THE DEPARTMENT IS VERY MALE, VERY WHITE, VERY OLD, AND VERY CONSERVATIVE - THE FUNCTIONING OF THE HIDDEN CURRICULUM IN GRADUATE SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENTS

In this article, Eric Margolis and Mary Romero examine the effect of t he ''hidden curriculum'' on women of color graduate students in sociol ogy. They interview twenty-six women of color enrolled in Ph.D. progra ms in sociology to uncover how the graduate school curriculum not only produces professional sociologists, but also simultaneously reproduce s gender, race, class, and other forms of inequality. rn their analysi s, Margolis and Romero identify two forms of the hidden curriculum at work: the ''weak'' form, which is the professionalization process esse ntial to ''becoming a sociologist,'' and the ''strong'' form, which ac ts to reproduce stratified and unequal social relations. The numerous quotations from the women graduate students interviewed reveal that ma ny elements of the hidden curriculum - such as stereotyping and blamin g the victim - were painfully obvious to them. As Margolis and Romero argue, the women's stories, the authors' analysis, and the publication of this article are forms of resistance to the hidden curriculum, con stituting ''a lifting of veils to make visible what was hidden.''