Title: Equal opportunity vs. Meritocracy(3/26)
1Equal opportunity vs. Meritocracy(3/26)
- Cole Limited Differences
- Reskin Affirmative Action
- Buffers and Shunts
2Is the U.S. institutionally sexist today? (review)
- There is a lot of gender inequality,
- and there are a lot of people who are,
individually sexist? - But is the over-all playing field level?
- Or even more than level?
- Or are the differences natural
- Should it be level?
- If the inequalities are the result of a fair
competition, then most Americans believe they
should not be countered or compensated. - Experts disagree about whether the competition is
fair
3Cole A Theory of Limited Differences
- The hard sciences are very unequal.
- I.e. there is a high degree of concentration of
resources, rewards and productivity. - They are very male-dominated.
- More than 90 (often more than 99) of the elite
positions are held by men. - And they are very meritocratic
- They make a much bigger effort than the corporate
or legal elite to reward accomplishment fairly.
4The Mathew Principle
- We have described any structure that tends to
operate by the rule, To him who hath, shall be
given more, even to abundance, and from him who
hath little, shall be taken away even what he
hath - As governed by the Matthew Principle whose
logic is
Access to further resources
Resources
5The Matthew Principle in Science
- The concept of the Matthew Principle was
invented by R. K. Merton to describe the process
of reward in the sciences. - Specifically, it describes what happens when
- there are a small number of resources (research
grants, elite positions, space in intro texts), - and one allocates them strictly on the basis of
previous accomplishment? - Those who have had access to resources in the
past will have accomplishments, and so - The rich will get richer and the poor will get
poorer.
6The blind spot of the Meritocratic Principles
- Suppose Jane and John have equivalent
accomplishments - Reward on the basis of merit prohibits
- Jane overcame greater obstacles therefore she
showed greater ability and should be preferred. - We know there are biases in one direction in one
stage therefore we will institutionalize biases
in the other direction in other stages. - The society needs both male and female
scientists, and so we will insure there are both. - Justifications of affirmative action depend on
such principles.
7The question addressed by the model of limited
differences.
- Coles model investigates the net result of a
system that combines meritocratic processes with
biased ones, - Or alternately, the effects of a meritocratic
processes in a society that contains some gender
(or race) bias and disadvantage. - Do the meritocratic elements counteract the bias?
- Do they pass it on?
- Do they amplify it?
8The assumptions of the model of limited
differences
- Equal numbers of equally talented, equally
motivated male and female college graduates - 25 hurdles to get to an elite position, such as
finding a thesis mentor who is a star or
publishing 6 refereed papers in the 1st 6 years
as a junior faculty person, to get tenure. - 20 hurdles are entirely unbiased.
- 5 hurdles have a moderate male bias (I.e. 66
women pass through the hurdle for every 100 men.)
9Are there equal numbers of talented men and
women?If not, why not?
- The text notes that it is difficult to
distinguish effects of nature and nurture. - It flirts with theories of the female brain
- The SAT gender gap (p.427) is about 50 points
more in math. - Most peoples intuition is that if that results
from genes, then schools should accommodate to
it. - But if it results from bias, schools should
probably discount or compensate for the gap. - The more important biases are not question form,
but the source of the different performance. - It is the whole system that generates bias.
10Is a system of limited differences (mostly
meritocratic) biased?
- A common intuition since most of the stages are
entirely unbiased, and since those that are, are
only moderately so, therefore - the system will be mostly unbiased, with the
unbiased components counteracting or outweighing
the biased ones. - This intuition is incorrect. Cole shows that
the meritocratic components of the system
amplify and pass on the biased elements.
11A simple filter representation
- 100 men
- 100 men
- 100 men
- 100 men
- 100 men
- 100 men
- 100 women
- 66 women
- 44 women
- 29 women
- 19 women
- 13 women
In Coles actual model, the interactions between
the particular biases and the unbiased hurdles
eliminates nearly 99 of women, but even without
such interactions, it is evident that 5 hurdles
with a 2/3 bias will eliminate nearly 90 of
women.
12Filter bias survival
- 3600 men
- 1600 men
- 800 men
- 400 men
- 200 men
- 100 men
- 1800 women
- 533 women
- 144 women
- 48 women
- 16 women
- 5 woman
13Individual bias and structural sexism
- As with tipping point residential segregation,
the outcome is not unrelated to there being some
biased people in the system. - But many of the hurdles of women may have to do
with other things about the society. - Even senior faculty who do not mentor women may
be practicing statistical discrimination or
profiling. - And the problem is not with their motivation but
the fact that virtually all women are eliminated.
14Policy Implications and Choices
- The cumulative effect of half a dozen small
biases, if they all move in the same direction,
and if there are no compensating forces, may be
very large. This means we must either - Accept a system that is largely biased.
- Try to eliminate all residual biases in the
system (usually impossible). - Buffer an organization against inequality
outside. - Institute shunts or compensatory programs to
bypass biased hurdles.
15Buffers
- The army, Sun Oil, or Villanova cannot usually
change the educational structure of the ghetto or
the family structure, - and they may not want to.
- But that does not mean that they have to ignore
disadvantages from those areas and pass it on. - Sliding scales and compensatory programs may
prevent those external inequalities from
operating inside. - In fact, someone swimming the same speed upstream
is swimming faster.
16Shunts
- Often it is much easier to bypass a blockage than
to change it. - For example, It would be very difficult to force
senior physicists to advise on female graduate
students, - or to make it equally possible for female junior
faculty with children to write 6 refereed
articles. - It is not very difficult to provide an alternate
path.
17Reskin The Realities of Affirmative Action in
Employment (ASA 1998)
- An ASA booklet
- Reskin (president-elect of the ASA) argues that
opponents of affirmative action have distorted it
and made it a political football, - that there are many kinds of AA programs,
- but that the kinds of procedures opposed as
preferences, quotas or reverse
discrimination are myths, neither required nor
permitted by affirmative action programs.
18Reskin the reality
- Reskin argues that Affirmative Action programs
are genuine efforts to broaden applicant pools to
include more qualified minorities and women. - Studies such as Cole and Kanter show that there
is a pervasively non-level playing field that
needs to be leveled, - and this is corroborated by matched pair studies.
- When people are asked whether they support
policies to level the field, about 70 support
them - Even when they oppose affirmative action.
- The conflict is not between merit and affirmative
action, but between cronyism and a genuinely
level playing field.
19Is there Unequal Opportunity
- There is large amount of segregation and unequal
pay by gender. - The main way of determining whether this is the
result of discriminatory treatment, is audits,
involving matched candidates. - There have been 1500 audits (usually of hires)
demonstrating unequal treatment. - There are about 100,000 complaints of unequal
treatment per year to the EEOC, which has a
backlog of more than 100,000 cases, - Is understaffed, underfunded and without teeth.
20How does Affirmative Action differ from
Anti-discrimination law?
- Anti-discrimination law
- After the fact
- Responsibility of the victim to show wrong
- Usually based on intent (which usually cannot be
shown)
- Affirmative action
- Aims to alter institu-tional disadvantage.
- Responsibility of employer
- Equally applicable if the segregation results
from day-to-day practices such as old-boy network
recruitment.
21What are the main kinds of Affirmative Action?
- There are 4 main kinds of affirmative action
plan - Executive orders mandate companies doing 50,000
of business with the govt to have a plan - Federal and some state and local governments have
some kind of affirmative action plan. - Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act allows the
courts to mandate action (usually for
non-compliance). - Some firms have voluntary A.A. plans
- In the 1980s similar laws and orders were passed
for veterans and for the handicapped, but they
have not, as yet, come under the criticism as
those Re race and sex.
221. Govt mandated programs for businesses with
govt contracts
- About 3 of firms are involved,
- but they are large and employ 25 of workers.
- The programs are of different kinds
- they largely involve open recruitment and
explicit, public policies of advancement. - The law and the guidelines expressly forbid
quotas.
232. Government programs
- Cover an additional 20 of the work force.
- The programs are of different kinds
- they largely involve open recruitment and public
policies of advancement. - The law expressly forbid quotas.
243. Court-mandated AA Programs.
- This is the only case where numerical goals,
timetables, and even quotas may be used. - But only subject to other rulings that prohibit
unduly disadvantaging dominant group members. - And only when no other remedy existed, as in the
case of a sheet metal union that repeatedly
defied court orders. - Rare
254. Private, voluntary programs
- The programs are of different kinds
- they largely involve open recruitment and making
policies and criteria for advancement public. - They are debarred from using quotas,
- but they may use gender or race as a plus to
redress substantial disparities resulting from
past discrimination, - If and only if it does not unduly disadvantage
dominant group members.
26What kinds of firms have more equal opportunities?
- Reskins own work shows which firms are more
likely to have equal opportunities. - It is largely firms that have formal, explicit,
public policies of hiring, recruiting, evaluation
and advancement. - This is the reason that public firms are more
likely to have equal opportunity than private
ones. - Most employers hate such policies as unnecessary
paper work, but the main fact is that they
constrain employers and supervisors arbitrary
favoritism and cronyism.
27Do Affirmative Action policies work?
- Reskin argues that no single set of programs can
undo institutionalized inequality. - But the evidence is that affirmative action
programs have made a large contribution to
equalizing opportunities of men and women. - They do not unfairly disadvantage white males
- They do not replace merit by quotas, but
cronyism by formal, open policies. - You do not necessarily have to change peoples
networks to prevent them from being the main
access to jobs and promotion.