Women Science Professors Discriminated Against?

July 18, 2008 / 4:14 pm • By Dr. Melissa Clouthier

women professors

Remember when Larry Summers got raked over the coals because he wondered about women in science? Well the controversy brews still and it has begged a couple questions:

1) Given the slow turnover of faculty and its bad effect on opportunities for young female (and male) scientists, should advocates for more women in science be trying to eliminate tenure? (Some Title Niners have advocated its abolition.)

2) Given the consequences of the law forbidding mandatory retirement of professors, should we think twice about imposing further federal restrictions? Could Title IX become another rigid, one-size-fits-all rule that makes it harder for universities to hire the best young scientists?

Simple answer: 1. Yes and 2. Yes

I’m no feminist, but if my core principles help people achieve freedom and equality and that benefits even harpy women, so be it. Tenure enables underachievers and encourages laziness and should be kicked everywhere. Rules that restrict behavior for the benefit of one special interest group always end up having unintended consequences because, and I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating here, everything the government touches turns to shit.

So women aren’t adequately represented in higher education. The answer isn’t to encourage mediocrity (tenure) and stupid laws (Title IX). The answer is freedom. With freedom, achievement-oriented women will achieve. I know, it’s complicated.

I wonder how feel. I suspect that women who do get tenure, don’t want it to go, either.

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  • bee

    The reason that many women do not pursue the Sciecnes is simple. Many women do not wish to accept the standards of excellence the fields demand.

    We see few women wish to continue their studies when they must step beyond the mere act of memorizing to excel at most undergraduate courses.

    Your comments on tenure while with merit confound the real issue.

  • http://redinktexas.blogspot.com Rorschach

    I am of the opinion that men and women are fundamentally different in their thought processes, therefore it is only reasonable that men and women would excel at different things. Women tend to gravitate to biological sciences, and medicine, men tend to gravitate to more abstract sciences such as particle physics. But even then, there is a bell curve distribution. Some men go into biology too, and some women go into particle physics, just not as many as men. Does that make them less equal? No, it does not. Larry Summers was dead on target and was unfairly roasted over the coals by a bunch of harpies that are unable to grasp that diversity does not mean what they think it does. Diversity means that each individual may chose their own diverse path, not that there must be equal representation in all fields of endeavor, because in order to obtain that kind of diversity, you must deny opportunity to qualified individuals and give it unfairly to individuals that are not as qualified.