Julie Shayne has spent the better part of her teaching career navigating campus politics made complicated by being a woman.

Each semester, she once again finds herself on edge at the beginning of the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies course she teaches. While most of her students have been pleasant, she said she has had to remain cautious of red flags.

“My classes meet a diversity requirement, so I get students in there who don’t want to be in there, or at least initially, they think they don’t want to be in there,” said Shayne, who is a teaching professor at the University of Washington Bothell. “So they’re almost resentful that they’re having to spend time learning something that they think is just political or opinion or however they feel.”