Klarinet Archive - Posting 000249.txt from 1998/01

From: Victor Freyer <vfreyer@-----.com>
Subj: Re:women not allowed
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 08:18:53 -0500

Although this topic is dying a natural death, I must
comment after wading through the 12 large klarinet digest
mailings that I received this morning... and that's only
since Saturday. Those of us who receive digests are at
a disadvantage in respect to ignoring topics that don't
interest us.

Age, sex, preferred sex, and cultural heritage do not
determine one's ability. A specific physical disability
does not determine one's abilities in those areas that aren't
affected.

However, merely being the best does not guarantee that one will get
a job. The real world tends to operate on the principle of least
cost for maximum gain. There is only one "most-talented"
candidate, but there are often several candidates who are capable
of performing the work.

A hiring manager's responsibility is to make a selection that
provides the best financial benefit for an organization.

In the case under discussion where an organization has a policy of
sexual discrimination, it is a matter of weighing minimal consumer
resistance and the unavailability of public funding (in the US and EEO)
against lost productivity because of dissatisfaction/morale issues.
(Lost productivity in the context of an orchestra might result in
reduced stature with long term effects on recording revenue and
audience attendance.) There are certainly other issues of which I'm
not aware because I don't manage an orchestra.

In any case, it would not an easy decision.

In a successful organization the decision about whom to hire is a
financial consideration - not a moral one. It isn't always fair,
but it is never arbitrary.

In the spirit of cost/benefit analysis, it doesn't make sense
to fill a clarinet-centric list with discussions of discrimination
and prejudice. There are more appropriate places in the Internet
for this discussion to occur.

Victor Freyer

Starr wrote:
>Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 13:04:19 -0700
>From: "maybe Starr,maybe John" <starrs@-----.net>
>Subject: Re:women not allowed
>
>I am amazed at the unwillingness of anyone on this list to come up to
>the plate and respond to the following specific question:
>
>If you would be repulsed by, and hopefully boycott a world class
>orchestra( that does not have 'men' or 'women' in the title), that was
>found to have "not so hidden" discriminatory practices againt
>african-americans, why then, would you be more understanding of an
>orchestra that held these policies in regard to women?
>
>I think the 'silence' on the list, in respect to answering THIS
>question, rather than going off onto some safer tangent, is because most
>people's gut feeling is that, for some illogical reason, they aren't as
>repulsed by disrimination against women as they are by discrimination
>against african-americans and other racial minorities.
>
>Awaiting all responses,
>
>Starr

---
Victor Freyer Cisco Systems, 11701 Borman Drive
Consulting Engineer Suite 225, St. Louis, MO 63146 USA
Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert #1505 +1 314 872 6825