Re: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson


Subject: Re: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Thu May 09 2002 - 13:02:45 EDT


I wouldn't make statements about equality across the boards...OF COURSE
societally we have a long way to go. I'm just talking about academia,
specifically humanities, more specifically English depts.

I don't think you were as specific in your previous comment as you were
in this one, but now that I understand you better I can reply better.

In my dept. professors with either tenure or in tenure track positions
come out to nine women and five men. I know for certain two of the men
haven't been given tenure yet. I think perhaps two of the women are in
the same situation. So, RE: full professors, we're talking seven women
and three men -- more than a two to one ratio.

However, across the boards, I believe your statistics are probably more
representative. But don't you think they pretty well betray the future?
I believe men in full professor positions outnumber women because women
in humanities academia really proliferated in the last 30 years or so.
But when all these men retire or die? The numbers you're showing me for
tenure track or assistant positions, I suspect, will be the new make
up.
In this one little field, the white male Supreme Deity is soon to be a
thing of the past :)

Jim

Cecilia Baader wrote:
>
> --- Jim Rovira <jrovira@drew.edu> wrote:
>
> > Don't really know how to further respond to you. You asked me to check
> > my own department in reply to a post in which I described
> > my own department
> > :).
>
> No, Jim, I said to check the makeup with regards to full professors v.
> assistant professors v. adjunct professors and lecturers. I think you'll
> find I'm right. It's certainly true of the three English departments of
> my own experience.
>
> I can spout facts at you all day long. For instance, in my own English
> Department, six of the full tenured professors are men, while only three
> are women. Two assistant professors are men, and one is a woman. Three
> of the adjunct lecturers are men, while eight are women. Add it up and
> you'll see that although the women outnumber the men in my department in
> numbers similar to those you reported, you'll find that few of them have
> managed to find tenure. I'll let you work out the percentages for
> yourself.
>
> And Wisconsin is famous for its institutional liberalism, too.
>
> Nothing's more tiresome than a woman whining about inequality, but it's
> not usually the men in a department who notice these things.
>
> How did we get on this discussion?
>
> > I think it's a mistake to too carefully distinguish between HS teachers
> > and college level academics -- who trains the HS teachers? :).
>
> Other High School teachers and Department Heads. College education
> classes have little to do with curriculum ten years down the line, and
> it's not the newly graduated teachers who decide what books to teach.
>
> > I was told that one institution in So. Cal. hired a guy fresh out
> > of grad school to be a DEAN of all things --
> > simply because the institution was located in a densely hispanic area
> > and he was a competent hispanic scholar.
>
> Yes, but everyone knows that they're all nuts in Southern California.
>
> KIDDING. Kidding. No hate mail from California, please.
>
> > PC obsession, we both recognize, is widely disseminated. To think it
> > doesn't affect the makeup of faculty and admininistration is a bit
> > silly...
>
> I never suggested that. However, I'm tired of people claiming that
> because of political correctness and affirmative action, equality is a
> reality, because it isn't. It isn't. It is not.
>
> Regards,
> Cecilia.
>
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