Professor Sanday Wins Gender Equity Award from American Anthropological Association

Professor Emerita of Anthropology Peggy Reeves Sanday has received the annual award for work on gender equity from the Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association. Sanday will be presented with the award at the Association’s annual meeting in Denver this November.

“Peggy Sanday is—and has long been—a leader in the field of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies and has made a real difference to the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies Program, the Alice Paul Center, and the lives of many women and men here at Penn,” said Professor of Political Science Nancy J. Hirschmann, who directs the Program on Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality, and Women. “We are so very proud and happy that she has received this well-deserved honor and recognition.”

In a letter to Sanday, the committee stated “The 2015 nominee pool was especially robust, and the committee felt that your career accomplishments advancing the status of women were exceptional…. The committee was impressed by your longstanding commitment to the struggle against gender discrimination through your scholarship, mentorship, and advocacy.”

Sanday was a pioneer in the study of gender inequality across cultures with articles including “Toward a Theory of the Status of Women” and “The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape.” Her books include Anthropology and the Public Interest: Fieldwork and Theory (ed.), Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus, and A Woman Scorned: Acquaintance Rape on Trial. Articles discussing her work have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Science 82, Ms. Magazine, Redbook, Sojourner's Magazine, the New York Times, Time, and newspapers throughout the U.S. and other countries.

Sanday has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Anthropology and Education, a member of the Board of Directors of the Social Science Research Council, president of the Philadelphia Anthropological Association, a member of the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association, and a Fulbright Scholar. She’s edited journals including the Journal of Sex-Role Research, Journal of Violence Against Women, and Expedition.

Demie Kurz, the previous director of the Program on Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies and the Alice Paul Center, said, “Peggy Sanday has made enormous contributions to the lives of women at Penn, to scholarship on women and feminist issues, and to Penn Women's Studies, now the Gender, Sexuality and Women's Program. We are all eternally grateful.”