Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ginosko!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!uci-ics!usenet From: kja@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (krista.j.anderson) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: how to bash feminism without really trying Message-ID: <2529@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> Date: 24 Oct 89 19:10:41 GMT References: <47014@bbn.COM> <15799@duke.cs.duke.edu> <47127@bbn.COM> <8910200306.AA17402@lear.cs.duke.edu> Sender: tittle@ics.uci.edu (Cindy Tittle) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 52 Approved: tittle@ics.uci.edu <> In article <8910200306.AA17402@lear.cs.duke.edu>, gazit@cs.duke.EDU (Hillel Gazit) writes: > #I suggested to enforce EEO. My idea was that if a manager does not hire the > #best candidate then he/she should be *personally* fined in the range > #of $10000. As a matter of fact, my company was fined for violating EEO. No one was personally fined because so many people were to blame, it was hard to point out anyone in particular. The method of enforcing EEO ever since has been via Affirmative Action programs. Fining people or companies only punishes violations of EEO. To enforce EEO, the existing problems must be corrected. It takes specified actions to correct the problems. If companies could just pay a few grand in order to avoid hiring people they don't know how to deal with, they probably would. > When you accept less qualified women via AA, > does it improve the image of women? /* sarcasm on Well, thank-you very much for the vote of confidence in my qualifications. This is an example of the typical sexually harrassing comments that make my work day so enjoyable. The white males give me the privilege of working along side them, and all I have to do is hang in there when they are trying their best to undermine my confidence on which my performance depends by trying to make me feel unwelcome, non-belonging, less qualified, more stupid, less competent and less experienced. sarcasm off */ This is typical of the 80s style of rhetoric where image is more important than substance. The white male with the big mouth who is still in college acts as if his observations are superior to the quiet woman who has had over 12 years of job experience. I know I need AA and it's still not enough sometimes. But Hillel claims I don't need AA. In fact, he doesn't even think I should have been hired because, being a woman, I am obviously unqualified for my job. Yes, I was hired with observance of AA programs, most women in my company were. Does that forever label me as less qualified? What about the few women who were hired before AA, who had MS degrees, but were placed in a lower echelon than men with MS degrees? Did they not deserve to be moved into the MS echelon when AA programs were adopted? Well, I apologize to all those folks who need AA that I can't spend more time defending it against people who assume that women have inferior qualifications. But I've got a job to do and a family to support and sexual harrassment to deal with in addition my chosen responsibilities. -- Krista A.