Dear Editor,
The UWL Philosophy Department has wonderful professors. All of which are smart and gained their degrees from prestigious universities. They are smart, collected, and offer excellent insight to anyone who walks into their offices. Their names carry weight around campus and in their fields outside of it. The department’s students are all ambitious and intelligent– many earn their degree in hopes of seeking further education. PhD programs, law school, medical school. There is no doubt that this department churns out high-achieving students, and there is no doubt that this department carries some heavy-weight champions of philosophy. In this department, there is also an expectation that your ideas will be listened to. That there will be a space made for you– a space where you can have conversations, bounce ideas off one another, and you will not be brushed off or laughed at.
That is, of course, unless you are a female student.
At the end of every semester, the UWL Philosophy Department holds a social for majors and non-majors alike. At these socials, professors and students sit around a table, or in a circle, and talk. They discuss how semesters have gone, they ask how life has been, and they have intelligent conversations about their research, their ideas, and their opinions. On multiple occasions, I have been the only woman at these tables. Other times, it is me and one to two other women. Initially, I blamed the lack of time for these socials. Sometimes, there just isn’t interest in hanging around and talking when you could be studying for your finals. But as time went on, there was a repeated lack of women that worried me.
It finally made sense at the last social I went to. Students and professors held conversations that flowed naturally, adding in quotes from Aristotle and research from Descartes. The atmosphere was pleasant, and there was an abundant amount of donuts to eat. One of the professors began to pull attention as he asked us questions about the state of the world. Another professor chimed in, then two male students did, as well. Our first professor treated all ideas with respect, even the ones that he didn’t agree with. He was thoughtful in his responses. So I decided to speak.
I offered a response to one of his questions, and instead of receiving the same amount of respect given to the male students, I was laughed at. In my face, the professor laughed at my thought– which then prompted another male professor and the male students to laugh, as well. At first, I thought: wow, I must’ve given a terrible idea! How foolish of me.
Until the male head of the department came to my aid and agreed with my thoughts. Immediately, every man in the room respected my idea and listened to me when I followed up. That was when it made sense why there weren’t other women at the social. Why there weren’t as many women who majored or minored in philosophy. Why the UWL Philosophy Club had become so male-dominated. Why there weren’t other women at the table.
My thoughts, my ideas, no matter how strong or well-articulated, only mattered if a man validated them.
Later in the meeting, the same professor who had laughed at my idea asked the table again about thoughts on the research he was considering pursuing. I did not speak: I feared that if I did, I would be laughed at again. What if that time, a man didn’t back me up? I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously. As I nervously looked at my phone at that moment, the repeated patterns of suppression from men made sense.
Because it wasn’t just the professors. It was the students, too. Male students who would mock my ideas, only to have the exact same thought and opinion as me. Male students who valued my under-qualified male peers’ opinions more than mine. Male students who actively silenced the women around them in favor of speaking over them.
The UWL Philosophy Club was one of the main ways, in my experience, male students were able to achieve this. Despite over half of the executive board being women, the club was predominantly male. For a while, I wondered why that was, but when I engaged at that department social and saw sexism in action, things became clear.
The issue with philosophy at UWL isn’t that women are uninterested in it. Plenty are. The issue is that, in my experience, the men in the philosophy department don’t consistently create spaces for women to speak and be heard. Why would a woman come to a Philosophy Club meeting if she knows she’ll go unheard, if she knows she’ll be disrespected publicly in front of 20-30 men? Why would a woman attend a Philosophy Department end-of-semester social if she knows she’ll be laughed at?
Many times, both male professors and students in the Philosophy Department expressed to me their concern with the lack of women in their spaces. They couldn’t seem to grasp why there was such a lack of ‘interest’ from women in the subject of philosophy. As a woman, I tried to explain that it was other men. I tried to explain that so many men that were associated with the department didn’t respect women’s opinions, so women didn’t see the need to engage in such spaces. Each time this was mentioned, it was brushed off. They proved my point in front of me and never even noticed it.
Male students in the Philosophy Department were just as guilty as some of the male professors. In Philosophy Club meetings, men frequently spoke over women, though it was extremely rare for a man to speak over another man. When the club began, a hefty hand of the club were women. Now, a majority of the club is men. There are two women now on the executive board. After this semester, there will be none– as no women were chosen for next year. That’s because of the male-dominated culture of the department that’s been created, which enables that behavior in their male students. This creates an environment where those behaviors become normalized– and then, they escalate.
A case where there was a clear escalation was when I had a classmate that I had many classes with. He was a philosophy major like me and often came to Philosophy Club meetings. We were in a group together, and he sat next to me in one of my classes. I invited him and other classmates to go downtown with me, as many of us hung out outside of classes together. While downtown, after we had an extensive conversation about philosophy, friends, and family, he told me that he has, multiple times, masturbated to my photos on Instagram. The same man who I thought respected me as I respected him. The same man I sat next to, every class, and engaged in conversation with. I thought the worst part was that he had been one of the few to actually listen to me and respect my ideas– until the worst finally came. I asked him, really? out of sheer bewilderment, unsure how to react. He laughed and followed up by telling me that he was sure that many, many other men had.
In another case that stemmed from the culture created, there was a man in one of my philosophy classes who I engaged with occasionally, only when necessary. I did not like this man, and many other women who’d met him agreed that he was ‘creepy.’ I tried to keep my distance, but he was persistent. He emailed me frequently and often asked my female– never male– friends about me. Eventually, I forced myself to swallow my personal discomfort for the sake of working with him and the male students that had no problem with him. He started showing up to Philosophy Club meetings, so I kept my mouth shut. Until I told him that I had a boyfriend and he left in the middle of the meeting after I said it. One of my female friends told me after this that he’d walked up to her and told her, during a club meeting, that the only reason he went at all was to get to me. Not to get closer, not to get to know– just to get to.
All of these men were associated with the UWL Philosophy Department in some way. Yet they still all wonder why women don’t engage and show interest in their spaces. It’s because, in my experience, there aren’t safe spaces for female students within the UWL Philosophy Department. When a culture like this is created– a culture of laughing at female students’ ideas, of speaking over them, of dismissing them– that suppresses how often female students feel safe or able to speak up. This culture isn’t just a benefit to the male students, it’s a major detriment to the women. If a male philosophy student treats a female student poorly due to that culture, then that female student won’t feel comfortable going to professors that perpetuate that culture.
I, and other female students I’ve spoken to related to the department, felt that way. If a male student treated us poorly, if he said something sexist, if he made us uncomfortable, there was no one we felt comfortable going to. Male professors who made us feel small, who we felt wouldn’t listen to us, who we had learned would dismiss us– there was no reason to approach them about these issues. Which, in turn, made some untrusting of the UWL administration as a whole. I don’t believe that this is the environment that the professors had intended to create. I don’t think that any of the male philosophy professors want their male students to behave like this or treat women this way. What I do believe is that they subtly created a culture where it felt like it was okay to disrespect the female students, to treat them as lesser than.
There is one female professor in the department. I’ve had classes with her before, and she’s an excellent professor. She’s the smartest, most insightful woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. I was not close with her, and I didn’t spend time with her or engage with her how I engaged with the male professors. I was scared to go to her with these issues. Not because she’d shown any kind of distaste towards me. Not because we weren’t close. But because of the culture in the UWL Philosophy Department that had been created. I didn’t feel comfortable expressing any of these thoughts to anyone outside of other female students.
What I tried to do, however, to combat these sexist behaviors and mistreatment was speak to the male students I trusted. My male professors– even the ones who seemed to be more feminist than the rest– never once discouraged these behaviors from my male peers. So, I thought the best bet would be to try and make things better on a more social level. However, the only ‘advice’ I received when I went to these male students was to just ignore it or to get over it. They’d say that it wasn’t a real issue– and eventually, if it ‘did’ become one, then maybe they’d see what they could do. I told a friend in the philosophy department, a man, that someone we knew in the department had made me, and multiple other women, uncomfortable through his unwanted advances. My friend told me that he didn’t care, because it didn’t happen to him.
This was the culture created, and it’s not just with the UWL Philosophy Department. Many other women I’ve spoken to in different colleges and departments have had similar issues. Due to each of these instances repeatedly going unaddressed, along with female students feeling unsafe to report anything, the blame ultimately falls on UWL. For many students that I’ve spoken to, this university is no longer seen as safe due to its lack of care for female students, LGBTQ+ students, and students of color. In fact, it’s not just the students treated this way. Dr. J.C. Wagner-Romero spoke of this in his Letter to the Editor. Similarly to him, I once respected UWL. But because I am repeatedly treated differently due to my gender, my perspective has changed. His article inspired me to come forward about my experiences. I believe that in times such as these, where so many feel comfortable in their biases and refuse to acknowledge them, or grow out of them, that more people should be as brave as him and come forward.
Because these kinds of behaviors from men are not only cause for concern, but they are terrifying to women. There needs to be space for women to speak freely and to be respected, but in my experience, especially in the UWL Philosophy Department, this was not something that was awarded. After facing ‘small’ incidents from professors, I then had a male philosophy student talk about how often he’s masturbated to my Instagram photos. I had a man in my philosophy class tell my fellow female student that he wanted to get to me. In one of the most serious instances, I had a male philosophy student corner me in my own bedroom and make me kiss him, despite me turning away his advances. These men were well-respected and/or loved in the department, a department where I faced sexism from my own male professors– so none of these were isolated incidents. These incidents happened because there was a culture created where women’s boundaries were already being dismissed in smaller ways.
It’s not just me. It’s not just this department, even– in February of last year, two male students were charged with sexual assault. In October 2021, a woman reported being raped by multiple men in the UWL parking garage. So these ‘small’ acts of sexism inflicted by male peers, professors, and UWL create a different kind of space: not one for women to be heard or respected, but one for men to create and believe in their power over women.
That is the point of all this. Not just that sexism is bad, not just that UWL as an institution doesn’t care about it, but that allowing this behavior, perpetuating this behavior, leads to real, physical harm of UWL’s female students. The issues I’ve discussed here took place within the UWL Philosophy Department, but they took root my very first year here. My very first year when my male classmates told me I was an idiot for being a feminist. My very first year when I was told by a male classmate that women shouldn’t go to law school. My very first year when I met the male student I looked up to that would one day assault me. My very first year when my male professor at the time told me he wished he could hand-feed me and insist I suck on the things he fed me.
The UWL Philosophy Department needs to make space for women. All of UWL needs to make space for women. Because when they don’t, women get harmed. I hope more women will come forward.
I hope more students and professors of color will come forward. I hope more people in the LGBTQ+ community will come forward. Not just that–I hope that male students and professors will step up. This letter is not intended to be a list of grievances, nor is it intended to say that UWL and the UWL Philosophy Department is full of terrible people. Because it isn’t. What I am intending to ask– what I am intending to beg– of every man is to help the women around you. When you allow these behaviors to happen, when you (even unintentionally) create an environment, space, or culture where women feel unsafe, then women will be harmed. Please make room for women. Please reprimand the men in your life that you see mistreat women, even if it’s small. Because all of those small incidents are what lead to the big ones. Mistreating a female student because of her gender– again, even unintentionally– will lead to that culture being developed. It will lead to women being harmed.
I used to love UWL. I used to sing its praises everywhere I went. I used to proudly wear its logo across my chest, and I’d beam with pride when someone would ask if I went there. When friends from other schools would look to transfer, I’d beg them to come to UWL.
But now? If any woman, if any person of color, if any member of the LGBTQ+ community asked me if they should go to the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, I’d tell them that if they valued their safety, they should never even consider it.
Please– do better, male students. Call out your friends for their behavior. Help your female friends. Please– do better, UWL Philosophy Department. Make a safer space for female students. Listen to them, and reprimand your male students who speak over or disrespect them. Please– do better, UWL. This was once an institution I could see myself donating to post-graduation. This was once an institution I wished I could come back and teach at. This was once an institution I wanted to send my children to.
I will always, and forever, hope that the UWL will become a better, safer place for women, people of color, and those in the LGBTQ+ community. I believe that it can. I believe that with hard conversations and the unlearning of our biases, it will. We just need to start those conversations. This is my attempt at that.
Regards,
A Former Student
