Comments on: “Legislation won’t close gender gap in sciences”

By: William Nuesslein

William Nuesslein — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:09:12 +0000

For “Ace of Sevens”:

I taught mathematics at Geneseo State in New York State around 1970. Geneseo was up to that time a school dedicated to the training of Elementary School teachers, a career dominated by women. In an effort to get more men into elementary school classrooms, entrance requirements were eased for male applicants. The dummies in my classes were the boys.

But when you got up to topology and advanced calculus, the boy – girl ratio was a bit higher than one to one and the girls were not quite as good as the boys. None was very good actually.

By: George Lund

George Lund — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:31:27 +0000

I think as long as they can show they made a good faith active search for women candidates, it would be OK if they didn’t find any qualified to interview. That still serves the purpose of the rule which is to increase demand and make the increased demand public knowledge. Supply should follow shortly thereafter.

By: Bill Alexander

Bill Alexander — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:14:24 +0000

It would be nice to interview at least one female candidate, but what if none apply that have the minimum qualifications (such as phd and 2 years teaching experience)? It does happen.

By: George Lund

George Lund — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:00:22 +0000

If they want to fix gender equality in science and engineering, they’re looking to the wrong example from sports. Instead they should be looking at the NFL and the Rooney rule. In brief, the NFL has many minority players, but very few minority head coaches. Since coaches are almost always former players, it looked pretty much like racism. So the NFL implemented a simple rule: whenever you hire a new head coach, you must interview at least one minority candidate. Simple enough and it seems to have raised the number of minority head coaches.

For science and engineering, it seems like it wouldn’t be to difficult to simply require that each university interview at least one woman candidate for any tenure track position. Not sure that would solve the problem, but it seems like a good start.

By: Ace of Sevens

Ace of Sevens — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:47:02 +0000

Liberal War on Science? Read around science blogs. See what actual scientists think rather than speculating. I’d say that if women are under represented in the sciences for cultural reasons, the problem is more likely the culture at large than the culture of the sciences, which limits their ability to do anything about it. I do agree that we rarely see this sort of concern about men being underrepresented in elementary education, for instance.

By: Hans Bader

Hans Bader — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:05:44 +0000

In essence, this is a liberal war on science -- a real one, not like the bogus and contrived Republican war on science made up by left-wing capitalism haters and junk-science advocates. By the way, I used to handle Title IX enforcement at the Office for Civil Rights. It's stupid to take regulatory standards designed for athletic teams, which are gender-segregated and thus sui generis, and apply them to co-ed science classes. (The Title IX athletics regulations are just that -- regulations -- not something mandated by the Title IX statute itself, much less commanded for all situations).

By: Jack Wilson

Jack Wilson — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 17:13:47 +0000

Civilization thrived when women stayed home and raised the kids. So I would rather see taxpayer money spent to restoring that natural, sustainable and superior arrangement.

By: No Name Guy

No Name Guy — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:31:30 +0000

They’ll just take the Title IX approach to “fixing” this “problem”:

Sorry guys, since there are only 5 qualified and interested ladies who wish to study aerospace engineering at Big University this year, there will be only 5 gentlemen allowed to study said topic as well.

There…..”problem” fixed.

By: Dave Lincoln

Dave Lincoln — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:06:48 +0000

OOPS:

WAS: “You’re anti-derivative mother …”
S/B: ” Your anti-derivative mother …”

By: Dave Lincoln

Dave Lincoln — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:05:50 +0000

OOPS:

WAS: “… and he can keep….”
S/B” ” … and you can keep …”