Annual COSWA REPORT
Submitted by Sara Trechter
strechter@csuchico.edu

1. What activities did the Committee or Commission do in relation to your stated Objective in 2004?

In 2004 the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology met twice through a conference call and kept in contact throughout the year by means of an e-list. Our face-to-face business meeting at the annual conference was cancelled. Consequently, a great deal of planning for 2005 will take place during the conference call in February 2005. We had several goals for 2004, and our theme of promoting gender diversity equity in the workplace was the thread that held our different projects together.

a) Of major concern was to communicate with the Long-Range planning committee that *gender diversity* and issues of *equitable treatment* be included in the Long-Range plan. Through last-minute communications from representatives of the long range planning committee, these were ultimately included. b)

b) Mentoring of students and junior faculty in all the anthropological subdisciplines was dealt with in two ways: 1) we established a mentoring link at the AAA COSWA website, and we recruited volunteers from different subdisciplines at various stages of their careers to act as potential mentors for those who wish to contact them. This is a pilot project, and after assessment in 2005 by the committee, we will determine its effectiveness, next steps, and additional ways to publicize the service. 2) We proposed a workshop for graduate students and junior faculty at the 2004 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, in which experts from a variety of subdisciplines were scheduled to present and discuss the kinds of gender-related challenges they had encountered in their fields and potential solutions. Because of the change of venue to Atlanta, the workshop was cancelled. We plan to re-assemble the workshop and present it in 2005.

c) A double session addressing gender and work from the perspective of a number of subdisciplines was planned as the major COSWA event for the 2004 Annual Meeting. The session (anthropological analysis of gender and work) and the workshop (the gendered workplace of anthropology) were designed to complement each other. The committee decided to postpone both until the 2005 session because we believed given the workplace issues in the San Francisco hotels it was important to deliver the sessions in their entirety . Also, too many participants in both were not planning to go to the Atlanta 2004 meeting. d)

e) COSWA re-evaluated a questionnaire that was created 2 years ago by the committee to survey "the chilly climate" for women in anthropology. We determined that the current questionnaire was too lengthy and potentially biased. Trudy Turner, who has done similar questionnaires and reports in the past, is working on a survey for COSWA that is doable. We also consulted with other committees in the AAA, and found that a similar questionnaire is being completed to survey the gendered workplace and work experience of those in applied anthropology. Christina Wasson, a COSWA member, is working both with the association for applied anthropology to make sure that there is no unnecessary overlap between the two questionnaires, but that they both address essential issues. f)

g) COSWA awarded the Squeaky Wheel Award to Adrienne Zihlman for her contributions to gender research in biological anthropology and her excellent mentoring work for women. h)

2. What activities are planned for 2005?

* The sessions and workshop planned for the 2004 Annual Meeting will roll over to 2005 with some modifications of participants and papers where necessary.
* We plan to follow-up on the mentoring website by surveying the volunteers to determine the demographics of those who contacted them and the kinds of issues that are important for COSWA to address in more detail. Volunteers will, of course, honor their commitment to anonymity of participants.) The mentoring website will be developed further in light of this feedback and advertised in a greater number of venues, such as subdisciplinary listservs and the Anthropology Newsletter.
* The questionnaire will be completed and go out to a sub-set of members of the AAA. Analysis of the results will be presented by COSWA at the AAA and published.
* We will continue to seek nominations for deserving recipients for the squeaky wheel award. *

We believe that COSWA has enough funds to complete the work for 2005 outlined above. There is some question as to whether additional funds will be required to send out the "working conditions" questionnaire. We have in the past been assured that the AAA supports this sort of work through a general fund, and that they have already committed funding to such institutional research. We have not sought outside funding for our numerous efforts. This year, however, it may be necessary to fund slightly longer conference calls to make up for our cancelled 2004 face-to-face business meeting at the AAA annual meeting.

3. Do you view your Responsibilities and Objectives of you Committee/Commission as having changed? It not, should they? No. This has not been discussed in the last year, but has rather evolved as we choose to focus on specific themes encompassed in our charter.

4. What issues would you like raised or recommendations would you like to make to the Long-Range Planning Committee? None at this time.

5. What issues would you like raised or recommendations would you like to make to the AAA Executive Board?
There has been a great deal of concern in the past year by COSWA members about the lack of communication from within the AAA to the committees and commissions. Much of this concern was raised in connection to the lack of timely information we received about the hotel workers' strike in San Francisco. The AAA has tried to address this situation and the lack of communication with its members in a variety of ways since that time, and COSWA applauds these efforts. However, the lack of communication and consultation with concerned committees extends beyond the 2004 Annual Meeting decisions; it was endemic in many of my interactions with AAA governance this year. It has not yet been adequately addressed. Briefly, 1) we were not consulted before the decision was made to change our AAA liaison from Kathleen Terry-Sharp to Suzanne Mattingly. Both are excellent at their jobs. The communication issue is unrelated to their professionalism and their obvious desire to make a smooth transition. It was quite surprising that the voices of the COSWA committee were not regarded as even worth taking into account in this top-down decision. We were informed after the decision was made. 2) Although we were consulted about the long-range plan, it took many attempts to make our clear, decisive voice as a committee heard and many email messages went unanswered. It was only a fluke that I consulted my email late one Saturday evening to find that the final draft would be voted on, and was once again able to suggest that the issues of gender and equity be included at the last minute.3) There was no early information about the hotel workers' strike in San Francisco even though gender and work issues were at the center of our work for the AAA this year.

Granted the AAA is larger than many professional organizations; however, with such numbers it is imperative that the organization re-evaluate its communicative practices. More consultation is necessary to provide better governance.