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So That's How They Do It
by Charity Hirsch
Previous issues of this newsletter have exposed various techniques
that have been used to avoid promoting women to tenure: letters sent out to
solicit reviews of candidates have been differently worded for the woman,
referring to her as "this candidate" while the male was "our colleague" and
otherwise evoking negative responses; in one case a man was denied
promotion at the same time as a woman in order to blunt accusations of
sexism; most recently Marcy Wong described the negative letters solicited
by her department after they denied her tenure in order to justify that
decision, although her file was otherwise flawless.
Now I've heard a new story. In order to make his department appear in
compliance with affirmative action guidelines, the Chair asked a male
faculty member whom he disliked to interview a woman candidate for a
position which had already been promised to a man. If the professor had
agreed, he would have been guilty of a breach of ethics; had he refused, it
would have been insubordination. A rather neat catch twenty-two, and just
what the Chair needed to control a department member who might be
sympathetic to promoting women or others the Chair opposed.
This same department chair was investigated by an internal university
committee which justified his racist language and behavior (he didn't like
minorities in his department either) by saying "...any racial or ethnic group,
minority or majority, and any individual is likely to be the object of a
disparaging remark from Professor X. We interpret this as evidence of a
lapse of civility...not ethnic or racial bias." Since when is rudeness a excuse
for racism? It would be funny if this chairman were not so typical of the
men whose acts of discrimination are routinely sheltered by their
universities.
-wage@wage.org-