A quibble: Amazon’s resume evaluator discriminated against women who went to women’s colleges, or were in women’s clubs. This is different from discriminating against women in general! I feel like this is an important difference. Women’s colleges, in particular, are not very high-rated, among all colleges. Knowing someone went to a women’s college means you also know they didn’t go to MIT, or Berkeley, or any of the many good state universities. I brought this up to a female friend who went to Columbia; she said Columbia had a women’s college, but that it was a bit of a meme at broader Columbia, for not being a very good school. Googling a bit now, I find there are either 31 or “less than 50” women’s colleges in the US, and that many are liberal arts colleges. If “women’s college” is a proxy variable for “liberal arts college”, that’s a good reason to ding people for listing a women’s college. Most women do not go to women’s colleges! And I’d bet almost none of the best STEM women went to a women’s college.
A prediction: if they included an explicit gender variable in the resume predictor, a candidate being female would carry much less of a penalty (if there was even a penalty) than a candidate having gone to a women’s college.
Another “prediction”, although it’s pushing the term “prediction”, since it can’t be evaluated: in a world where there were less than 50 men’s colleges in the US, and most were liberal arts, that world’s Amazon resume rater would penalize having gone to a men’s college.
If “women’s college” is a proxy variable for “liberal arts college”, that’s a good reason to ding people for listing a women’s college.
I suspect you’re misunderstanding what a “Liberal arts college” is. In theory, a liberal arts college is one that focuses exclusively on “Academic” subjects, rather than purely practical ones. Math, science, and technology would all fall under the liberal arts, but a liberal arts college won’t offer degrees in, say, accounting. In practice, a liberal arts college is a small college that focuses on teaching and only offers undergraduate degrees.
Liberal arts undergrads generate a disproportionate number of PhDs in the sciences. Swarthmore, for instance, has more Nobel laureates per student than any other school (including all the Ivy League colleges).
A quibble: Amazon’s resume evaluator discriminated against women who went to women’s colleges, or were in women’s clubs. This is different from discriminating against women in general! I feel like this is an important difference. Women’s colleges, in particular, are not very high-rated, among all colleges. Knowing someone went to a women’s college means you also know they didn’t go to MIT, or Berkeley, or any of the many good state universities. I brought this up to a female friend who went to Columbia; she said Columbia had a women’s college, but that it was a bit of a meme at broader Columbia, for not being a very good school. Googling a bit now, I find there are either 31 or “less than 50” women’s colleges in the US, and that many are liberal arts colleges. If “women’s college” is a proxy variable for “liberal arts college”, that’s a good reason to ding people for listing a women’s college. Most women do not go to women’s colleges! And I’d bet almost none of the best STEM women went to a women’s college.
A prediction: if they included an explicit gender variable in the resume predictor, a candidate being female would carry much less of a penalty (if there was even a penalty) than a candidate having gone to a women’s college.
Another “prediction”, although it’s pushing the term “prediction”, since it can’t be evaluated: in a world where there were less than 50 men’s colleges in the US, and most were liberal arts, that world’s Amazon resume rater would penalize having gone to a men’s college.
I suspect you’re misunderstanding what a “Liberal arts college” is. In theory, a liberal arts college is one that focuses exclusively on “Academic” subjects, rather than purely practical ones. Math, science, and technology would all fall under the liberal arts, but a liberal arts college won’t offer degrees in, say, accounting. In practice, a liberal arts college is a small college that focuses on teaching and only offers undergraduate degrees.
Liberal arts undergrads generate a disproportionate number of PhDs in the sciences. Swarthmore, for instance, has more Nobel laureates per student than any other school (including all the Ivy League colleges).
Whoops. That’s a big mistake on my part. Appreciate the correction.
Thanks for the comment, I did not know this! I’ll put a note in the essay to highlight this comment.