Women remember another form of 'March Madness'

Breeze Reader's view

As you spend long hours not doing the work that continues to pile up on your desk, and instead meticulously fill out your brackets, I challenge you to remember that March Madness is not the only madness to which this month pays tribute.

March also is Women's History Month, a month where we not only recognize the great women who have paved the way for all of us, but we acknowledge the distance left to be traveled. We live in a country where every nine seconds a woman is beaten — most likely by someone she knows intimately. According to the Department of Justice, 64 percent of women who reported being raped, physically assaulted and/or stalked since age 18 were victimized by a current or former husband, co-habiting partner, boyfriend or date. If this doesn't elicit a sense of "madness," did you know that domestic violence continues to be the leading cause of death or injury to women in the United States?

Violence is not just occurring behind closed doors in the homes of men and women. One in four college women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape by the time she graduates. This statistic was supported by research done by professor Arnie Kahn, revealing that this national statistic rings true on our campus.

Violence against women is not the only battle we are fighting. According to the 2002 report by the National Committee on Pay Equity, women earn 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. Over a working lifetime, this wage disparity costs the average American woman and her family an estimated $523,000 in lost wages, impacting Social Security benefits and pensions.

Women in academia continue to face discrimination in pay, promotions and tenure. The Faculty Women's Caucus at JMU continues to fight for equality for the school's female faculty members, but JMU still has a long way to go.

With a student body that is 65 percent female and growing, at a school that was once exclusively female, you would think that more than one of the top five administrative positions at the university would be held by a woman. If that doesn't surprise you, the dean of each of the six colleges within the university are all men and of the 17 members of the Board of Visitors, only five are women.

If you have not been a victim of gender-based discrimination, or you do not know anyone personally who has been a victim of sexism, I encourage you to think of your mothers, sisters, girlfriends — and possibly one day — your daughter, all of whom undoubtedly will be denied the very basic rights of equality sometime in their lives.

Men are not the enemy here. If you must define the enemy, or, better yet, identify the opposing team that has just knocked off one of your final four picks, you will be attempting to set up the very dichotomies that got society here in the first place. It is not about men; it is about creating alliances and links through conversation, information and education that will begin to erode the patriarchy that oppresses us all.

Come April 5, when the last whistle blows and we crown yet another championship team, I too will be on the couch in the midst of the excitement enjoying yet another exciting day in sports. March Madness will be over, or will it?

Erin Burns is a senior psychology major