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Anthro Log

Category: Womens History

  • The Role of Science in Gender & Sexuality Programs in Faith Institutions

    I recently read about the University of St. Thomas in Houston launching graduate certificate and master’s degree programs in Catholic Women’s and Gender Studies that explicitly aim to integrate scientific disciplines, philosophy, and theology.

    These programs respond to what many see as a lack in religious education: students often feel ill‑equipped to engage cultural debates about gender and sexuality because they notice contradictions or gaps between scientific understandings (biology, psychology), philosophical anthropology, and Church teaching. The UST program seeks to ground discussions of gender and sexuality in robust theological and anthropological tradition while engaging contemporary science.

    What do I think is key here? Balance. It’s dangerous when any one dimension dominates -if theology ignores science, or science ignores ethics/spiritual formation. These programs are experiments in harmony: cultivating leaders who can speak with intellectual depth and compassionate clarity.

  • Theology & Language: The Gender of the Holy Spirit in Early Christianity

    Something that caught my theological interest recently is how the Holy Spirit was referred to in early Christian texts, especially in the Syriac tradition. In many Semitic languages, the word for “spirit” is grammatically feminine.

    In liturgical and theological works from early Syriac churches (e.g., the Syriac Orthodox), feminine images of the Spirit appear, sometimes maternal or likened to care and nurture. This challenges later theological traditions that uniformly male‑gender Father, male Son, and masculine pronouns or metaphors.

    Why does this matter? Language shapes theology. How believers imagine God affects worship, doctrine, and spirituality. If the Spirit is imagined with feminine metaphor, that opens space for different understandings of gender, relational images in divinity, and even gender identity in human communities.

    It also invites reflection: are metaphors fixed or malleable? How do cultures and languages inform what theological categories come to dominance? When I reflect on this, I see that theological traditions are often more plural than we might assume.

  • Gender Differences in Scientific Careers: Representation, Recognition & Gaps

    As someone deeply interested in gender equity, I found a 2021 study analyzing millions of academic careers from 1996–2018 across disciplines both enlightening and disheartening. The researchers wanted to understand how men and women differ in publishing output, career length, and leadership roles.

    The findings? Women now represent about 40% of early-career publishing scientists (a huge increase from just a couple of decades ago). However, they are slightly less likely than men to persist in academic publishing over the long term. When it comes to publishing volume, men still produce about 15–20% more papers, on average. In many fields, particularly biomedical science, men are significantly more likely to be the last author—a position typically associated with senior leadership or lab direction.

    This data underscores persistent issues around mentorship, institutional support, parental leave, and bias in recognition. From my experience, the challenge isn’t solely numbers. It’s about the culture of science: who gets funded, cited, promoted, or taken seriously in conference rooms.

    Beyond quantitative metrics, qualitative research has shown that women often experience “invisible labor” and are held to higher standards in peer review. This aligns with the broader concept of the “leaky pipeline” where systemic barriers cause disproportionate attrition for women and underrepresented groups.

    What gives me hope is that transparent data like this drives policy. Universities can’t ignore the disparities once they’re exposed. Equity audits, mentorship networks, and bias training are part of the solution, but real change requires systemic commitment.

    Gender equity in academia isn’t about “helping women catch up”, it’s about redesigning systems so that all researchers, regardless of gender, have equal opportunities to thrive.

  • Takeaways From “Family matters: Primary gender socialization and gender-based violence in paid domestic work in Bolivia and Peru” by Nora Goffre

    Nora Goffre’s ethnographic study, grounded in fieldwork across Bolivia and Peru, reveals that paid domestic labor is deeply shaped by early gendered socialization, presenting a “regime of gendered and racialized appropriated labor”(source). She argues that domestic workers—mostly rural migrant women, often Indigenous or Afro‑Latin American—enter a cycle where exploitation in their birth families resonates within employers’ households and persists into their conjugal relationships 

    Contrary to the common perception of the family as a protective space, Goffre highlights how it can perpetuate violence. The sexual division of labor and normalized gendered roles within households lay the foundation for ongoing emotional, physical, and sexual exploitation. When these workers transition into paid domestic roles, the same norms become inscribed into work relationships, making violence and dependency systemic.

    Goffre positions paid domestic work as a blurred form of “appropriated labor”—where private, informal care becomes formally unpaid or underpaid labor, rooted in structural inequalities of class, race, and patriarchal norms. The prevalence of rural, ethnically marginalized women in this sector is a clear outcome of colonial histories and entrenched poverty.

    What stands out most to me in this study is Goffre’s intersectional framing: violence against domestic workers isn’t just gendered—it’s racialized and classed. Goffre critiques the failure of broader scholarly work to integrate these intersecting axes of oppression when analyzing household labor dynamics.

    Some More Key Takeaways:

    • Violence is normalized early: Gendered socialization in origin families lays the emotional groundwork for accepting abusive power dynamics.
    • Paid work reflects private oppression: Domestic employment often replicates familial exploitation patterns.
    • Labor is appropriated, not compensated: The merging of emotional care and wage labor functions as structural extraction.
    • Intersectionality is essential: Only by considering gender, race, and class together can we grasp the full depth of workers’ vulnerabilities.

    Goffre’s study serves as a powerful reminder that interventions aimed at protecting domestic workers must go beyond workplace regulations in order to enact real change. They must address the familial and societal norms that sanction harm, starting from childhood socialization through adulthood. Only then can the root cause of the harms done to the households and daily lives of some of Latin America’s most vulnerable laborers be addressed. For more information check out the full ethnographic study.

  • The Women and Men of the Huns: Not just Villains in Disney’s Mulan

    Mulan and Shan Yu

    Consider this stream of questions:

    1. Have you seen the Disney movie Mulan? 
    1. Do you remember the powerful and ruthless Huns, i.e., the main villains of the story championed by their golden-eyed leader, Shan Yu?
    1. Do you remember the fact that somehow, one of the only characters who was unfazed by Mulan’s being a woman was the murderous and evil villain of the story? (What are the odds??)

    Well, if the answer to all three questions is yes, then I’m here to finally satisfy your insatiable curiosity on the matter by explaining why:

    The Huns were actually a real group of people. Their origins are somewhat unknown and debated amongst historians. According to History , “Some scholars believe they originated from the nomadic Xiongnu people who entered the historical record in 318 B.C. and terrorized China during the Qin Dynasty and during the later Han Dynasty.” Some even go as far as to say that they were so egregious that the Great Wall of China was built to help protect against the mighty Xiongnu, though this hasn’t been proven. Other historians, though, believe that they may have origins in Kazakhstan or elsewhere in the central and eastern parts of Asia.

    Following their arrival in southeastern Europe near 370 A.D., they continuously conquered territory for almost 70 years. Their defining characteristic lies in their unbelievable military prowess and horsemanship. Their brutal conquests granted them a reputation as “ruthless, indomitable savages”.

    You may be thinking, “Okay, that’s cool and all, but what does that have to do with the relationship between two characters in a Disney movie?”. So let’s connect the dots. 

    What’s very intriguing about the Huns was the heavy involvement of women in many aspects of their society (including the military!). The Huns uniquely used archery as their main weapon, allowing women to both participate and excel in their military since they could avoid combat reliant on physical strength. And so, it was considered fairly normal to fight alongside women in the Hun army.

    The Huns are one of many groups in human history that may not have aligned with traditional views on social organization (in many ways). So learning about them, especially the role women have, helps challenge our preconceived notions that society has and always must be so patriarchal. 

    So, all that being said, with Shan Yu being Hun, it’s incredibly unsurprising that this great, formidable foe and equal in battle was a woman; it didn’t faze him, and why would it? And now, after learning a little about the role of women in the Huns, it no longer fazes you either!

  • New Information About Matrilineal Neolithic Chinese Community

    Earlier this month, Nature published an fascinating study focused on the Fujia archaeological site in eastern China (around 2750–2500 BCE). By analyzing ancient DNA, burial patterns, and isotope data from sixty individuals across two cemeteries, researchers have illuminated a striking example of a matrilineal community in Neolithic times. 

    What was most interesting for me about the study was how the cemeteries functioned almost like clan identifiers. Each cemetery was essentially dominated by one of two maternal mitochondrial haplogroups. That means individuals sharing the same maternal lines were buried together (a clear hallmark of matrilineal clan organization). 

    Additionally, mitochondrial DNA revealed striking homogeneity within each cemetery, reinforcing that burial was determined by maternal lineage. Moreover, analysis of runs of homozygosity (ROH) showed high rates of endogamy, signaling that most marriages occurred within the community. Interestingly, however, these were not close‑kin unions. This suggests careful clan-based mate selection, preserving genetic variety while reinforcing social bonds (see bioengineer.org for more info).

    But why is this discovery so revolutionary? I mean- haven’t we uncovered many matrilineal societies previously? Well, This matrilineal structure at Fujia challenges long-held assumptions that prehistoric societies were predominantly patriarchal, making it a pretty important discovery in the field. Historically, figures like Bachofen and Morgan theorized that early societies were matrilineal before evolving into patriarchies, but until now, genetic substantiation as concrete proof has been missing. This discovery, however, is now a rare, well-documented case of long-lasting matrilineality, where lineage and burial were firmly defined by maternal descent.

    In other words, This study now allows us to reframe our previous understanding of prehistoric social complexity. Matrilineal systems weren’t merely theoretical, but genuinely deeply rooted in lived human experience. The Fujia findings highlight how kinship, identity, and social organization in early agricultural societies were far more varied and regionally specific than previously thought.

    Perhaps the most exciting aspect of technological advancement in the biological anthropology field is the new ways we can re‑ examine kinship systems in prehistoric societies worldwide. By combining genetics with archeological insight, we’re beginning to decode the rich diversity of early human social structures.

    Though I’m personally more interested in the cultural side of anthropology, it’s so fascinating seeing how biology can truly cement theories and discoveries in the field as facts.