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This is your wake up call!!
Michael Forstadt (forstadt@HUSC.HARVARD.EDU)
Sun, 12 Jun 1994 18:19:29 -0400
MP Mann has got it right...
OK, so I've misunderstood the argument. Let me finally get this straight;
even though women are now getting hired as often as men (and in fact they
may make up more than half of the junior faculty population: citing
previously-posted statistics), we should still continue to discriminate
against white males when hiring because women face accumulated
disadvantages.
We have been duly informed that women suffer the most when junior faculty
positions are cut due to budgetary concerns. Of course, white male junior
faculty members are also cut, but we can't be bothered to worry about
these guys, 'cause there are plenty of white male tenured professors who
will still be employed.
The flaw in this argument: we are not talking about team sports here. The
implication is that I will not mind losing my job (or never getting one)
because the "home team" still has the advantage. NOT.
Wake up! We are living in the 1990s. As a male, I am taking significant
time away from my profession to have children (as much as my wife), and I
am certainly NOT an anomaly. And about the conservative backlash, I'm
afraid that affects me much worse than it does the Jeanne Kirkpatricks of
the world. Finally -- and I hate to break it to you all -- the job market
is BAD for everyone. There is simply no room to discriminate against
anyone, ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL. I NEVER rejected the notion that simply
being a women may be important for certain positions, especially those in
departments in which a non-white-male role model is desperately needed.
All I am saying is that this criterion should be made explicit in such
cases, instead of being covertly employed. The problem is no one has the
courage to be this explicit.
Unfortunately, not many liberal males have the courage to voice these
same sentiments either.
______________________________
Michael S. Forstadt
Stone Age Lab
Harvard University
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