Marquette on hot seat for rescinding job offer to lesbian

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
JS Online
By Sharif Durhams and Katelyn Ferral of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May 6, 2010

Marquette University has pulled an offer to hire a new dean for the College of Arts and Sciences from a lesbian who has written scholarly works on gender and sexual orientation, a move that is sparking criticism from faculty and a protest by students.
A university spokeswoman said the decision to withdraw an offer to hire Seattle University professor Jodi O'Brien wasn't about her sexual orientation or the quality of her scholarship. It did have to do with some of O'Brien's published writings "relating to Catholic mission and identity," Marquette spokeswoman Mary Pat Pfeil said.
"This was a decision based on a totality of factors, specifically related to the fit for the candidate to the college," she said in an interview.
In the end, the Jesuit school determined O'Brien was not an "acceptable candidate for permanent appointment," Pfeil said in a statement released Thursday afternoon by the university.

Full Story: http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/93012094.html

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap

The New York Times
December 1, 2009

By MICHAEL LUO
Johnny R. Williams, 30, would appear to be an unlikely person to have to fret about the impact of race on his job search, with companies like JPMorgan Chase and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago on his résumé.
But after graduating from business school last year and not having much success garnering interviews, he decided to retool his résumé, scrubbing it of any details that might tip off his skin color. His membership, for instance, in the African-American business students association? Deleted.
“If they’re going to X me,” Mr. Williams said, “I’d like to at least get in the door first.”
Similarly, Barry Jabbar Sykes, 37, who has a degree in mathematics from Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, now uses Barry J. Sykes in his continuing search for an information technology position, even though he has gone by Jabbar his whole life.
“Barry sounds like I could be from Ireland,” he said.
That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.
But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.
College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/us/01race.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Guild Shine Light On Minority Hiring During 'Diversity Awareness Month'

MultiChannel News
SAG Will Release 'Casting Data Report' In October
Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 9/30/2009 5:22:00 AM EDT

Screen Actors Guild has declared October "Diversity Awareness Month" and plans to release various hiring reports.In October, SAG will issue various diversity-based reports and videos via SAG.org, including the highly anticipated "Casting Data Report." This analysis of hiring statistics based on ethnicity/race, age and gender is an instrumental tool used by the entertainment industry.
While SAG works year round to advance issues of employment diversity, the group said it wants to shine a spotlight next month on the efforts of its Affirmative Action & Diversity Department, as well as the union's various diversity committees comprised of SAG members.

Full Story: http://www.multichannel.com/article/355965-SAG_Will_Release_Casting_Data_Report_In_October_.php

NEW EEOC PUBLICATION AIMED AT INCREASING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today issued a new question-and-answer guide aimed at promoting the hiring and advancement of individuals with disabilities in federal government employment. The new publication is available on the EEOC’s web site at www.eeoc.gov/federal/qanda-employment-with-disabilities.html.
Announcing the resource publication for federal agencies, Commission Chair Naomi C. Earp said, “The EEOC is doing everything it can to provide agencies with useful guidance on how to be the nation’s model employer, providing equal opportunity to all Americans, including those with disabilities.”
The percentage of federal employees with targeted disabilities, which are severe physical or mental disabilities that historically have resulted in barriers to employment, has declined each year since reaching a peak of 1.24% in Fiscal Years 1993 and 1994. In FY 2007, the participation rate of people with targeted disabilities declined to 0.92% of the federal government’s total work force, the lowest participation rate in more than 20 years.
EEOC Commissioner Christine Griffin said: “Even though the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has long required federal agencies to engage in affirmative action to hire and advance individuals with disabilities, the federal government has failed to meet this challenge. We must and can do better. This question-and-answer guide will help agencies make concrete progress.”
Commissioner Griffin has overseen the EEOC’s LEAD Initiative (Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities), which aims to boost the ranks of individuals with disabilities in federal employment to 2% by 2010.
The question-and-answer guide issued today responds to frequently asked questions about what the law allows and requires federal agencies to do with respect to affirmative hiring and employment of individuals with disabilities. Among other topics, the publication discusses:
Special regulations that allow federal agencies to hire individuals with severe disabilities who are qualified for jobs without going through the usual competitive hiring process;
Procedures that agencies are required to have for providing reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities;
Specific types of accommodations that enable people with disabilities to work in federal sector jobs;
How an agency’s obligations under the Rehabilitation Act interact with obligations under other federal laws and how agencies should handle reasonable accommodation issues when they enter into relationships with other entities (such as other federal agencies or private companies that provide training for agency employees); and
The kinds of questions that agencies may (and may not) ask about an applicant’s or employee’s disability.
In January 2008, the EEOC issued a report entitled “Improving the Participation Rate of People with Targeted Disabilities in the Federal Work Force,” which provides practical guidance on steps agencies can take to increase hiring and advancement. The report is available on the EEOC’s web site at www.eeoc.gov/federal/report/pwtd.html. Further information about the LEAD Initiative is available online at http://www.eeoc.gov/initiatives/lead/index.html.
The EEOC monitors federal agency compliance with equal employment opportunity laws and procedures. Additional information about the EEOC and its role in the federal sector is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

Opting-Out Revolution a Myth: Steep Employment Gains for Women, Mothers

Source: American Sociological Association (ASA)
Released: Wed 11-Jun-2008, 08:00 ET

Newswise — Contrary to the popular perception of a so-called “opting out revolution,” new sociological research from the June issue of the American Sociological Review reveals that professional women’s employment rates have continually pushed higher over time, and that the employment gap between mothers and childless women is shrinking.
To determine the truth behind the opting out phenomenon described in mass media reports, sociologist Christine Percheski examined trends among college-educated women born between 1906 and 1975 and found that professional women’s employment levels have made steep gains over time, especially for mothers of young children and women in historically male professions.
Despite anecdotal reports of successful working women returning to the home to assume child care responsibilities, less than 8 percent of professional women born since 1956 leave the workforce for a year or more during their prime childbearing years, according to the study.
Percheski’s research shows that the number of women with young children who work full-time year-round has increased steadily, growing from a rate of 5.6 percent of women born 1926 to 1935 (referred to as the “Baby Boom Parents” by Percheski), to 38.1 percent of women from Generation X (born 1966 to 1975). More professional Generation X mothers of young children were working full-time year-round than their counterparts in any previous generation.
Percheski finds that among mothers of older children (those age 6 to 18), full-time employment is the norm for professional women of Generation X.
When examining general labor force participation rates, Percheski finds even more drastic growth. About a third of women with young children from the Baby Boom Parents group participated in the labor force while their children were under age 6, but the rate increased to a little more than three-quarters for Generation X mothers of young children.
According to Percheski, the employment gains of recent cohorts do not seem to have been achieved through reductions in fertility, as fertility levels have remained similar across women born from 1946 to 1975.
Not only are more women with children working, but Percheski’s research shows a trend of women working longer hours. The percentage of professional women working more than 50 hours a week increased from less than 10 percent of women born before 1935 to more than 15 percent for most women born after 1956. Long hours were more common even for mothers of young children. Ten percent of Generation X mothers with young children worked more than 50 hours a week; but just over 1 percent of their Baby Boom Parent counterparts worked more than 50 hours a week. For those with older children, the rate was 15 percent of Generation Xers working long hours versus about 2 percent of Baby Boom Parents doing so.Percheski also examined the characteristics of professional, college-educated women in their main reproductive years, ages 25 to 39, who were not employed or enrolled in school the previous year. Although the vast majority of non-working women have children at home, Percheski found that an increasing percentage of women in the younger groups she studied did not. Fewer of these non-working women were married as well. Percheski asserts that this is evidence of the weakening influence of children and marriage on women’s employment rates.
“Contrary to an opt-out revolution, professional women—including mothers of young children—are working more than ever,” said Percheski. “Despite this increase in women’s employment, we can not assume that combining professional work and family life is easy for most women. Indeed, many working women successfully combine these roles by making great personal sacrifices, including curtailing their sleep, civic involvement or leisure time.”
Percheski used cross-sectional data from the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey to examine trends by 10-year birth cohorts of college-educated professional and managerial women in the United States from 1960 to 2005. She analyzed labor force participation; full-time, year-round employment; and work hours exceeding 50 hours per week. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and the Office of Population Research at Princeton University.
Sociologists have also studied the factors that affect the decisions of the small percentage of women who do “opt out” of the workforce. The fall 2007 issue of the American Sociological Association’s Contexts magazine included sociologist Pamela Stone’s examination of “The Rhetoric and Reality of Opting Out,” in which Stone describes the home and workplace dynamics that contribute to these decisions. This article is available online at http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Fall07CNTFeature.pdf.
The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions and use of sociology to society.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/541621/

"Opting out"? The effect of children on women's employment in the United States

Heather Boushey
Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, DC, USA
Published in: Feminist Economics,
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
Article Requests: Order Reprints : Request Permissions

Abstract
In the United States, a recent spate of popular media attention has focused on whether mothers, especially highly educated mothers in their thirties, are increasingly "opting out" of employment. This paper uses data from the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Survey (ASEC) to examine whether children cause women to exit employment. This paper finds that the "child effect" on women's employment has fallen since the end of the 1970s. The child effect was -21.8 percentage points in 1979 and has fallen consistently over the last two decades to -12.7 percentage points in 2005. Between 2000 and 2005, the child effect grew from -11.1 to -12.7, but the change was statistically insignificant. Recent declines in women's employment may be more an effect of the weak labor market for all women, mothers and non-mothers, rather than an increase in mothers voluntarily choosing to exit employment. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content?content=10.1080/13545700701716672

Study: Companies Don’t Spend Enough Time Recruiting at HBCUs

Diverse Issues in Higher Education

by Michelle J. Nealy
Oct 16, 2007, 22:20

The strategies Fortune 400 companies and government agencies use when looking to recruit new employees from historically Black colleges and universities differ from those they use for predominantly White institutions.

Fortune 400 companies and government agencies used on campus bulletin boards, alumni recommendations, networking and career development officers more frequently at PWIs than at HBCUs, according to a recent study conducted by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and researchers from Alabama A&M University.

Researchers surveyed 280 recruiters from Fortune 400 companies and career development directors at 105 HBCUs and 287 PWIs.

The study indicated that a disproportionate number of graduates from PWIs were hired over those from HBCUs. In 2006, corporations and agencies included in the study hired 31 college graduates and only four were HBCU graduates.

The strongest explanation for the disparity, suggests Dwayne Ashley, president and CEO of the TMCF, is the number of on campus visits made by recruiters from Fortune 400 companies and government agencies.

“Recruiters were not visiting enough HBCU schools. For budgetary reasons, most companies only visit one to 10 schools overall. These schools tend to be the top 10 liberal arts colleges and universities in the country,” Ashley says.

The data indicated that 32 percent of Fortune 400 companies and government agencies did not visit any college campus last year, and only 20 percent made 11 to 20 campus visits.

“If these companies allocate more dollars to the budget and increase the number of campus visits from one to 10 to 11 to 20, it would allow recruiters to visit schools they wouldn’t ordinarily visit. There is a pool of untapped minority talent at smaller HBCUs,” Ashley says.
[To read the entire article, go to: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_9768.shtml ]