Gender-based Affirmative Action

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Class2014

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Hello, I'm new to student doc and I have been reading through posts and what alarmed me was the intense debate on AA and the arguments were highly based on race.

Why do some of you forget that Affirmative Action benefits women as well? White women, black women, all women. So why is there no debate about the advantage of women in the admissions process? Clearly we see that in some medical schools, there are about 56% women/ 50% men enrolled. Wow.

Why do we forget to talk about women who benefit. We are so focused on race based affirmative action. Let's talk about gender based affirmative action!

Why do we get silent about women? Is it because white women are included in the affirmative action clause? Did some of you bother to read how affirmative action evolved?

I am not bashing on women. My point is that a lot of the discussions here are not balanced and quite frankly, uneducated.

Oh and my fellow white males, why are you concerned about a black person taking your seat? The last time I read, there were way more white males in medical school. There's a reason why they are called under represented. Cause they are! So stop hating on them. Appreciate that this system, though not perfect, is trying to be fair. Hec, if there were no racism, prejudice, sexism I would say there is no need for AA. But let us look at our nasty history guys....it's not even history ....look at the present situation. We embrace those who hate us but we hate on our fellow African Americans who helped build this wonderful country (forced and unforced). Let us stop the hate! Appreciate!

Someone, please explain to me the culture of studentdoctor. I thought I would be reading some intelligent posts. You guys want to be doctors? :(

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Yeah I think statistics have shown that Affirmative Action practices have helped more women than any other population. I think that statistic is just talking about the job force though, so I'm not sure how it applies to the undergraduate and graduate level.

Also, I think some people confuse the true definition of affirmative action.
 
Hello, I'm new to student doc and I have been reading through posts and what alarmed me was the intense debate on AA and the arguments were highly based on race.

Why do some of you forget that Affirmative Action benefits women as well? White women, black women, all women. So why is there no debate about the advantage of women in the admissions process? Clearly we see that in some medical schools, there are about 56% women/ 50% men enrolled. Wow.

Because women aren't underrepresented anymore.

Oh and my fellow white males, why are you concerned about a black person taking your seat? The last time I read, there were way more white males in medical school. There's a reason why they are called under represented. Cause they are! So stop hating on them. Appreciate that this system, though not perfect, is trying to be fair. Hec, if there were no racism, prejudice, sexism I would say there is no need for AA. But let us look at our nasty history guys....it's not even history ....look at the present situation. We embrace those who hate us but we hate on our fellow African Americans who helped build this wonderful country (forced and unforced). Let us stop the hate! Appreciate!

Fair to the populations they serve, not applicants. Why would it be a problem if all doctors were W.A.S.P.? Because they would not easily acquire the cultural capital required to meet the needs of a diverse population.

Though one should note that affimative action has a pretty small effect on one's odds of getting into a school, so it's silly to get worked up over.

Someone, please explain to me the culture of studentdoctor. I thought I would be reading some intelligent posts. You guys want to be doctors? :(

Is this your first internet forum?... This is a pretty big site. Maybe you should look outside of the pre-med forum for enlightenment.
 
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Okay, are we reading the same SDN? Maybe I pick and choose the threads I read differently than you do, but I have not noticed an intense debate about AA. I guess I could just be totally overlooking it. But I am a little confused about what you meant to bring up in this topic. Are you trying to say that you think AA policies shouldn't depend on gender? Or are you trying to say that people who post at SDN about AA are uninformed? I still don't understand why you think that.
 
I am trying to say that many people are uninformed about AA and who benefits. My point is that the debate is not fair because we exclude women into the AA debate.

Whiz- what does it mean to feed the troll?
 
I can't remember which forum I was reading but they had an intense debate on AA. that's why I was thinking about this today.
 
I don't mean for this to get heated. Let's end this now. Whiz, I found out what a troll is...i am not a troll.

End of Conversation.

Selah
 
Yeah... at my school the male/female ratio varies from 50/50 to 60/40 or so in either direction. They don't take gender into account when making admissions decisions, but the pool of qualified applicants is fairly evenly split so it tends to work out.
 
I'll add my perspective. To me it seems fairly natural for the number of women in medicine to increase relative to men until it gets to somewhere around 70% women 30% men. If you look at cultures where 50/50 splits were common decades ago (say 1930s-50s), you will see that today women represent 60+% of physicians. I am thinking specifically of med schools in Eastern Europe. Maybe the simple explanation is that there are more empathic women than empathic men? I don't care either way.
 
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