Andrew Irvine

Letter to Editor, University of Toronto Bulletin

Small number of jobs significant

In his letter of June 10, Professor Jim Brown refers to a study concerning hiring that he was involved with where it was concluded that women “obtained 33 per cent of the PhDs but only 28 per cent of the jobs” (Diversity improves quality of research).

In his report, which is avail-able online at the Canadian Philosophical Association’s Web site (www.acpcpa.ca), Brown comments that “of the 97 students receiving a PhD during the period from July 1, 1993 to June 30, 1996, 32 were women (33%)” but that, in 1996, only 29 per cent of the jobs went to women. (These are Canada-wide statistics for philosophy.) He then concludes that “the rate of hiring women is very far from the goals set by the CPA and, in fact, does not even match the candidate pool of 33% women. Even those who oppose affirmative action and want ‘gender blind’ hiring practices should be upset with these results, since they suggest a slight discrimination against female candidates.”

However, it’s important to point out that Brown is reporting about a total of only seven positions nationally. Thus, had just one more position gone to a woman, say, then the percentage of women hired would have jumped to 43! Had just one more position gone to a man, say, then the percentage would have fallen to 14!

To suggest that such small numbers are statistically significant is clearly something of a stretch, to say the least. This is especially true in light of much more widely confirmed and statistically significant data gathered over many years and in several studies that points to the opposite conclusion.

Andrew Irvine, Department of Philosophy,  University of British Columbia
 

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