The Place With A “No Boys Allowed” Policy

Women have had to break through some employment barriers over the years, and men still dominate in many sectors. But there is one area that men haven’t been able to crack: studying female-exclusive aspects of various cultures. Robert M. Baum, a University of Missouri religion professor who has done extensive fieldwork in the Diola community in Senegal, hasn’t been able to learn about or enter the primary women’s fertility shrine there, as its only accessible to women who have given birth. “[A powerful female religious leader] told me that the day I give birth to a child, I should come to her and she would explain everything about Ehugna,” Baum said. “That night, I dreamed I was pregnant. I told her about the dream; she laughed and said it was not good enough.” [EurekAlert!]