On Wed, Jun 19, 2013 at 11:22 AM, Melinda Shore <melinda.shore@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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Website: http://hallambaker.com/
On 6/19/13 7:16 AM, Peter Saint-Andre wrote:Don't know about that one. In the US, at least, legal mandates
> Actually I see lots of structural problems -- I just happen to be of the
> mindset that working from the bottom up is the only sustainable model
> for change.
have typically led social change, at least when it comes to civil
rights, etc.
When the IETF was being started Harvard had just abolished its quota on hiring Jews and was attempting to correct their past discrimination by awarding tenure to people like Larry Summers a year after they handed in their dissertation.
That was not bottom up change. It was change that was forced from the top down in response to bottom up pressure on the decision makers. It was not Harvard that decided to reform, it was the government that told Harvard that it would reform or see no more government grants. They still have the 'legacies' program in place that was originally adopted to keep Jews out of a Protestant organization.
Academia is still one of the worst environments for discrimination. They don't have formal barriers as in the past but the informal barriers are steep.
Website: http://hallambaker.com/