Affirmative action for dudes

The Daily Illini
Opinions Blog
Jordan Harp Opinions blogger and columnist Contact me
November 9th, 2009 - 10:04 PM

If there is ever an example of a foot in mouth moment for progressive policies, it became evident last week.
Last week, the Chronicle on Higher Education reported that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had begun examining whether colleges were discriminating against women in admissions decisions. The investigation, “FY 2010 Project on Sex Discrimination in Higher Education Admissions,” aims to determine if co-ed institutions are giving undue preference to male applicants in order to avoid having a gender imbalance on their campuses.
The irony here would be painful were it not so amusing. Affirmative action has enjoyed near universal support among feminist groups, in part because of their belief that preferences help women in getting admitted to college. Four years ago Michigan feminist organizations were unanimous in their opposition to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which would have eliminated admissions preferences on the basis of race or sex. But now the policy that they so vehemently support is hurting those that they claim to represent.
Anyone who has been to high school knows that when it comes to academics, boys do in fact drool a bit. Valedictorians today are overwhelmingly female. High school dropout rates nationwide are much higher for men than they are for women. And for those who do graduate, women are more likely to go to college and get accepted to college, and then once they actually get to college, women are more likely to graduate.
This has led to some demographic problems at some universities. The article in the Chronicle mentions the University of Rochester. Although admissions percentages were relatively equal for men and women there in the last cycle, just three years ago the acceptance rate for men was 54 percent, while for women it was just 41 percent, both from higher numbers of and stronger female applicants.

Full Blog Post: http://www.dailyillini.com/blogs/different-perspectives/2009/11/09/affirmative-action-for-dudes

Engaging men in gender equality efforts

People's Weekly World
PWW.org
RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 2 (IPS) - How many men work in day care centres, looking after children? How much paternity leave are men entitled to? How many government programmes to combat domestic violence include violent men themselves as part of the treatment? The ball is in the court of national governments, and it is up to them to answer these questions, according to participants at an international congress on gender equity. The first global symposium on Engaging Men and Boys to Achieve Gender Equity, being held from Monday, Mar. 30 to Friday, Apr. 3 arose, in fact, out of the deafening official silence on the matter, according to Marcos Nascimento, co-director of the non-governmental Promundo Institute. Over a decade after agreeing that men's participation is essential for "overcoming gender inequalities," governments do not appear to have fully taken this commitment on board, Nascimento said in an interview with IPS. Nascimento belongs to a network of NGOs that address masculinity from a feminist viewpoint, incorporating a gender perspective. Any such initiative is bound to "have greater scope" if it is backed by public policies, he said. The symposium was organised by the Promundo Institute and Instituto Papai (Daddy) of Brazil; the White Ribbon Campaign, based in Canada; Save the Children, an international organisation; MenEngage Global Alliance, a coalition of NGOs and United Nations agencies; and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Full Story: http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/15103/