Advice?

As a part of my job--that I love--I am on a committee that helps consider and draft curriculum changes for our district.  Teachers in my discipline from both area high schools serve on this committee under a coordinator who-despite being well intentioned and a genuinely nice person--is a bit out of her element having never been a high school English teacher.  This means the committee members function with an overseer of sorts, but no real person of authority guiding our meetings.  To her credit, our coordinator has acknowledged she knows less than we do and is willing to learn.  I applaud her for that effort.

The other people on the committee are all seasoned teachers with years in the discipline and a vested interest in the curriculum.  The members from my school, including myself, are rabid readers and constantly revise what we do in our own classrooms, excited by the possibility and thrill of change in a profession that can--due to bureaucracy--often feel sadly flat and lackluster.  Our colleagues from the other school, though I have never taught with them, represent themselves as more comfortable with the status quo than with any concept of change.  I understand this stance, it is easy and requires far less effort and has always worked before.  I do not begrudge them their position though I disagree with it.  We all bring something different to the table, and that is the point of a group of people making decision vs. on person: all perspectives must be represented.

The issue of late, however, has been in the way my enthusiasm and passion for my job has been perceived.  I fear my other school colleagues see me as some sort of power hungry strategist intent on pushing my own agenda to the detriment of their positions and/or feelings.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and yet on four separate occasions someone from that side has chastised, corrected when no correction as needed, or verbally attacked me for what I can only describe as the way I communicate.  I become impassioned.  I may speak quickly and loudly, but in a room full of educated adults participating in the conversation with me, I feel this kind of reverence for what we do is warranted and certainly not something that should be condemned.  But, the negativity pours out.

I do not want to change the way I work or present myself, but I do not wish to be attacked either.  I believe wholeheartedly that none of these people would have made similar statements to my male counterparts from my own school which saddens me to no end, that even in a professional setting men are allowed to voice their opinions passionately and women aren't.  My basis for this assumption is that I have seen my male counterparts worked up, near incensed, and no hostility has been directed their way.  I, on the other hand, can't seem to attend a meeting without being attacked.

If you have advice about how to handle this situation, I would appreciate.  I truly respect my colleagues and believe their opinions matter, I do not wish to upset or undermine them in any way, but I simply cannot tolerate their ill treatment any longer nor do I wish to compromise my integrity by being someone I am not.  So,  I guess what I'm saying is...help.