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September 9, 2010
Sweden bans university affirmative action
Published: 18 Mar 10 14:14 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25604/20100318/
The Swedish government has announced that from August 1st it will no longer be permitted to favour prospective university students by virtue of their gender.
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The Minister for Higher Education and Research, Tobias Krantz, underlined the importance of the principle that all individuals be treated equally regardless of their gender.
To exclude motivated and higher qualified women in the university admissions process is naive, Krantz said.
The background to the decision lies in cases such as one involving a group of students at Lund University who were awarded compensation in February for having been denied places to study psychology due to their gender.
The university settled out of court with the 24 women, who were each awarded 35,000 kronor ($5,000) in damages.
In a similar case, the Svea Court of Appeal ruled in December that it was illegal for the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala to prioritize men for its veterinary education programme.
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For me the big problem is what proportion of women get into senior posts. I think Sweden is probably pretty good (haven't looked at the data in detail) but it's probably 50%+ women as first year students and 20%- women at professor level.
First thought I have, and I can be totally wrong about this, but wouldn't a solution be to accept an equal amount of male and female students? Or even proportional to existing population?
In my class in University we were 44, from those only 2 were male. My degree was licenciat in Public Relations.
Marketing also had a higher percent of female students.
First thought I have, and I can be totally wrong about this, but wouldn't a solution be to accept an equal amount of male and female students? Or even proportional to existing population?
This is what has now been made illegal - Universities were attempting to rectify gender imbalances but in the case mentioned it meant that some applicants were discarded just for being women..........
One woman had applied to vet school and had incurred substantial student loans to study sciences etc and then found that her application was never even considered because she was a woman
The present social setting discourages girls from studying science. Recently I met a girl who was top in her class in mathematics in secondary school. She told me that she was planning to study economics in the university for the reason that science is not for girls. "it is too difficult", she said. To study economics she needs maths, but the maths requirement is much below the capability of this girl.
If girls are disproportionately under represented in the science field, the policy should assist girls to study science. This should start from primary school. This policy should not prevent individual choices. If you do not do that some of the best brains will be wasted for nothing.
How many times were men denied places in Engineering and Business because of THEIR gender.
Fortunately your twisted kind of thinking is exactly what is now left by the government.
For my better understanding of the background of this, I'd like to know when affirmative action was introduced for universities (by the Swedish government presumably). What were the arguments then? What has changed in the meantime so that now it is withdrawn?
Might anyone have a good link for example to an archived newspaper article about the 'history'?
I have a suspicion that I might find that affirmative action was introduced to avoid discrimination against women. However, it was phrased in law in a gender-neutral way. Now it seems that men profit from it for university subjects traditionally dominated by women. This is not accepted and the rule abolished.
Or was it different? Just curious if my suspicion is right.
Affermative action is a terrible thing.
@eddie123 - are you really saying that 25% of a person's ability should be based on geographical area or gender.
Affirmative action = Giving someone preference over other just because of gender, race, ethnicity even when the standards are not met.