Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site utcsri.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsri!peterr 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 utcsri!peterr