Professor quoted on women's rights in Psychology Today

In the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a regulation that allows employers with religious or moral objections to limit women's access to birth control coverage, years of advances in women's rights may be in danger of being rolled back, according to an article in Psychology Today.

Laura Bierema, a professor in the College of Education's department of lifelong education, administration and policy, told Psychology Today that women's lives are shaped by "life's hidden curriculum" that teaches girls and women "subordination to the dominant patriarchal system of power."

"Lessons learned include gender roles, a devaluing of women, silence and invisibility, submission to male power and acceptance of role contradictions," she added. "Girls and boys, women and men learn these power relations throughout their lives. They are so ingrained in the culture that they are practically invisible, neither questioned nor challenged by most people."