MIT Names First Female President

wintermute1000 writes "According to CNN, MIT has just named its first female president. Along with other recent programs' efforts to get more women involved in the MIT community, is this a step in the right direction for the historically gender-biased institution?"

Re:When will this kind of regulation go too far?

[Anonymous Coward]

MIT isn't promoting the fact that she is the first woman, the press is.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/president-ann ou ncement.html

From the announcement article it sounds like she was selected because she was best for the job overall. Not surprised at how the press it promoting it though.

Dr. Hockfield's accomplishments

[Guano_Jim]

A list of her recent publications can be read here. [yale.edu]

From the page:

The main focus of our work is to bring biochemical and molecular biological techniques to the classical anatomical analysis of mammalian CNS development.

CNS being Central Nervous System, IIRC.

Re:The whole world is gender biased.

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

As a new father, they do this in the U.S. as well. By law, I'm guaranteed up to 12 weeks (pretty sure, I may be off by a couple weeks) Paternity leave when my child is born.

Few dare to take it though... men (at least the ones in my life that I know) start to lose their minds a little bit when they're not working. Retirement kills men in my family.

Re:Question for women

[doodlelogic]

The original McElroy article [ifeminists.net] (which itself has some interesting onward links) makes it clear that she does not view herself as one of these elitist women; it concludes:

"I still squirm at the thought of how many successful women now seem to view a large percentage of decent single men. Namely, as lesser and lower."

The Spectator may think that "females of whatever species are hot-wired to find the best possible mate" but McElroy clearly disagrees, at least if you reduce the best to a simplistic, status based analysis. It is a clever trick in the article, which makes it look as if that is what she was saying, when the journalist knows it was the opposite.

Re:When will this kind of regulation go too far?

[dave_mcmillen]

MIT isn't promoting the fact that she is the first woman, the press is.

Right - the article somehow makes it sound like this is a result of quota hiring, but there's nothing to suggest that.

Further note, grandparent post, that the "other recent programs' efforts" mentioned in the article involve getting girls in high school to participate in activities (and classes) related to computer science, electrical engineering, and math. This is far from some sort of quota program, and it seems to me to be a very sensible approach: if the problem is that too many girls are either shooed away from these fields or have never thought that they were an option, then give them a chance to see what it's all about, then decide for themselves.

High Praise for her work at Yale

[Anonymous Coward]

She was Dean of the Graduate school here at Yale for years and had recently become Provost so this was a bit of a surprise here.

From an email broadcast by Yale's president to faculty and staff about Susan Hockfield's departure and contributions:

"Over the past six years, Susan has excelled as Dean of the Graduate School and as Provost, possessing in rare combination intelligence, integrity, pragmatism, and grace. As Dean she utterly transformed the environment in which graduate education takes place - strengthening support for teacher preparation and career services, and building a vibrant sense of community through public lectures and other events [...] In her three semesters as Provost she has moved aggressively to accelerate investment in science and medicine, and she has encouraged interdisciplinary collaboration across the humanities and the arts. She has made superb new appointments to our administrative ranks, and she has worked closely with the other officers to fashion plans for strengthening the culture and practice of management within the University."

MIT is getting a good person IMO.

Re:When will this kind of regulation go too far?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was a graduate student at Yale when Hockfield became Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The atmosphere at the time was very anti-administration (a vocal minority of graduate students were, and still are, attempting to unionize). In spite of this, she visited every department and graduate residence hall to hear what people (including the union proponents) had to say. She successfully lobbied the Yale administration for significant benefits (health care is now free, stipends have risen to a level that is comparable with other Ivy League institutions). Hockfield did an excellent job, and became Provost on the strength of it. This is Yale's loss, MIT has done very well for themselves in hiring her away.

Re:When will this kind of regulation go too far?

[mattyrobinson69]

I contacted the UK TV advertising watchdog (cant remember what they're called) a few weeks ago about diamond, here's their reply.

Dear Mr Robinson

Diamond Car Insurance

Thank you for contacting us.

I am sorry that this advertisement concerned you. The television companies are responsible for ensuring that the advertising they carry complies with our codes. Among other things, we expect them to make sure that any claims are justified and to seek the advice of independent consultants where the claims are technical, complex or disputed.

Section 45 of the Sex Discrimination Act permits preferential treatment in relation to certain types of insurance. The broadcasters have received substantiation to show that female drivers have a better claims record on their motor insurance policies than male drivers. (This does not, of course, mean that there are no good male drivers.) As such, Diamond is entitled to offer preferential rates to women. Therefore we have concluded that the reference to better drivers in the context of an insurance advertisement will be understood.

Even though we dont have grounds to intervene on this occasion thank you for taking the trouble to raise this matter.

Yours sincerely

Alistair Hall
Broadcast Team Officer - Contact Centre
Office of Communications
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA
www.ofcom.org.uk

Re:male/female/black/white

[WillowAnneLyra]

The kind of policy you are describing was declared unconstitutional about 25 years ago. Companies are NOT supposed to use any kind of quota system. They also are not allowed to use a literal point system for race. The idea of affermitive action is that all other things being equal (ie if given qualifications, people skills, etc, you'd probibly have to resort to coin tossing), you give the job to the person who is in the minority group. The is to offset the fact that often the white male would be given the job in a "they're both equally qualified".

Quota Misconception Correction Time

[Rei]

It's another episode of....

Quota Misconception Correction Time!!!

Myth #1: Quotas mean that you need to keep your workforce proportionally balanced to the racial and gender distribution of the area.

False. There is one little difference that has a major impact: Quotas mean that you need to keep your workforce proportionally balanced to the racial and gender distribution of the area *of qualified candidates in the given field*.

So, for example, if you managed a large-scale farm, if there were a lot of female farm workers out there, then yes, they would be discriminating by hiring only men. But if there were almost exclusively male farm workers out there seeking jobs, then the quota for women would be little to nonexistant.

Myth #2: Violating a quota means you get fined

False. If you violate a quota, there is no penalty. However, if anyone thinks that they're being discriminated against, they have the right to sue you; how you did in respect to quotas is used as evidence. You have the right to appeal the quota set for your business; for example, if you think that the quota is assuming too many female farm workers qualified for the positions that you have compared to what are in the area, you can challenge its accuracy. In general, in a discrimination lawsuit, only a clear pattern of significantly not meeting quotas (for example, if the quota was 15% women, hiring only 5% women year after year) will result in judgement against the employer.