The subject of employment is often brought up in my classes as it’s April and it’s natural for students to experience the going-thousands-of-dollars-in-debt-to-obtain-a-degree-that-may-or-may-not-get-me-a-job freakout. A professor instructed us to read a census report on librarians and archivists; one of the results was the need for more diversity in the field. Naturally, this wasn’t surprising to me. What was surprising was one of my classmates reactions. He, as a white male, feels discriminated against by postings that say “women and minorities encouraged to apply” because he feels that companies are only seeking to hire women or a minorities. What?
As a woman anda minority, I have always felt that if a hiring manager receives my resume alongside the resume of a white male, he or she would choose the white male because the company knows that hire will not upset the status quo. I was under the impression that is how many women feel, regardless of race. A man can be one of the boys. A woman has to bust her ass to prove her worth and even then she will still be paid less and, often times, treated worse than said man.
Not to mention, there has been study after study on how ethnic names are a hindrance to getting hired. Based on my name and resume, which contains stints at two ethnic magazines, there is no doubt that I am a minority. But I’ve always thought that hiring managers discriminating against ethnic names affects everyone, regardless of race or ethnicity. Would Jon Stewart have a television show if he used his birth name of Jonathan Leibowitz? We all know the answer. And I often feel as if women with traditional Eastern European names have it much worse than I do.
Also, despite working in an overwhelming female environment, men are often the ones in positions of authority. The Library of Congress has always been an Ivy-educated white male with a non-ethnic name: Putnam, Evans, Stephenson, etc… But I doubt my classmate, who happens to have the most Anglo-Saxon name ever, would acknowledge any of that.
In my rant-y email thread to the other Harpy editors, Anna said:
I think that’s the perfect analogy. What do you think of postings that say this?
To be honest, I am suspicious of them. At a deep level, I don’t believe that women and minorities are actually encouraged to apply and to me this sort of notice smacks of ass-covering. I mean, does any woman or minority see this throwaway sentence at the end of a job posting and say “Oh, well my qualms and concerns about discrimination in this hiring process are alleviated”?
Maybe I’m not being fair though. I don’t know how else an organization seeking more women and minorities as candidates would phrase it. Then again, maybe those candidates are already in the pool being passed over for white dudes.
I get where you’re coming from, Nepenthe, because when a company that’s mostly white and/or male says “women/minorities encouraged to apply” it’s natural to be skeptical. I definitely have thought “O RLY?” a few times on seeing that line, because I was familiar with the corporate culture of the company in question and knew it was anything but welcoming to women and minorities.
I work in an industry that is very, very white and our HR department and our managers would love nothing better than to hire more people of color. Problem is, as Stephanie points out, majority-white companies favor white candidates because they’re perceived as more likely to fit in. And, of course, PoC are going to look at our workplace and feel as though they will be treated as outsiders and their job would be a constant struggle to prove themselves and so they look elsewhere. Whiteness in corporate culture is incredibly self-perpetuating.
Having been applying for academic jobs recently, I see the phrase (and it’s always the same exact “women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply”) quite a lot. My gut reaction as a white guy is that they’re telling me not to apply; but a more intellectual parsing suggests it probably means nothing. It’s so ubiquitous. Whether the job is definitely going to hire the white guy, or definitely not going to hire the white guy, or anywhere in between, the phrase probably gets stuck in, regardless of whether they mean it.
@Brian: When a company has to specify that minorities and women are encouraged to apply, it implies that the opposite of that statement is the default assumption—that is women and minorities are usually NOT encouraged to apply for jobs traditionally held by white males.
It’s not that you, a white male, are unwelcome, it’s that you’re not the only one who’s welcome.
I tend to pass over these jobs because I tend to think they’re looking for a token member just to boost their diversity numbers and I do not want to be the only woman. I once interviewed for a sales position where I was told that the only reason I was being interviewed was because they were looking for a feminine presence to tame the foul language of the all male office and that even though the job posting was for sales only, I would also be required to “pitch in” with the office paperwork. The job posting was one of the only ones I applied for which specifically requested a woman applicant. I acknowledge that other jobs or firms may be far different but after that experience I’m weary of jobs seeking me just because I have a vagina.
@jenn – I believe the same; they are simply looking for a token minority. As much as I want a job, I don’t want to be that person.
“And, of course, PoC are going to look at our workplace and feel as though they will be treated as outsiders and their job would be a constant struggle to prove themselves and so they look elsewhere.”
@Becky – I couldn’t agree more. My family, extended and all, tends to choose industries that have a lot of minorities, whether they want to work in that field or not. Nearly everyone in my family is either a teacher or a nurse and they have always been confused by my career choices. I have worked in two environments where I was the only minority (one magazine, one library) and I always felt as if I was being judged by everyone for everything, from what I wore and how often to what I ate for lunch and who I ate lunch with. I know that a lot of my family wouldn’t have been able to handle that type of scrutiny.
To be honest, I am suspicious of them
Equally honest but opposite opinion, if I saw that I’d want to work MORE for them because a diverse environment is more fun, more productive, and the company is making a visible effort to be fair. That benefits everyone.
It never surprises me when people resist acknowledging their own privilege, and indignantly protest any effort to level the playing field. I sympathize with students just hitting the job market (having only recently gotten hired, post-graduation, after a long and painful job hunt), but this attitude is quite simply wrong. It misses about a million points, for one thing, and for another thing, it indicates that this young man is going to be bringing his gender/race privilege blindness to his future workplace. The last thing today’s libraries need is a reinforcement of the assumption that white men are the only ones who can really run libraries!
Whenever I see them, I assume that the HR department is doing exactly the least amount possible to “ensure diversity.”
It would not be that difficult, if an organization was really committed to diversity, for HR to send resumes to departments after replacing the names with numbers, so interview choices were made blind of glaring gender or racial information. If they don’t, it is because they don’t want to, or because the departments don’t want them to.
This comment thread makes me wonder whether a study has ever been done comparing the effectivness of including that phrase vs. not including it (assuming the “effect” one wants is to actually recruit a more diverse group of folks for the interview pool). You could also compare it to the “X is an equal opportunity employer” phrase that also appears as boilerplate in a lot of places.
I’m wondering what foureleven’s classmate really meant by his statement. I think he’s incorrect to categorize “women and minorities encouraged to apply” as discrimination against him as a white male, but correct to note that in some cases, it may mean the position is targeting someone other than him.
I applied to (and received) a graduate fellowship that was aimed at women and minorities in science, and most of the other recipients were racial minorities (both men and women) while I am white. During the application process and afterwards, I felt what might be described as liberal guilt, wondering “do I really belong in this position?”, basically because I wondered if by my taking the position (as a white woman with a fairly privileged background in terms of education and family finances), I was taking it away from a more disadvantaged person. I have no idea who was 7th in line for the 6 fellowship positions that were handed out, so I don’t know whose spot I took, but anyway, that’s the feeling I’m ascribing to foureleven’s classmate. I’m not necessarily saying it’s any more noble than just feeling resentment against imagined “reverse discrimination,” but I do think it’s a separate issue.
I’ve never thought much of that terminology, as it’s pretty much ubiquitous in my field(s). Both academic and non-profit jobs in my scientific field nearly always include this line. It’s my understanding that it’s a requirement originating from the university’s policies and/or the grant funding the position – NSF in particular places strong emphasis on hiring and funding work by women and minorities.
However, whether this means women and minorities really ARE encouraged to apply is another question. I’ve said this before, but my department had zero female faculty members for the first 3 years I was here, and still has no minorities (though this is in large part because there truly are very few minorities in my field at any level). Across my field as a whole, women dominate at the student (UG, MS, and PhD) and entry-level job levels, but the tenure-track and senior scientist positions are still predominantly held by men. Women are gradually being hired at higher rates, but there still are subtle (and not-so-subtle) cases of discrimination; one extremely highly qualified female colleague was recently turned down for a TT position (where she would have been the first woman TT professor) because she “wasn’t the right fit.”
When you belong to a minority, there’s always a tug between wanting to get out and represent and getting tired of always being the representative of your whole demographic. A statement that women and minorities are encouraged to apply might show that a company is really aware of its lack of diversity and wants to improve. But it could also end up as you being the only whatever in the company and having to carry that, answer everyone’s well-intentioned questions, and hope that you do well enough that they hire another minority of some sort.
I know I’ve been tough on some of the minorities I’ve worked with when I had once/never encountered a person of their ethnic background before.
It wasn’t until I met enough of them that I could really differentiate in my own mind what I could attribute to the huge differences in culture and what I should attribute to personality that this changed. I’m sure I made life more difficult for some of them with my behavior, but I feel that with their help I now can identify and understand these cultural differences (in those that have joined our workplace since).
I wish it didn’t have to be that way, but I grew up in a white town where I didn’t realize Hispanics were a minority and I seldom met any other races/ethinicities. So I could definitely understand why a minority wouldn’t want to be the “first” – but do know that some of us with priviledge are aware of our ignorance and anxious to learn.
As to the women end of things, I don’t blink at it. I know I’m at a disadvantage with a female name and I cope by trying to be better than the average male. I don’t like it, but I can’t say those words change my feelings about it at all as I look at that phrase as a “politically correct” thing rather than actually meaningful.
I have been talking about this a lot lately since I am currently underemployed. Everyone is taken aback by this since I am “a smart and accomplished minority woman.” I don’t think affirmative action has helped me whatsoever, (though I wish it would right now). I know that my name hinders me everywhere and I resent it when people don’t acknowledge this reality. Thanks for posting this.
[...] or sexual experience as personal judgment. In other words, we grab all the arrows that fly by and plunge them into our own chests — even when they aren’t meant for us! Why is [...]
“Don’t pluck arrows out of the air and stick them in your chest when they aren’t meant for you!” – love it!
Having said that, I can see your classmate’s point of view. I agree in encouraging minorities to apply. However, I strongly disagree with preferential treatment towards minorities due to the fact they are minorities. When I see ‘preference given to minorities’ in a job description, I find that downright discriminating. If two applicants from different demographics apply for the same job, it should be given to the person with the best qualifications. Anything else than that is discrimination.
Would be acceptable to run an ad that said: “Men and majorities are encouraged to apply”?
@Pollynkorect: It would be unnecessary, as men and majorities are not victims of discrimination or exclusion the way women and minorities are.
But I can see how a “pollynkorect” person like yourself might have difficulty understanding that, and might have different views on what’s “appropriate.” (Hint: Your deliberately being a dick about efforts to end discrimination—that’s inappropriate.)
In most cases women and minorities hired in the name of equal opportunities never really get real opportunities – It’s just a mask to appeal to this stinking cover-up. I was the only black male employed by this Business Intelligence group in the UK. Everything I did got a pat on my back, but I was often dropped in the name of manning the office whenever training opportunities came up. Yet to my surprise they never hesitated to include me on the front pages of the Newsletters and Annual reports. When I got sacked due to a tight budget, 2 weeks later they employed a white male in my position. Probably off-topic, but the point I am trying to make here is, don’t expect to be treated fairly just because you got hired under the ‘women and minorities’ pretence. In most cases organisations hiring with such statements are desparate to be seen doing the right thing, when in fact they do not have the experience of working with people from diverse backgrounds.
Either way, the statement reeks of agenda. It is just plain stupid, unprofessional, and biased, to make any blanket suggestions to potential applicants.