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0 pointstannk1100111y ago0 comments

It is indeed gender discrimination by definition.

But it's not clear how you distinguish between what's an appropriate correction to historical discrimination and what's overcompensation. If the bias were in favor of an over-represented group, it would be more clear -- but that's not what we're seeing. Women are grossly underrepresented in STEM faculty, and the only way to correct that is to hire a greater share of them and to use their gender as a positive discriminating factor in hiring.

I don't believe either of us are in a position to judge whether that should best manifest as a 2:1 ratio during resume reviews, a 1.1:1 ratio in finalized hires, or a 5:1 ratio in outreach, or some other arbitrary number during some other arbitrary phase.

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2 comments · 2 top-level

kurotetsuka11y ago

> the only way to correct that is to hire a greater share of them

This is affirmative action, which has the following problem: How do it eventually end? This is especially true when the desired quota is impossible (It may or may not be in the case of gender rep in STEM). In the real world, affirmative action policies never end due to social/political pressure, and eventually just inflict the converse problem.

Affirmative action is not the only way to correct imbalances (it may not even do that). The better way, at least in my view, is to correct the cause(s) of the imbalance, then wait. Of course if there's no discernible correctable cause, then the imbalance is clearly natural, and should not be disturbed. This may be slower, but its stable and infallible.

cbd198411y ago

The only appropriate correction is to remove bias. That's it. That's the only morally defensible goal. Trying to get a numerical balance isn't feminism, it's metric-based thinking, optimizing the thing that's easy to measure. It's a fallacy in measuring productivity and it's a fallacy here.

How about this: Should we mandate a numerical balance between men and women in grade school teachers? Should we not hire qualified women until there's a 1:1 ratio between men to women in K-6 education? Why or why not?