Lawrence KilliumIf you have to make things unequal to try to force equality, are you actually promoting equality?
I don’t think so, and I’m willing to bet none of you feel that way either, and that’s why a recent revelation about the esteemed Oxford University’s testing practices is making me a bit heated today.
According to reports, Oxford University is increasing test time for women to try to combat all the low scores that women were getting.
According to a report from The Telegraph:
Students taking maths and computer science examinations in the summer of 2017 were given an extra 15 minutes to complete their papers, after dons ruled that “female candidates might be more likely to be adversely affected by time pressure”. There was no change to the length or difficulty of the questions.
It was the first time such steps had been taken. In previous years, the percentage of male students awarded first class degrees was double that of women and in 2016 the board of examiners suggested that the department make changes to improve women’s grades.
But the funny thing about this is that it didn’t even do what they wanted it to. the main effect of the time increase was that male students did even better, and the women students did worse.
Men were awarded more first class degrees than women in the two subjects that were being tested.
Some women defended the move, even after seeing the results. Antonia Siu, Undergraduate Representative of Oxford Women in Computer Science, said: “I am uneasy about schemes to favour one gender over another.
“But I am happy when people see gaps between groups of people who should not reasonably have such gaps – such as between genders, races or class – and take that as a starting point to think about the kinds of people they unintentionally are leaving behind.”
So, in other words: Screw the results, as long as I can feel good and I still have something to bitch about.
H/T: The Telegraph
