My friend entered the bar to a dense silence, followed by a joking remark that “her kind weren’t invited” and a lighthearted invitation to sit down at the table. What her male office mate had not realized in extending to her the invitation he had received was that this was a closed event, casually referred to as a meeting of the “women’s temperance society.” There, before her, were male faculty and male graduate students exchanging ideas, gaining recognition and making the usual bar banter. No female faculty or students were invited, but at bare minimum, my friend was “welcome” at the table. I believe she sat at the bar instead.

So there you have it: “The boys’ club” still operates even in academia. Its operations are casual, social and yet all the more sinister for it because access to faculty can be vital to students, who jockey for support, attention, and recognition from their mentors and future peers. Having an outing that exclusively advances male students undermines the competitiveness of female students in their research, in seeking funding and in later networking for teaching positions.

As if graduate school weren’t difficult enough.

“It is a travesty that even institutions with women studies departments still treat the needs of female students and faculty so poorly,” said Ania Loomba, a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, who met with the UW community at several events last week.

I share her sentiment as I notice that decisions regarding UW budget cuts seem to penalize women the most. Counseling services (which are utilized more frequently by women) access to affordable childcare (which greatly affect faculty and graduate students’ interest and success in the university) locations for expressing breast milk and the option of nontraditional students (often mothers) being able to transfer to the UW were already understaffed, underfunded or suffered from limited availability before the financial crisis. Now, women who seek a fairer professional and educational landscape will suffer greater setbacks than those they have already been engaged in correcting for years.

While my male colleagues, mentors and faculty have unanimously earned my respect, having female faculty and role models has strongly contributed to my success in graduate school.

One example of this is breast feeding. At my graduate-student orientation, I arrived with my map of campus and a backpack-style breast pump. While campus offered some facilities to express breast milk, many locations were a 15- or 20-minute walk each way from the location of my classes.

To make matters worse, many of these facilities did not cater to students, and those that did had a wait list. I asked my male adviser what I should do. I also asked the associate director of my program. Only when I began my seminar with a pregnant professor did I find a solution. She suggested I use her office while she lectured or attended events. I appreciated her creative solution and generosity, but it was too late. My fellow students had rallied around me and invited me to pump in our graduate lounge. It wasn’t private, but that could be overcome with a large scarf as well as the knowledge that my peers believed in me and the value of providing that space to a peer in need.

So that is my story. The UW failed me administratively and formally, but because it had selected excellent, new faculty and made high-quality admission decisions, I was able to thrive. As more of these decisions are made to hire faculty and to accept students who think creatively about women’s issues without either privileging women or lowering expectations of them, I have hope for the future. Our ivory tower is no utopia. If the educated, liberal and inspired people of the UW cannot break down barriers for women, who can? We, meaning every man and woman at the UW, need to fight for our right just to be equals.

Reach columnist Elizabeth Brady at features@dailyuw.com.