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An area where Stanford needs improvement - 82 Card - 02-27-2016

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29567506/stanford-and-other-elite-universities-have-gender-problem

Although Stanford has had parity between sexes among students for a long time, it is pulling up the rear among faculty.  My first thought was that this had to do with engineering, since the only top schools doing worse are CalTech and MIT. However, the the percentages among recent additions is not significantly different between engineering and the rest of the university.



Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - 82 Card - 02-27-2016

(02-27-2016, 01:17 PM)DC link Wrote:Equal opportunity vs. equal results.

Where the unequal results persist, one has to wonder about the equality of opportunity.

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - washingtonismoney - 02-27-2016

I always chuckle a bit when people endorse equality of opportunity as an alternative to equality of outcomes. (It's typically a sure sign that they haven't thought things through.)

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - DC - 02-27-2016

(02-27-2016, 01:21 PM)82 Card link Wrote:[quote author=DC link=topic=14658.msg157333#msg157333 date=1456604234]
Equal opportunity vs. equal results.

Where the unequal results persist, one has to wonder about the equality of opportunity.
[/quote]

What if you have to give unequal opportunity to some in order to achieve equal results?

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - 81alum - 02-27-2016

If you really want to talk about faculty, I suppose we can.  I wrote a paper in grad school using probability theory to show that Princeton had failed to hire female faculty--even given the limited pool--in a manner that had a 95% probability of not being explained by chance alone.  And my brilliant undergraduate adviser at Stanford got stuck up against Stanford's decision in those years to limit the number of Associates it would promote to Professor--she left to go on to an amazing career at two competitor universities.  Just a bit more flexibility and foresight on the promotions rule would have greatly benefited Stanford in the long run, and retained one of our best and brightest, who happened to be a woman.

However, given that we are a sports board, perhaps we could turn the topic back to athletics.  There was a time when gender equity in athletics was derided as unwarranted affirmative action--but what a wonderful addition to our society women's sports have become!  And the fact that Stanford was so far out in front of other universities in women's athletics has given our university an edge that has lasted decades now.  Very few of those Director's Cups would have happened had we been late to the gender equity party.  There are many issues, however, within women's athletics that this board might discuss more expertly than faculty in general; i.e., salaries of female vs. male coaches, recruiting of female coaches in traditionally men's sports or men in women's sports, etc. 



Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - CornFed - 02-27-2016

(02-27-2016, 01:48 PM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:I always chuckle a bit when people endorse equality of opportunity as an alternative to equality of outcomes. (It's typically a sure sign that they haven't thought things through.)

I always chuckle when people address this issue as though all humans are clones and that the entire difference in outcomes conclude that outcomes can only derive from differences in the opportunities that are available.

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - winflop - 02-27-2016

(02-27-2016, 01:48 PM)washingtonismoney link Wrote:I always chuckle a bit when people endorse equality of opportunity as an alternative to equality of outcomes. (It's typically a sure sign that they haven't thought things through.)

They aren't close to the same thing.  I support equality of opportunity and oppose equality of outcomes.

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - 2006alum - 02-28-2016

(02-27-2016, 02:15 PM)81alum link Wrote:what a wonderful addition to our society women's sports have become!  And the fact that Stanford was so far out in front of other universities in women's athletics has given our university an edge that has lasted decades now.  Very few of those Director's Cups would have happened had we been late to the gender equity party.
+1. Since the late 1990s, Stanford has thrived largely on the success of women's sports. Including non-NCAA national championships, since 2000 Stanford women have won 31 to Stanford men's 9. (If you exclude synchro and light weight rowing, it's 21 to 9). Football has deservedly received the lion's share of attention over the last half-decade or so, but our Directors Cups and national championships haul has largely been thanks to our strong women's teams. Fun to think that Stanford admitted women in its very first class and continues to evince the value of being an avowedly co-educational institution.

Now as 81alum said, faculty is another matter best left for a different board. :)

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - ThePassionOfTheChryst - 02-28-2016

(02-27-2016, 01:21 PM)82 Card link Wrote:[quote author=DC link=topic=14658.msg157333#msg157333 date=1456604234]
Equal opportunity vs. equal results.

Where the unequal results persist, one has to wonder about the equality of opportunity.
[/quote]

One should wonder, sure.  But one should not jump to conclusions.

Re: An area where Stanford needs improvement - Stymie - 02-28-2016

One of my OVAL interviewees this month, a very impressive young woman with a strong interest and serious accomplishments in the area of robotics, asked me why there were so few female students featured on the STEM areas of the LSJU webite.  I could not answer her question, and what I have read on this thread tells me that her concerns were well founded.