Do you support affirmative action in the strong sense
Affirmative Action Questions
1. Do you support affirmative action in the strong sense? What is the best argument for? What is the best argument against? How would you counter the best argument for the side you disagree with?
2. Analyze the following affirmative action case: “Equity Hiring in the Philosophy Department at the University of Toronto.”
In the early 1990’s, the University of Toronto Philosophy Department set a goal of filling two-thirds of departmental appointments over the next ten years with women. They authorized (a) special recruitment efforts aimed at women (b) advertising positions as open or with broad specialization; and indicating in ads that the department is particularly interested in attracting qualified women (c) leaving open the option of postponing a job search until the next year if it was judged that a better pool of female candidates might become available. However, less than half of those graduating in this period with a doctorate in philosophy (the pool of qualified job candidates for professor jobs) were female.
2a. Was the University of Toronto’s affirmative action policy fair? Why or why not?
2b. Would it have been fair if the target percentage of female appointments matched the number of women graduating with a doctorate in the subject?
2c. Is it arbitrary to focus on “philosophy” as a unit to be equalized, if women are well-represented in related Arts subjects such as English literature, foreign languages, and psychology?
3. The quest for gender balance has now gone beyond just ending discrimination or helping women. Analyze the following case: “Gender Balance Targets set for Scottish University Subjects.”
In 2016, the Scottish Funding Council ruled that by 2030, no subject in Scottish higher education should have a gender imbalance greater than 75:25. The report found it problematic that men make up nearly 90% of engineering students, and 80% of students in math, computer science, and tech courses, while women account for nearly 90% of nursing students, and more than 80% of trainee teachers. It declared that key industries and services cannot be “restricted to the talent of half the population,” and required universities to set out plans for tackling gender imbalances, including setting targets where possible. (Chris Havergal, Feb 24, 2016, TimesHigherEducation.com; reprinted CAUT Bulletin, March 2016.)
3a. Is gender balance in courses or careers an end-in-itself that justifies preferences and quotas?
3b. Does that Funding Council rely on a version of the Equal Results Argument? – that half (or at least 25%) of the talent for everything is distributed among each gender, and if this isn’t reflected in student choices there is a problem. Is this convincing?
3c. The report also mentions that 56.9% of Scottish undergraduates are women, and the gap with men has been increasing since the early 1990’s. It wants to reverse this by 5% (i.e. more males, fewer females) by 2030. How might this be done, and can it be done fairly?
Sexual Harassment Questions
4a. Is sexual harassment on par with other forms of harassment such as schoolyard bullying or workplace mobbing? Does the fact it is “sexual” make it necessarily worse? Or is that just one aggravating factor among others?
4b. Consider the firing of Leaf’s coach Mike Babcock for verbally abusing players (2019), or Julie Payette being shamed into resignation as Governor General after accusations that she bullied and berated staff (2021), or Ellen DeGeneres announcing the end of her talk show after stories that she ran an abusive workplace hurt her ratings (2021). Are we moving towards more consistency in our judgments of workplace harassment, taking non-sexual abuse more seriously? Is this all for the good?
5a. Do you agree with Donna Lafromboise – have concerns about sexual harassment been taken to an extreme?
5b. What does Kim Elsesser mean by “the sex partition”? Do you think fear of sexual harassment is reinforcing it? If so, what should be done?
6. Discuss John Hasnas, “Confronting Harassment” (p.402-407). This is the longest case in the Course Package because the topic of sexual harassment demands, not just the application of principles to a situation, but thinking through all the nuances of two people’s perception of a series of incidents. It is one of the options for Assignment 3, but you can discuss it on the message board as well.
Drug Testing Case
7. Read “The Pointlessness of the Workplace Drug Test,” “Oil Sand Drug-testing Battle” and “Alberta Court” (Essay Resources). Do you agree more with the union or management in the Suncor Case?
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