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Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.social,net.women,net.flame
Subject: The Horrible thing nobody's had the guts to say about Affirmative Action
Message-ID: <278@looking.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Jun-85 00:00:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: looking.278
Posted: Tue Jun  4 00:00:00 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Jun-85 00:55:29 EDT
References: <566@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> <879@mnetor.UUCP> <158@lzwi.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont
Lines: 20
Xref: watmath net.politics:9237 net.social:587 net.women:5512 net.flame:10281
Summary: 

There's been talk here and there saying, "Women make up 51% of the population
but only 10% of the engineers - there must be discrimination and AA is the
way to counter it."

The one thing people haven't had the guts to say is that quite simply,
51% of the most qualified engineers and computer scientists are not women.
Plain and simple.

This is the problem!  The main problem is not that people are refusing
to hire women.  The problem is that far more men are qualified than women.

This is the problem we should attack, through education and encouragement.
To attack it at the job level is to attack a symptom.

I am not sure why it is the case that there are far more men qualified in
these fields, (although I have some interesting theories).  It may be
related to upbringing, society or genetics - nobody can say for sure
yet.  Nonetheless, this is where the problem lies.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473