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Re: Where Have All the Boys Gone?



Among lots of other stuff, Leigh made the following comment:

I know from the hiring practices at my own university that the
playing field is not level.

To which I reply:

The playing field has never been level. That it isn't at this time is
not right, of course, but I think we need to recognize that in the
arena of employment a level playing field is about as likely as a
smooth ocean. If, at any instant it should become level, be assured
that it is a dynamic situation, and it is just moving to a different
state of unlevelness.

It would be nice if we could ever get to a point where hiring was
done exclusively on merit, but I think that is a hopeless dream. In
the first place, we often cannot determine merit for a particular job
until after the person selected has been in it for a time. Deciding
in advance is always dicey. Psychologists who have looked at the
employment game have found that all sorts of factors that are
irrelevant to the qualifications of the candidate are often much more
important than sheer ability. Gender has almost always been one of
those factors. For most of history it has worked against women
(especially for jobs at the higher end of the professions). Now the
balance seems to be swinging in the other direction. In Canada,
perhaps it has already swung past the level position. It is always
too bad that some innocent people will be affected by these swings,
but probably unavoidable.

I know it wasn't Doug's purpose to call attention to his own plight,
but forty and more years ago, when men were getting tenure track
positions easily, women were meeting the same resistance that Doug
happened upon, and any number of them could have told similar stories
to Doug's. If memory serves, Maria Goeppert Mayer got her first
tenure-track position *after* she won her Nobel. If not after, it was
only shortly before. And I believe that she was*allowed* to work as
an unpaid research assistant for many years, while her husband never
had any difficulty in obtaining positions. Mayer's situation was not
atypical. See the book "Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives,
Struggles and Momentous Discoveries," by Sharon B. McGrayne, for more
horror stories about the struggles of women to get accepted as
scientists. This kind of discrimination against women was wrong then,
and to turn it around against men now is just as wrong. But as long
as humans are making these decisions and as long as human are making
the laws, regulations and policies that guide these decisions, there
will be inequities, and in times of job shortages as is the situation
now in academia, the inequities will be particularly difficult to
deal with.

And Doug, have you thought about stock brokering? I'm told that a PhD
in physics is wonderful preparation for that profession. But I'm glad
I didn't have to make that choice.

Hugh
(Who has just entered into emeritescence)

--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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