The cartoon chosen for the Status of Women Supplement (April 1997 Bulletin) is a telling indication of how proponents of employment equity choose to place individuals into some collective based on characteristics beyond their control. Certainly to suggest that an individual bears the mark of Cain and is either the source of benefactor of past discrimination is not just.

The statistics presented in the supplement bear out how discriminatory hiring practices based on gender have become. From 1993 to 1996, 3324 women were granted doctorate degrees from Canadian universities, 31.5 percent of the total granted. According to the 1995 data on appointments, 1494 women were in a position leading to tenure, 44.8 percent of the appointments in that category. If we assume that these leading to tenure appointments come from the pool of recent doctoral graduates then any one female getting a PhD is almost twice (1.8 times) as likely as being hired as any one male with a PhD. Surely the low proportion of women getting doctoral degrees is the issue that needs to be addressed, but I don't think that discriminatory hiring practices are the solution.

Perhaps the advocates of equity employment should be given the job of telling qualified candidates they will not be given a position (because they are not a member of the target gender or minority) before they decide that the end justifies the means.

John Markham
Forestry, University of British Columbia