Interview with Paula Caplan

• Published in: Resources for feminist research 2007-03, Vol.32 (1-2), p.139-147
• Main Author: Ristock, Janice
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Departments; Authors; Cancer; Caplan, Paula; Caplan, Paula J; College professors; Conversation; Feminism; Interviews; Men; Nostalgia; Person; Professional relationships; Psychology; Time; Universities; Wine, Jeri Dawn; Women; Work Environment
• ISSN: 0707-8412

PC: Oh, absolutely, no question about it. I'll talk about [Jen] in that connection too in a minute. But about the Community Psychology program, faculty took turns heading the various programs, right. So when, at one point it was my turn to head the Community Psych program there were two other faculty members who were men and [Jeri] and me. We were talking about some sort of problem with, I don't know, requirements or something in the program and I was chairing the meeting. At one point I made some sort of suggestion about a possible solution. And nobody said anything. Then the conversation went on and one of the men said what I had said. He didn't say "[Paula J. Caplan] said...," he made the same suggestion that I had just made. I was stunned. I just kind of smiled and said, "I could have sworn I just said that a few minutes ago." And so we sort of laughed and implemented that change. Well, Jeri came up to me afterward and said she couldn't believe that I hadn't gotten angry. She really thought it was remarkable that I had kept my temper and handled it the way that I had. I hadn't been aware of feeling angry. When she said that, whether I had felt it or not, I realized yes, you know, this happens all the time. It's not right. It happens to women all the time. And there's reason to be angry about it, at least in principle. And so that was another important thing that she did for me. PC: Then it was worse at night because they, you know, lowered the air at night. And so everybody always knew that the air in the building was a problem. But nobody wanted to acknowledge it or to think, "The place where I work is dangerous," or "The place where I study is dangerous." And that was really scary for me when I started realizing it and realizing nobody else is ready yet to make this connection. They thought I was nuts of course. I said to Jeri, "Gosh, it must be the air in the building." At that point, she said, "No, no I don't think so. But, you know, darn it, my symptoms are back." And then my recollection, and I may be wrong, is that this kind of thing happened a second time. I don't know whether she went through another kind of cleansing or alternative treatment or was just out of the building for the summer and came back and it happened again. When Jeri became more ill and decided to take early retirement, well, I was devastated of course. But personally, I thought, "Good for her, she'll be out of the building, now she'll be OK." We just assumed then that once y