hard or how easy it is, it depends a lot on your self-esteem and your conviction. That’s the case wherever you go, really. When you talk about the School of Business situation, where historically there have been considerably lower numbers of women than men, you have a lot of things. When I came, everybody was very kind to me ... Of course I did receive the position, and I was welcomed and, at the time David Shulenburger who you might know, later on became the provost, he was the associate dean and he welcomed me. What happens is essentially institutional sexism, not necessarily what the men in the situation think about or want to do, what happens is very simple. People who are friends are going out to lunch, are going on vacation together, are playing golf, are playing basketball during the lunch hour, all of these things. You probably know enough about life and networking that most of the pre-discussion to important discussions, even including research they are interested in or might be doing, are being discussed during those informal times. So, if there are very few women, they don’t have access to that.
KANSAN: Being on University boards, even creating some of these boards — Multicultural Scholars and KU Courtsiders — are you saying it’s important that there’s a female voice? That’s why you’re a glutton for punishment — because you wanted to be that female voice?
faculty are not necessarily against equality. I think it might be unfair to say that. It’s just that when you are not in a given situation, you don’t understand what it is.
MAI-DALTON: (laughing) Right, right. Yes, and I was very fortunate in my area of leadership and psychology because when you are in opposition, you have to present your case in such a way that people can hear you, that you don’t turn people off at the same time as your argue with facts. It’s the same in journalism. You argue your position, you don’t hit people over the head even though you’re very upset with current situations. You still have [to] make your argument tight, courteous so that you can have a conversation. That takes some skill, and sometimes I think women have more of that than men.
MAI-DALTON: There has been growth. It’s definitely different from 1979. And, I must tell you, that we at KU are lucky to have Neeli Bendapudi in the positions that she’s in. First as dean of the business school and now on campus [as the provost]. ... When she was the dean in the business school, no dean 20 years in a row before her had accomplished, namely, getting private funds together to get the school built. We were all sweating it out in Summerfield. In addition to that, she has always been straightforward to increase, accept and benefit from diversity. We’re not only talking about being kind to people that are different, we’re talking about benefiting from people with different backgrounds and thought processes. I can tell you, having taught master’s students, for instance, we would have group projects where we would discuss things in class. I’ll never forget one group had a student from South America who was a Fulbright scholar and because he could not contribute because people didn’t listen, didn’t think he would have important things to contribute, the group out-
KANSAN: You talked about — and I’m glad you mentioned it — being a person of color or a woman, in these situations do you think it’s important to have the gung-ho [conviction] you talked about earlier? MAI-DALTON: Right, you can only be convincing if you’re convinced of your own issue. You have to be passionate about what you believe in and, as I said, you have to make your case in essentially an impatient matter because you are using facts. And the male
KANSAN: Did you ever see [inclusivity] things happening across campus when you were here?
come wasn’t nearly as good as his individual idea. This is not unusual. However, it is harder to work with a diverse group because you have to listen to and contribute in a certain way to the discussion, and it takes a certain skill. Whether or not it’s a faculty group, a student project, out in the community, the diversity increases the quality of the product. KANSAN: So whether or not we’re institutionally closed off to diversity, plans will undoubtedly be better by including diverse voices? How do we ensure that? MAI-DALTON: KU has made progress in that area, but you have to stay on it all the time. It’s the same as with racism in this country: It will never be solved, I’m sorry to tell you. It’s been here for many, many years now. You always have to stay working on it and you make small progress and you make some more progress, that’s just the way life is. KANSAN: And where do you think the business school is at with this? Professionals there — female students, multicultural students, etc. — what advice would you give them on how to make those small strides? MAI-DALTON: Just to make sure to be involved, to be active, to take their rightful place in the classroom. — Edited by Wes Dotson