加拿大高校尝试禁止男性求职以促进性别平等

政府的主要研究资助者将2029年设定为硬性期限,以公平分配主要的联邦科学拨款,并将性别排斥当作明智的选择

五月 13, 2022
Giza, Egypt, December 30 2021 Prohibition No Pedestrian Sign, no entry sign, a warning sign not to cross the road, selective focus of not to cross or walk the road
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加拿大政府正在鼓励大学直接将男性排除在一些顶级研究资助奖项之外,因为政府认为,性别不平等现象仍然十分严峻,否则许多其他候选人就不会申请。

这一实践涉及到加拿大研究主席计划(Canada Research Chairs),这是一个声誉极高的计划,每年近2300名学术科学家通过该计划获得3亿加元(约1.9亿英镑)的联邦资金,政府已经决定对该计划实施性别平等政策。

参与的大学并不一定要实行“不招男性”的政策,但这是一种开放选择。一些大学感受到压力,促使它们要尝试这一做法,因为他们面临2029年的最后期限,要将获得加拿大研究主席奖的女性比例从目前的41%提高到51%。

政府主要研究资助机构的一位女发言人说,禁止男性申请者的规定只是达到这一目标并避免处罚的一种可能方法,在过去几年里,这一规定只适用于少数几个职位招聘。

例如,滑铁卢大学(University of Waterloo)在受加拿大研究主席计划资助的环境助理教授的招聘广告中写道:“这个职位只对自我认为是女性、变性人、非二元性别或双灵的合格人士开放。”

加拿大社会科学和人文研究委员会(Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada)的发言人表示,政府支持这种策略。另外两个主要的联邦研究资助机构加拿大卫生研究院(Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Natural Sciences, CIHR)和加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会(Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, NSERC),也是加拿大研究主席计划及其科研人员性别公平方案的有力推动者。

“这种方法在实现目标方面非常有效,”这位女发言人在谈到不聘用男性的政策时说,“因为如果在就业中面临系统性障碍的个体知道招聘障碍会得到解决,他们就更有可能申请,并经历漫长的提名过程。”

这种方法激起了一些批评人士的反对,他们指责政府和参与大学所采取的行动本身具有歧视性

威尔弗里德·劳里埃大学(Wilfrid Laurier University)数字媒体和新闻学副教授戴维·哈斯克尔(David Haskell)就是比较直言不讳的人之一。他的统计结果显示,过去两年,在英属哥伦比亚大学(University of British Columbia)、西安大略大学(Western University)和达尔豪斯大学(Dalhousie University)等校园里,至少有12个教授职位招聘时采用了这种方法。

他在一次关于这个问题的演讲中说:“认为歧视本身能带来益处的想法简直疯了。”

然而,学校领导不赞同。滑铁卢大学的一位发言人表示,该校支持加拿大研究主席计划设定的平等目标,并支持将性别限制作为实现这一目标的更广泛战略的一部分。

发言人说:“滑铁卢大学坚信,我们必须纳入以往学术界所缺乏的研究观点,才能真正增进对如何解决社会最紧迫挑战的认识。”

加拿大研究主席计划制定的2029年公平目标涵盖了4个联邦指定的群体,分别为妇女、残疾人、原住民和可见少数族裔。

目前的公平目标是在2019年设定的,该计划已经实现了可见少数族裔获奖占比超过22%的目标。其他三类的进程有所落后:妇女的份额需要再增加大约25%,而其他两个类别(残疾人和原住民)的占比需要增加更多。

禁止男性申请某些工作岗位的规定受到加拿大人权委员会(Canadian Human Rights Commission)的支持,作为一个独立的联邦机构,它是加拿大的人权监督机构。

该机构的发言人称,它是一个特别透明的工具,可以消除招聘和聘用中的系统性障碍和偏见,尽管她表示,还没有数据表明有多少大学使用了这个工具。

但这位女发言人说,总的来说,推动加拿大研究主席计划的性别平等正在发挥作用。她表示:“该计划有望实现其2029年的目标。”

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com

本文由陈露为泰晤士高等教育翻译。

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Reader's comments (4)

Is there not still a danger of "women, transgender, non-binary, or two-spirit" individuals being used as figureheads, but then sub-contracting some of the work to white men? How can we take Canadian academia seriously until this possibility is addressed?
All this makes me glad I have only a few years left to retirement. What a crazy world! It will take many years for excellent female candidates to emerge as they have to progress through education. Trying to speed this up leads to the sort of unsatisfactory appointments seen in many walks of life, made purely because the candidate ticks the right boxes. Until the mindset changes, it then appears that the situation is improving but this is not true given the constant actions at the bottom (such as micro-aggressions) that continue. Stop the virtue signalling and acknowledge that this problem cannot be solved at "social media" speed.
This non-sense will never stop as long as people go along with it. When does the buck stop? Why not eliminate all engineering, construction, driver, mining, shipping, rubbish collection, hazardous matter handling, and a long etcetera number of 'male-dominated' jobs to achieve artificial equality forcefully? This is not equality; this is tyranny, but I am quite convinced that many males would perceive this as 'fair.' That is where the real problem lies: males falling for this woke narrative. Trudeau is drooling with excitement.
Many years ago when people first started to try to be 'politically correct' I went for a job interview for a post I was somewhat marginally qualified to do, and found myself the only female candidate. When it was my turn before the panel, someone asked me why I thought I was there, given I didn't have much experience in that area. I said "Maybe you were curious about what I had to offer... or maybe you just wanted a woman on the shortlist" The squirming & embarassed looks made it clear it was the latter, so without further ado I stood up, said "In that case, I withdraw my application" and walked out. I needed a job at the time, but not quite that much. 30-odd years later, if I thought I was anywhere except by my own merits I'd do the same again.