‘Learning the rules of the game’: emotional labor and the gendered academic subject in the United States

Abstract

In this article, we investigate how entrenched sexism in higher education can take root in graduate school, where many of us learn the ‘rules of the academic game’ through our roles as teaching assistants (TAs). Feminist and anti-racist scholars have documented how these ‘rules of the game’ are scripted on different academic bodies. We focus this article on the stubborn persistence of sexism in university life through the everyday, mundane forms of emotional labor and care that TAs feel obligated to perform. As the current #MeToo movement reminds us, sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression are as evident today as they were decades ago when feminist scholars and activists challenged the masculinism of geographical discourse through examinations of power, knowledge, and subjectivity. Our research returns to these themes by examining TAs’ experiences of sexism in the classroom through the lens of critical care ethics. A focus on TAs brings attention to the constitution of the gendered academic subject and identifies the emotional labor required to manage this subject. We believe that the durability of sexism warrants an investigation of the sites where women learn their ‘place’ in the academy.