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E-PrinceThe University has the lowest percentage of female faculty members of any Ivy League school, according to a report released in October by The Chronicle of Higher Education, which cited information from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated ...(back to the article)
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First of all, everyone should be able to see that the fact that a distribution is not 50-50 does not at all suggest that the reason for this is discrimination. It is not even prima facie evidence; quite the contrary.
Secondly, whether or not you buy these studies that claim a higher variance for intelligence among males, it is hard to deny that there are differences in motivations and interests between men and women. I don't mean that all women are interested in a few things, say raising a family or caring for others, and all men are interested in a few other things, say money and status; what I mean is that certain motives appear more frequently and more intensely among women than they do in men, and the other way around. Cultural factors like a lack of role models undoubtedly are a factor, but by far the more powerful account comes from natural selection.
I could go on, but the fact that there is a fair explanation for this disparity (in outcome, not in treatment) should call into question this bizarre desire to hire more women just because they are women. This is trying to solve a problem that isn't even a problem. Really it's to create a problem, namely discrimination against men, where there wasn't one before. Not to mention how this undermines the <27% that have made it to the top on merit--the fact that the last four hires by the philosophy dept., which was at that point all male, were women definitely affects my respect for them. And why shouldn't it?
I wonder what would happen if we compared department by department. For example, all those other schools have law schools which may have higher female representation thus inflating the average. Meanwhile, they may not have an ORFE department, which obviously has a lower proportion of women than certain other disciplines (if the discipline itself consists of 90% men, then the university can't be faulted for having a department that roughly conforms to that baserate).
Averaging over departments may be masking important subtleties.
Probably just caused by Princeton having a larger proportion of math/science/engineering depts. than other schools (esp with the absence of law/medical schools that have better representations). Seems more like this a problem with society at large and not Princeton. Wouldn't be surprised if MIT/Caltech/Brown/Dartmouth had a similar "problem."
The unspoken problem: hiring women doesn't mean you're hiring smart, generous, productive, talented women who can publish and teach. Some of the women I have endured in class and lecture are great, but a lot are awful---and a remarkable number turn out to be the significant other of someone powerful in academe or administration. This hiring model does not cheer me. I know Steinem said that true feminism would be achieved when boring incompetent yes-women are promoted at the same rate as boring incompetent yes-men, but you'd think Princeton could avoid this particular dead end.
The humanities have a larger percentage of female doctorates. Yet at good old PU, those departments have declining enrollments. ORFE and Economics may have to hire more female profs, like it or not. Might improve "the dismal science" considerably.
Professor Garlock states she returned to work after a week rather than spend time with her newborn children because she really couldn't stay away from her work. Professors take leave to serve in Washington, DC in various positions , and certainly go on sabbatical regularly. Women with the attitude that taking time off is somehow wrong actually make it much harder on women who want to use their maternity leave to bond with their newborn.
Give her a break. She has 4 kids.
"Give her a break. She has 4 kids."
Well, there you go. That's why it's only 27%.
...and in keeping with the unquestionedly-conservative nature of princeton university, we find that...
Princeton is not conservative...