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Paula Caplan, in her book Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World, outlines the myths and dilemmas that plague women's entrance into (and success in) academia. While sobering, the information provides a handy map to the pitfalls and mines that currently impede women's progress in academia. Most crucially, she exhorts female academics not to blame themselves for these impediments, but rather to recognize their familiar faces in the anecdotes and stories detailed in this book. Through flowing narrative and fascinating examples, Caplan provides an easily read and pragmatic profile of the current difficulties and delights that should be carefully entertained before a woman (or person of minority status, or both) considers a career in academia.
This book resulted from an initiative by the Council of Ontario Universities' Committee on the Status of Women, and was inspired by a desire on the Committee's part not only to offer data supporting discrimination against women in academia, but also to offer solutions. As a result, Dr. Caplan was asked to create a book that had three overall objectives: first, to document the under-representation and mistreatment of women in universities in Canada; second, to speculate upon the causes of these adversities, and third, to offer suggestions to both the individual and the system which address these problems.
For the data addressing under-representation, Caplan offers within Appendix 1 ("The Data on Gender Bias in Academia") a rich, three-dimensional look at the studies and work that have been conducted to document the lack of support available to women academics as they climb the professorial ladder....