Girls disadvantaged?
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Anonymous
Affirmative Action for white makes! It’s fascinating how the sane people who get upset about “holistic” admissions for minorities suddenly start supporting gender bias when their sons benefit. PP even justified it as benefiting the girls who are being held to a higher standard than boys because how else would they meet their future husbands? Wow. I can’t even. |
Anonymous
And for blacks and Latinos and middle earthers and internationals and first gen and blah blah blah. Colleges have truly lost their way with this regressive social engineering BS. |
Anonymous
Given the horrific history of lynching, church burning, church bombing, housing discrimination, job discrimination, voter suppression, and segregation that blacks have suffered in my lifetime, I'm happy to give more to my alma mater because they encourage and support black applicants. Given that the most common way for poor and middle class white families to accumulate wealth in this country (buying a house and building equity, often with government support in the form of VA of FHA loans) was effectively closed to blacks by redlining and housing discrimination during most of my life, I fully support efforts to build the black middle class. As the child of first generation college students (both of whom attended college on scholarships), I also donate to scholarship funds and fully support efforts to encourage first generation college students. Considering that my dad went from being the first in his family to attend college to being the CEO of a large publicly held corporation, the economic benefit of encouraging untapped talent in first generation college students appeals to me. As the parent of a good but not great high school student who will have a much tougher time getting into college than I did, I am sympathetic to the occasional frustration of parents like me whose kids don't tick any of these boxes. However, I recognize the benefit of encouraging certain under served groups, and I just encourage my kid to work harder. I'm sick of all the people like me (white men) I constantly hear whining these days. What ever happened to the ethic of just sucking it up and working harder? |
Anonymous
I know! Cry me a river, mom of white sons. I have two white daughters. Will most schools admit African American girls "over" them if those AA girls have similar scores and grades? Yes, probably, and that is just fine with me - because I understand that a) those AA girls may very well have had to overcome much more than my (wonderful but born lucky) girls to get to the same place, and b) we live in a society that has historically discriminated against African Americans and c the legacy of racism is alive and well and those AA girls will continue to face obstacles my girls will never face. So affirmative action to help those who still suffer as a result of discrimination in a ton of ways? No problem, even if it comes in some small way at the expense of my own kids, because it is part of creating the more just society I want them to inhabit. Affirmative action for white boys is a whole different story. I hear you, mothers of sons, perhaps school is now structured in a way that makes it easier for girls to succeed relative to boys. But in every other f*ing way, white boys have the advantage in our society. They are more likely to be hired and retained than women; they make more money in the same job; they do less housework and less childcare. They are not an oppressed minority, they never have been, and they are likely to be so in our children's lifetimes. So why would we feel like they need an ectra boost in college admissions, on top of the many extra boosts they already get in life? |
Anonymous
| I'm well aware of a preference for girls in STEM, but maybe the colleges are over-saturated with girl applicants in humanities/social sciences and want some gender balance. Is that "affirmative action?" We went through this whole discussion with the thread on the Harvard lawsuit re: Asians. What I hear OP saying is really a dislike of holistic admissions. |
Anonymous
| The answer is so obvious I'm surprised no one else has suggested it. |
Anonymous
\ Exactly. Colleges tend to want to get close to a 50/50 balance of men and women. So, in STEM they give a preference to women. In something like English, they'll give a preference to men. At a larger scale, more men apply to tech-focused schools so those schools want more women and so a woman will find it easier to get admitted. More women apply to small liberal arts colleges so those schools want more men and so it's easier for men to get admitted. Making it into something nefarious or a slam against women is ridiculous. |
Anonymous
No one wants to take a stab? |
Anonymous
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I wouldn't even worry about this. The girls attend elementary school in an environment tailor made for their typical development, and not the typical development for boys. They had a ton of role models during those years. They had plenty of advantage along the way.
Tell your kid to put her head down, study hard, and leave it at that. |
Anonymous
women's colleges? That was mentioned |
Anonymous
Nope. Apply for STEM programs and then transfer out. |
Anonymous
| Women now graduate in higher proportions than men from college, law schools, and med schools. Different schools have different gender balances but most favor girls by 1 or more percentage points. So if the acceptance rates appear lower, it's because they are applying in higher numbers. You can select schools and programs that favor girls in acceptance rates, so there's really no reason to cry victim here. |
Anonymous
Most college aged women aren't looking for husbands, but I agree that most would be quite unhappy if males weren't close to 50% of the students. |
Anonymous
If you're AA, Morehouse |
Anonymous
You know many, many women don't share this view of what it's like to be a female, right? |