What Goes Around, Comes Around

One of my commenters pointed out this op-ed piece in the NYT (thanks) entitled, a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/23/opinion/23britz.html?ex=1143781200en=93dac5ba192a7f44ei=5070emc=eta1″”To All of the Girls I’ve Rejected.”/a The emTimes/em piece is an apology to all of the girls who are being turned away from their pick of colleges due to “demographic realities.” br /br /The author discusses the “tragedy” of her own daughter who received only four acceptance letters but (gasp!) was waitlisted at a fifth school. The author is the Dean of admissions and financial aid at Kenyon College, where they are having to turn away (or at least debate whether to accept) accomplished young women.br /br /blockquoteHad she been a male applicant, there would have been little, if any, hesitation to admit. The reality is that because young men are rarer, they’re more valued applicants. Today, two-thirds of colleges and universities report that they get more female than male applicants, and more than 56 percent of undergraduates nationwide are women. Demographers predict that by 2009, only 42 percent of all baccalaureate degrees awarded in the United States will be given to men. br /br /We have told today’s young women that the world is their oyster; the problem is, so many of them believed us that the standards for admission to today’s most selective colleges are stiffer for women than men. How’s that for an unintended consequence of the women’s liberation movement?/blockquotebr /br /Okay, so the “you go girl!” program is now backfiring–instead of Prince Charming coming to rescue their little Princesses, some mothers such as the author, have just rewritten the script. It now goes like this: “if you are a girl, the world owes you, nothing can stop you and you will be given everything you want–while pushing all others (e.g. boys) out of the way.” All colleges become Daddy, who is to hand over the fat envelopes of admissions, just because you happen to be “an accomplished young woman.” Perhaps these same mothers would have been better off teaching their daughters something different about the world–like how to deal with adversity and how to tolerate being rejected. It is something boys learned a long time ago. If shit happens, you suck it up like a guy and do not complain. (Look how feminists tend to dismiss male complaints as unmanly “whining.”) If you fall down, you get back up. The world does not owe you and life isn’t always fair, especially if feminists are in power. br /br /But now the tides are turning and the very affirmative action rules and regulations that were to be used to promote their little girls (as well as other select groups) are backfiring. Maybe if we selected students based on their actual qualifications, rather than gender or skin color, their daughters would be back in the running. But if you are going to play the affirmative action card, you have to live with the results and play by the rules, and that may mean the very “minority” you are trying to promote may become the very ones who lose out. Watch out what you wish for, it may come back to bite you in the ass.