September 2002
It’s appropriate that the
SAFS board should have chosen our founding president to receive the academic
freedom award on this, our tenth anniversary. But there is a more
substantial reason why the choice is particularly apt. In her defence
of academic freedom, Doreen Kimura represents, in the Socratic phrase,
‘the opinions of the wise’ standing firm against the ‘opinions of the many.’
Socrates, who was killed by ‘the many’ of Athens for ‘corrupting the youth,’
symbolizes those who put the search for truth above societal concerns such
as offensive speech and disturbing views.
Causing offense or discomfort
remains an inevitable aspect of good education. Doreen won’t
take offence, I’m sure, if I say that this has been something of a signature
theme in her career. As she put it when receiving one of her honorary
degrees a few years ago: “I have taught at a university for over
25 years, and I hope that in that time I have offended many students, in
the sense that I have suggested ideas to them that they had not entertained
before, and which they therefore found disturbing.”
When political correctness
began to take hold in Canadian campuses a decade ago, with speech codes
and penalties against those voicing offensive or disturbing opinions, Doreen
took the initiative to protect the academic freedom of first one and then
all of the Canadian academic community. I’m sure this was not an
easy move because she is, by nature, a scientist rather than an advocate.
Once she publicly joined
the fight against political correctness, the disciples of ‘diversity’ turned
their ad hominem artillery on her with a vengeance. Perhaps the most
odious example of this was the photograph of Doreen published by This
Magazine in a scurrilous piece on SAFS in 1995. (Written by Krishna
Rau and Clive Thompson, it was entitled “Hate 101,” and argued that SAFS’
opposition to employment equity was based on racist theories, that SAFS
was linked to white supremacists, and was spreading hate on campuses).
Doreen was interviewed, and provided a photo for the magazine, but the
interviewer insisted on taking numerous pictures of her for twenty minutes.
The result was a large, distorting, almost demonic picture to illustrate
the article.
Doreen responded, as usual,
in a cool, rational, and witty way. In a letter to the magazine (reprinted
later in the July 1995 SAFS Newsletterunder the title “THIS
fails Logic 101”) Doreen dissected some of the article’s more obvious falsehoods,
using logic and evidence to defend SAFS. Ultimately we got
the last laugh on This Magazine(which, by the way, enjoyed both
provincial and federal governmental funding, and was edited by Naomi Klein).
We used the distorted photograph to illustrate how the politically correct
attempt to demonize those with whom they disagree. Subsequently,
when Doreen and I had our disagreements over email about SAFS tactics,
I would threaten to present only the bad photo of her at my next talk!
In the April, ‘convention,’
issue of the SAFS Newsletter, in discussion with Nancy Innnis, Doreen
has conveyed the bare facts about the assaults on academic freedom that
led to the founding of our society. She rightly mentions those who
joined her in protesting infringements of academic freedom, but I am convinced
that there was no other individual who could have succeeded in launching
SAFS in those early nineties. She was, and is, a scholar of
great renown, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and recipient of
other notable honours. Without someone of her scholarly stature at
the head, SAFS could easily have been dismissed as being merely a bunch
of middle-aged, white, male professors, protecting their parochial and
irrelevant interests.
Her scholarly status, however,
did not make her too shy to call a spade a spade in defending SAFS’s principles.
The titles of what she terms her “non-science” writings include:
This is not the sort of stuff
that is likely to make her welcome among those who wish to increase the
feeling of comfort in universities. She has garnered no awards from
the deans of ‘diversity’, nor, to my knowledge, has she been offered any
equity officer positions. Instead, she has had to content herself
with awards like the Nora and Ted Sterling prize in support of controversy
presented to her by Simon Fraser University in 2000.
Doreen’s wise judgment on
the many tactical choices that the Society faced in the early years, in
determining what issues and cases to take up, how best to make a public
impact, and how to deal with attacks upon us, were of untold value.
Her writings on these matters are models of clarity and directness.
During those early days of
SAFS, most of our activity was directed at defending academic freedom.
Later, in what was to be a nine-year career as president and/or board member
of SAFS, Doreen also took up defence of the second of SAFS’s basic principles,
that of merit. In Canada, the main source of attack on the merit
principle came from sexist institutional policies that discriminated against
males. Perhaps the most blatant example of this sort of discrimination
at a federal level has been the NSERC faculty fellowships (restricted to
women and to aboriginal men). In her arguments against this sort
of unjustifiable discrimination, Doreen drew upon her unique scientific
expertise in the field of group sex differences in cognitive abilities.
She has also written cogent comments on the topic of women and science.
I like to think that, in the eyes of the politically correct ideologues,
she has indeed become “Doreen the Demon,” wielding her sword of logic and
rationality to devastating effect.
At the risk of embarrassing
her, I should mention that there have been many times that Doreen has put
the interests of academic freedom and of SAFS goals ahead of her personal
needs. Her second period as president demanded a considerable sacrifice.
She took on the job again when our arrangements for a successor to me suddenly
fell through. Doreen was intending to retire from the SAFS board,
being about to move from her professorship at the University of Western
Ontario that she had held for more than three decades to the west coast
at SFU, where she had a busy programme of research and writing lined up.
She had to shift the SAFS office from Toronto to Vancouver, while engaged
in her own move from Western to SFU. She dealt with this problem
with her usual cool efficiency, an administrative feat which still leaves
me stunned. Yet through it all she wrote her book on Sex and Cognition,
and has garnered great academic and scientific acclaim. Those who
cherish the cause of academic freedom and merit in Canadian universities
owe her a great debt of gratitude for her heroic efforts during this crucial
period.
But I do not want to give
the impression that Doreen deserves the academic freedom award only on
account of her unflagging efforts for our Society. By arguing the
case for individual merit against collectivist and discriminatory policies
in institutions, she has made a weighty contribution to the broad debate
in Canadian society on employment equity in particular, and on what constitutes
a just and genuinely fair society in general.
Recently Doreen has provided
empirical data on an important issue: whether current tenure-stream hiring
employment-equity policies merely equate opportunities between men and
women, or actually discriminate against men. Following up earlier
work of Clive Seligman, and providing results consistent with it, Doreen
has presented clear empirical data showing that recent women candidates
have about twice the success rate of male candidates in gaining appointment
for tenure-stream faculty positions. This sort of systematic empirical
evidence is critical for countering misconceptions about so-called ‘equity’
policies.
Doreen’s scientific authority
but, more importantly, her knowledge of the complexities of sex differences
in cognitive abilities are unmatched by those with whom she argues.
Her writings will stand the test of time not only in Canada, but throughout
the international community, or at least that part of it that Bronowski
called the “democracy of the intellect”. I am sure that scholars
will look back on this clear voice of reason in the midst of the Orwellian
doublespeak that permeates the thinking of many in positions of leadership.
Speaking personally, in the
past decade, I have come to know Doreen as a wise, loyal, and clear-thinking
friend, as have others in SAFS. In her steadfast commitment to fairness
and to science, she has earned the gratitude of all those who retain the
vision of the university as a place where both faculty and students are
dedicated to the search for truth, a place where the opinions of the wise
are still valued over the opinions and comfort of the many.
I feel extremely honoured
to receive the Furedy award for academic freedom. I know that there are
others who have equally deserved it. But I am willing to accede to the
Board’s wish to make a sentimental choice, on this the occasion of our
10th anniversary. As president of SAFS off and on for several years, I
was most often speaking for the Society when I composed letters or made
media commentary on matters that concerned us.
When we started out many
years ago, I don’t think any of us knew where we would be in ten years.
Along the way, we’ve had the usual bumps on the road that any organization
will have, and I’m sure they are not at an end. But given the relatively
small size of our organization, I think we can credit ourselves with having
had a significant impact on both our goals – the maintenance of academic
freedom, and of the merit principle, in post-secondary educational institutions.
In fact, although we constantly strive to enlarge our membership, it may
well be the fact that we are not huge in numbers that has allowed such
cohesive action when it was called for. The strain on the president and
board has been heavy, but as a society we got the job done.
Nobody who publicly espouses
SAFS’ goals will escape some name calling in this country. Negatively loaded
labels have been the main defence against SAFS’ arguments, and they are
freely offered by our opposition in lieu of rational discussion. I’ve certainly
had my share, but it’s been worth it, and, truth to tell, it has usually
been fun.
Thank you for an award I
will hold very dear.
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