Letitia Meynell

Letter to Editor, Western News

Report addresses lack of diversity

In his article of January 30, Dr. Seligman suggests that I made several logical errors in a letter I wrote in reply to his response to Dr. Isaacs' column concerning the possibility of Western's being found non-compliant with the Federal Contractors Program. As a philosopher, such an accusation is rather serious, but as a woman in a discipline from which women have been excluded historically on the basis of their being illogical, the attack has a particular bite. It is, however, difficult to respond to his column for, although Dr. Seligman addresses me by name, none of the positions he attributes to me and Dr. Isaacs are present in my letter. In my letter I argued for the importance of getting good empirical data about diversity on campus and not drawing inferences from decontextualized data. I stand by this position.

It also seems I need to reiterate that PSCEE's recent report is not focused on discrimination against women. It addresses the lack of diversity regarding visible minorities, aboriginals, people with disabilities and women-in all employee groups on campus.

In an apparent effort to undermine the report, Dr. Seligman appeals to the fact that female applicants to faculty positions are twice as likely to be hired as men. This, he says, is evidence that there is no discrimination against women. This does not follow. Logically speaking, there might be other discriminatory practices against women that are experienced by faculty other than in hiring practices and there may be discrimination against women who are in the other employee groups. As this evidence is insufficient to ground rejection of the report as he misrepresents it, it is certainly insufficient to ground rejection of the actual report, which is far greater in scope.

Letitia Meynell, Philosophy (ABD) and Member of Western's Caucus on Women's Issues

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