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From: peterr@utcsri.UUCP (Peter Rowley)
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Re: egg/chicken chicken/egg chigg/eckin
Message-ID: <1246@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:21:55 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1246
Posted: Thu Jul 11 16:21:55 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 16:31:30 EDT
References: <893@mnetor.UUCP> <5642@utzoo.UUCP> <896@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: peterr@utcsri.UUCP (Peter Rowley)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 31

Not long ago, a group in Toronto (the Social Planning Council, I think,
but I might be wrong) studied racial discrimination in Toronto by sending
out test applicants to various employers.  Through use of scripts, etc.,
they were made as equally qualified as possible.  It was found that the
white applicants received many times the number of offers that non-white
applicants did.  This study was not done for women, but it is indicative
that, unlike we would like to believe, there is significant discrimination
in Canada, even on a corporate level.

As for discrimination on a family level, I don't think we have to give
up on those people who (someone said, condescendingly) are due to go to
a duplex in the sky.  Role models can make a big difference to some.
I am reasonably sure that Sally Ride's shuttle trip, as hyped as it was,
did change some peoples' minds about what women can do.  Perhaps all the
hype was distasteful to some, but if it acts both to open doors (make
people (both men and women) more accepting of women in technical positions)
and to push women on (by showing them that someone they can identify with
"made it"), then we will have moved further toward true equality of
opportunity.

I use "equality of opportunity" with some trepidation.  Does it mean that
if I decide to do something, that I will encounter only those obstacles
that everyone else does?  Or does it also mean that I should have the
same degree of *belief* that I can succeed at that something?

Whatever your own definition, I think you will agree that we will not
get equal participation in the work force until both parts of the
above definition are satisifed.  

p. rowley, U. Toronto
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