 |
| Imogen Cunningham |
 |
| Coffee Gallery, 1960 by Imogen |
 |
| Portrait of a Woman, 1939, by Imogen |
What is on my mind today: the state of women in 2015. It's a vast topic, but I will make it local and personal. It seems that even in Silicon Valley, which has some of the best opportunities for creative people, women do not compete on equal terms with the men who run and fund tech companies. See, for example, the January 2015 article by Nina Burleigh in Newsweek: What Silicon Valley thinks of Women, which describes the sexism there as "sordid and systemic." http://www.newsweek.com/2015/02/06/what-silicon-valley-thinks-women-302821.html
In this same Valley, I teach at one of the top high schools in the state, a place where there is much talk about reducing the "achievement gap." Yet I don't hear talk about reducing the achievement gap between male and female students- particularly in advanced Math and Science classes, where we know that the students are mostly young men. This topic seems to have fallen off the radar in a lot of schools, while universities still lament the underrepresentation of female students and professors in these subjects.
In the US, we fall behind many countries, and not just industrialized countries, when it comes to the representation of women in public life. We are doing immeasurable damage when we dismiss old women because they look old, and young women because they are women. When we look at women through the veil of youth, beauty, availability, potential for personal or financial gain, we strip away the possibility of fully knowing them and deny their potential to express their ideas and talents. That is what happened to Imogen all those times she asked to take that man's picture.
In this same Valley, I teach at one of the top high schools in the state, a place where there is much talk about reducing the "achievement gap." Yet I don't hear talk about reducing the achievement gap between male and female students- particularly in advanced Math and Science classes, where we know that the students are mostly young men. This topic seems to have fallen off the radar in a lot of schools, while universities still lament the underrepresentation of female students and professors in these subjects.
The subject of how we see and value women came up for me recently in an unexpected way, through the name of a great photographer: Imogen Cunningham. Recently I met with a famous author in San Francisco who had known Imogen. "Oh, she used to live down the street from me," he said, "and she kept asking to take my picture, but I kept telling her no. I didn't know who she was- she was just a little old lady. Later, I used to confuse her with Dorothea Lange." So I asked him, "If she had been young and beautiful, would you have agreed to have your picture taken?" "Oh, of course," he said, "but not because I'd want her to take my picture."
In the US, we fall behind many countries, and not just industrialized countries, when it comes to the representation of women in public life. We are doing immeasurable damage when we dismiss old women because they look old, and young women because they are women. When we look at women through the veil of youth, beauty, availability, potential for personal or financial gain, we strip away the possibility of fully knowing them and deny their potential to express their ideas and talents. That is what happened to Imogen all those times she asked to take that man's picture.