Posted on 05/20/2016 3:22:22 PM PDT by grundle
The University of Melbourne has taken the extraordinary step of opening up jobs to female applicants only in an attempt to drive change in the male-dominated area of mathematic academia.
Only about a quarter of all mathematics academics in Australia are female, and the university is now advertising three positions in its School of Mathematics and Statistics for female applicants only.
It is believed to be the first time it has limited applications to women only for permanent academic positions.
The jobs, in pure mathematics, applied mathematics and statistics, may range in level from lecturer, to senior lecturer, to associate professor, depending on the candidate's experience.
The head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Professor Aleks Owczarek, said the decision had been taken to promote change.
"We clearly have an issue with attracting female applicants appropriately to our workforce," Professor Owczarek said.
"So this is an agenda to attempt to address that." Reaching gender equality in maths stubbornly slow
Women are notoriously underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, but mathematics has the lowest representation of all studies.
Lesley Ward, an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of South Australia, and chair of the Women in Maths Special Interest Group of the Australian Mathematical Society (WIMSIG), told ABC's PM it gets worse the more senior the rank.
"At the first academic rank of associate lecturer it's still only 30 per cent women, by the time you get up to the second highest rank of associate professor it's down to under 20 per cent women," Professor Ward said.
"At the highest rank, of professor, it's 9 per cent women, according to the most recent data we have from 2014."
She said there were many reasons for the low percentages, but a key cause was unconscious bias which sees men promoted more often than women.
Because of that, Professor Ward welcomed The University of Melbourne's move, saying change so far had been slow.
"There have been many measures taken by universities and by individuals and by professional societies to help the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equity in these disciplines," she said.
"In some disciplines it's been harder than others and in mathematics it's one where it's taken a particularly long time."
Equal Opportunity Act allows for positive discrimination
The University of Melbourne positions have been advertised using a special measure of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Act.
"The use of this kind of special measure that we're using has been used with regards to Indigenous employment," Professor Owczarek said.
"For this kind of positions, permanent continuing academic positions, I believe it might be the first time it's been used," he added.
Discrimination lawyer Rowan Skinner said the Act allows organisations to take actions to promote equality.
"The Act specifically permits an organisation to engage in what is overtly a discriminatory act, but for the purposes of ensuring that there is equal opportunity overall," Mr Skinner said.
Affirmative action math. What could go wrong?
Isn’t that really, really blatant sexism? I guess all those “isms” are OK as long as they only hurt white males.
Can I still call her Sheilah?
And the women can’t figure out why they can’t find a man.
Agenda Uber Alles!
“Diversity” is just a code word for “Not White”
Next they need to offer a position solely for “transgender” applicants, who need to be guaranteed some representation, too.... /s
To quote Barbie, “Math is hard.”
Brilliant. Soon we will have coed NFL Football teams.
Please tell me, I have to know. How many maths are there? Is arithmetic one math or part of the first math?
Isn’t this a blatant EEOC violation?
Never mind. It’s Australia.
Can we expect men-only jobs to be offered in the nursing school?
At least in America, women far outnumber men in colleges and universities. When are we going to see affirmative action for men?
math is hard...
Dumbing down America continues.
Hire the most qualified be it male, female, black or purple.
"Women and minorities encouraged to apply".
I never was able to get one of those jobs. I learned to read it as saying:
"White guys need not apply"
There is nothing "affirmative" about such action. Nor is it "reverse-discrimination". It is just racial and gender discrimination and there is no "reverse" about it. I was not coming from some privileged position and being held back to let minorities catch up , I was just starting out with no work experience and was being shut out due to my race and gender.
It happens not as many women are as interested in math or high tech as men. Whatever the reason, it is not due to discrimination. I was discriminated against, but was still able to get a degree, and now am a successful computer programmer. They have been discriminated in favor of for years. So don't give me any excuse that its some kind of discrimination against them. "Affirmative Action" is a big stinking ugly load of crap! It is immoral, not effective, and insulting to both those it purports to help and those it discriminates against.
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