Anne Innis Dagg

Anne Innis Dagg
Born January 25, 1933
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Citizenship Canada
Alma mater University of Toronto (B.A., Biology, 1955)
University of Toronto (M.A., Genetics, 1956)
University of Waterloo (Ph.D., Animal Behaviour, 1974)
Known for Study of the giraffe in Africa, animal rights
Spouse(s)
Ian Dagg
(m. 1957; his death 1993)
Children 3
Scientific career
Fields Biology, Zoology, Feminism
Institutions University of Waterloo

Anne Innis Dagg (born 1933, in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian zoologist, biologist, feminist, and author of numerous books.

Early life and education

Dagg was born on January 25, 1933 in Toronto, Ontario.[1] Her father, Harold Innis, was a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and her mother, Mary Quayle Innis, was an author of short stories and books of history.[2]

As a child Dagg attended Bishop Strachan School.[3] She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1955 with a B.A. in biology and was awarded a gold medal in recognition of her academic standing.[4] She went on to earn a master's degree in genetics from the University of Toronto.

Career

Male giraffes in South Africa.

Dagg has been referred to as "the Jane Goodall of giraffes" and has made a "significant contribution to giraffes worldwide in an unprecedented way."[5] Dagg first became interested in giraffes as a young child while visiting Illinois' Brookfield Zoo with her mother.[4][3]

During the mid-1950s Dagg traveled alone to South Africa to study the behavior of giraffes out of captivity.[6] The trip was prompted by what she described in 1974 interview with the Toronto Star as a "tremendous urge to see giraffes roaming free, instead of being cooped up in zoos."[3]

Ahead of the trip Dagg contacted a farm outside of Grahamstown, South Africa, near Kruger National Park, that was in close proximity to roaming giraffes to ask for permission to visit and study the animals. Her request was granted based on the farm farm owner's assumption that the letter, signed A. Innis, was written by a man. Upon Dagg's arrival the farmer told her she would have to return to Canada because allowing her to bunk with the male farmhands was, for him, out of the question. Rather than returning home she stayed in Grahamstown where she began writing to the farmer multiple times a week for several weeks asking for permission to return. He eventually agreed to have her return, allowing her to stay in his family's home in exchange for clerical services over the course of her stay.[3] She spent upward of ten hours a day in the field taking extensive notes about all aspects of giraffe behaviour, including what they ate and how they interacted, and was the first to note male giraffes engaging in homosexual behaviour. The trip marked both the first time a scientist set to study both giraffes in the wild and animal behaviour in the wild in Africa.[4]" On returning to Canada, she began PhD in animal behaviour at the University of Waterloo, which she completed in 1967.[1] Her thesis work analyzed and compared the gaits of giraffe and other large mammals.[7]

In addition to her research on giraffes Dagg also studied other animals, including camels, primates and Canadian wildlife. Her first book, Mammals of Waterloo and South Wellington Counties, co-written by C. A. Campbell, was published in 1972, followed two years later by Canadian Wildlife and Man, a handbook focused on the types of wildlife people were likely to come across in suburban environments.[3] In 1985 Dagg raised concerns about the impact of sociobiology in scholarly publications and reporting to the general public about the social behaviour of animals in her book Harems and other horrors: sexual bias in behavioral biology. Of particular concern was what she noted as an increase in the anthropomorphizing of animal behaviour such as inaccurate, human-based, language to describe animal behaviour such as female mating behaviour being described as coy or flirtatious.[8] While reviewer Alyson L. Burns was disappointed that Dagg's focus on historical occurrences left out modern efforts to minimize bias, she noted the book as a "valuable historical overview of sexual bias in the of animal behaviour."[9]

Dagg's research has resulted in over 60 refereed scientific papers on such subjects as homosexuality, behavior of mammals, sociobiology, feminism, sexism at universities, and the rights of animals. She has also written 20 books and over 100 articles on these topics.[10] She was recognized, along with 18 other women scientists including astronomer Helen Hogg and palaeontologist Madeleine Fritz, in 1975 by the Museum of Natural History as part of an exhibit dedicated to their achievements in the natural sciences.[11]

In 1972 she started Otter Press in Waterloo, Ontario with the publication of Matrix Optics by Ian Dagg; Otter published some of her books up to at least 1994.[2]

Gender inequality in academic environments

During her PhD studies Dagg attempted to secure employment as a professor, but found that at the time universities weren't inclined to hire women.[4] Dagg's experience as a woman in academia would go on to shape her work and research interests for the remainder of her career. She has researched and published about anti-nepotism laws at academic institutions in North America arguing that they disproportionately impact the female spouses of male professors.[12]:61 According to Dagg anti-nepotism rules, whether formal or unspoken, combined with a reluctance by university's to hire their own PhD students doubly hindered the wives of male faculty: "A wife often earns a Ph.D. from the local university where she is then unable to become a professor because of this opposition. Unlike many other women, she may not be free because of her marriage to seek a position at a university outside her locale, a dilemma which makes her career vulnerable to the local university's policies."[13]

In 1974 she filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission after Wilfrid Laurier University refused to interview her for a position in their biology department despite 19 years experience, opting instead to hire a male professor with what she claimed was less experience and fewer qualifications. Dagg requested a formal review of the complaint by Ontario's Ombudsman after the Commission found that her claims were "absolutely without foundation."[14] D

Dagg further explored the experiences of women in academia in the 1988 book co-authored with Patricia J. Thompson titled MisEducation : women & Canadian universities. The authors pointed to a reliance on course material and textbooks reliant on gender-based stereotypes, male co-workers making sexist jokes, and lack of support or funding for women researchers as example of how conditions at Canadian universities hadn't changed much for women over time. In a Globe and Mail interview, Dagg, who at the time had published 10 books and more than 50 scholarly articles, said about the book that she hoped her lack of tenure wouldn't cost her her job.[15]

Personal life

Dagg married Ian Ralph Dagg (1928-1993) in 1957. The ceremony took place at St. Pancras Town Hall in London, England.[3] Ian Dagg taught at the University of Waterloo's Physics Department from 1959 to 1993, and served as chair of the department from 1988 to 1993.[16] Together until his death, the couple had three children: Hugh, Ian and Mary.[10]

Bibliography

  • Canadian wildlife and man. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. 1974; 192 p.
  • With J. Bristol Foster: The giraffe: its biology, behavior, and ecology. NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. 1976; xiii+210 p. ; 2nd edition. Huntington, N. Y.: R. E. Krieger Pub. Co. 1982; xv+232 p.
  • Wildlife Management in Europe. Waterloo, Ont.: Otter Press. 1977; ix+324 p. [17]
  • Camel quest: summer research on the Saharan camel. Toronto: York Pub. & Print Co. 1978; 192 p.
  • With Hilde Gauthier-Pilters: The camel: its evolution, ecology, behavior, and relationship to man. 1981. ISBN 0226284530; xii+208 p.
  • Harems and other horrors: sexual bias in behavioral biology. Waterloo, Ont.: Otter Press. 1983; 125 p.
  • The fifty percent solution: why should women pay for men's culture?. Waterloo, Ont.: Otter Press. 1986; 128 p.
  • The feminine gaze: a Canadian compendium of non-fiction women authors and their books, 1836–1945 (With foreword by Helen M. Buss). Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier U. Press. 2001. ISBN 0-88920-355-5; 355 p. [18]
  • "Love of shopping" is not a gene: problems with Darwinian psychology. Montreal: Black Rose Press. 2005. ISBN 978-1-55164-256-7.
  • Pursuing giraffe: a 1950s adventure. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier U. Press. 2006; 281 p.
  • The social behavior of older animals. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press. 2009; ix+225 p. [19]
  • Animal friendships. NY: Cambridge U. Press. 2011; viii+238 p. ;[7] hbk. ISBN 9781107005426. ; pbk. ISBN 9780521183154.
  • With Lee E. Harding: Human evolution and male aggression: debunking the myth of man and ape. Amherst, N. Y.: Cambria Press. 2012.
  • Giraffe: behavior, and conservation. NY: Cambridge U. Press. 2014.

[20]

References

  1. 1 2 "Anne Innis Dagg fonds". University of Waterloo Library. Special Collections & Archives. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Innis, Mary Quayle fonds". Special Collections & Archives. University of Waterloo Library. 17 July 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Pennington, Bob (11 July 1974). "Woman's urge to see giraffes led her into many advevntures". Toronto Star (Paywall subscription)|format= requires |url= (help). p. E3.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Ogden, Lesley Evans (5 November 2015). "How a Canadian scientist uncovered the secret lives of giraffes". CBC. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Animals form friendships, Waterloo zoologist asserts". TheRecord.com. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  6. ↑ Robinson, Lori; Chodosh, Janie (2017). Wild Lives: Leading Conservationists on the Animals and the Planet They Love. Skyhorse Publishing Company. p. 224. ISBN 9781510713642. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  7. 1 2 "Animals form friendships, Waterloo zoologist asserts". Waterloo Region Record. 9 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Hoskins, Carolyn (27 July 1985). "Gorillas just wanna have fun". Toronto Star (Paywall subscription)|format= requires |url= (help). p. M3.
  9. ↑ Burns, Alyson L. "Review of Harems and Other Horrors: Sexual Bias in Behavioral Biology, by Anne Innis Dagg". American Journal of Primatology. Paywall subscription. 8 (4): 325–327.
  10. 1 2 Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, Zoologist, Feminist, Author, annedagg.net
  11. ↑ "19 women scientists honored by museum". Globe and Mail (Paywall subscription)|format= requires |url= (help). 4 July 1975. p. 12.
  12. ↑ Rajagopal, Indhu (2004). "Tenuous Ties: The Limited-Term Full-time Faculty in Canadian Universities". The Review of Higher Education. 28 (1): 49–75. doi:10.1353/rhe.2004.0030.
  13. ↑ Dagg, Anne Innis (30 April 1993). "Academic Faculty Wives and Systemic Discrimination —Antinepotism and "Inbreeding"". Canadian Journal of Higher Education. 23 (1): 1–18. ISSN 0316-1218. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
  14. ↑ "Ombudsman reviews charge by biologist" (Paywall subscription)|format= requires |url= (help). 1 November 1977. p. A9.
  15. ↑ Polayni, Margaret (11 May 1988). "Universities sexist, book says". Globe and Mail (Paywall subscription)|format= requires |url= (help). p. A13.
  16. ↑ I. R. Dagg Memorial Scholarship, Undergraduate Studies Calendar, U. of Waterloo
  17. ↑ Lovvorn, James R. (Jan 1979). "Review: Wildlife Management in Europe by Anne Innis Dagg". The Journal of Wildlife Management. 43 (1): 279–281. doi:10.2307/3800677. JSTOR 3800677.
  18. ↑ Onn, Shirley A. (2002). "Review: Feminine Gaze by Anne Innis Dagg". Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 40 (1): 83–84. ISSN 0067-6896.
  19. ↑ Zeller, Anne (2009). "Review: Social Behavior of Older Animals by Anne Innis Dagg". Anthropologica. 55 (2): 415–417. JSTOR 25605502.
  20. ↑ Smitten By Giraffe: My Life as a Citizen Scientist. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2016. p. 226. ISBN 978-0773547995.
  • Dr. Anne Dagg Zoologist Feminist Author, annedagg.ca
  • "Anne Innis Dagg fonds". University of Waterloo Library. Special Collections & Archives. 15 April 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  • Anne Innis Dagg on IMDb
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.