U of Melbourne mathematics school advertises women-only positions

Submitted by Mastodon on Fri, 2016-05-20 21:31

Article here. Excerpt:

'An Australian university will only accept applications from women for three senior, full-time positions currently advertised within its department of mathematics.

The job advertisement for roles in applied mathematics, pure mathematics and statistics at the University of Melbourne states: “The school is seeking to lift the representation of women and therefore will only consider applications from suitably qualified female candidates for these three positions.”

The head of the school of mathematics and statistics, Prof Aleks Owczarek, said it was the first time the university had taken such a step. But with only 9% of mathematics professors in Australia women, it was necessary, Owczarek added.'

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as a young man I worked on heavy (physical) construction. one day the gov. came on our high-rise project and instructed the general contractor to hire one black man and one white woman immediately, at a min. the gc was also instructed to pay them as full mechanics, not as apprentices. this was in the late 70's and there were no full mechanic level women or black carpenters to be had. they really tried to find some. when they told the gov. people that there were none qualified that they could find to hire, they were required to hire 2 people right off the street, so they went out in front of the site and hired the 1st 2 people they could find, as the gov. was threatening to shut down the job.

there were several really bad consequences that immediately showed up. here are a couple I remember well:

1. the apprentices in line for the next mechanic carpenter openings were automatically delayed years in attaining the next level/pay grade. they (and their wives) were very unhappy and the whole site was immediately attuned to the fact that things were definitely not the same anymore, to say the least.

2. the 2 new hires immediately became a danger to everybody around them. they had no clue what to do. eventually they were assigned to go to an upper, unfinished floor and start pulling nails out of 2x4's and such menial tasks as that. they repeatedly kicked debris (2x4's) down the elevator hatch and I had to hold my partner back to keep him from kicking the new guy's butt, twice.

3. these 2 useless full mechanics were not in the gc's budget, so things had to be 'adjusted'. iow, others were required to move a little faster and do the work of full carpenters not being done. can you guess who that was? yep, the very long enduring apprentices that had been skipped over in favor of the newbys.

the new guy turned out to be unable to cope (quit drinking) long enough to keep the job and had to be replaced, repeatedly. the woman was a single mom and eventually developed (after a few years) into a pretty good carpenter, or so I was told.

throughout my career I always remembered the lessons we all learned when the polititians got in a hurry to implement change in the real world.

just something to think about.

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Submitted by daveinga on Sat, 2016-05-21 01:36