financeguy
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In Western society, if girls do better in a given system, liberal/left reactions tend to be along the lines of "it's just the way it is" - or, indeed, viewed as a positive development and to be encouraged.
On the other hand, if boys do better in a given system, it is often said "girls are being oppressed" and something is inherently wrong with the system - with immediate change needed.
Case in point, the recent changes for entry to medical courses from the Irish Leaving Cert., which has brought to the fore articulations of this feminist analysis.
A letter in today's Irish Independent:
Girls suffer for sake of more male GPs - Letters, Opinion - Independent.ie
An interesting counterpoint to this viewpoint can be found in the following piece from Sarah Carey, published in the Irish Times:
Why women just want to go home - The Irish Times - Wed, Aug 26, 2009
On the other hand, if boys do better in a given system, it is often said "girls are being oppressed" and something is inherently wrong with the system - with immediate change needed.
Case in point, the recent changes for entry to medical courses from the Irish Leaving Cert., which has brought to the fore articulations of this feminist analysis.
A letter in today's Irish Independent:
Girls suffer for sake of more male GPs
The system for entry to medicine was changed not because there was a problem with the quality of Irish doctors, as there wasn't.
As I see it, the system was changed to get more boys into medicine, and especially into general practice, which was becoming predominantly female.
The only way to make it easier for the students to gain entry is to have more places. And please, don't tell me the nation's girls must be punished because they are more successful in the Leaving Cert than the boys.
Girls suffer for sake of more male GPs - Letters, Opinion - Independent.ie
An interesting counterpoint to this viewpoint can be found in the following piece from Sarah Carey, published in the Irish Times:
Women who forgo careers in mid-life are not victims but strategic planners making free choices
NOT SO long ago correspondents to this fine paper got their knickers in a twist when I said that women choose to avoid standard career paths and full-time work. This week the notes from the shrill proclaim that women GPs have every right to choose part-time work. What fun. One week it’s not happening and the next it is but don’t even think about messing with our choices.
Across the labour force there are undeniable patterns of behaviour that are clearly visible to our own eyes and in all the statistics. CSO figures show that in their 20s, women work more hours than men. In their 30s they start dropping hours until they almost tail off for the over 40s. In the professions more women qualify in medicine, law and accountancy but progress in tiny numbers to become partners, consultants or managers. That much is empirically clear.
What is not so clear is why – or what, if anything, should be done about it. The standard assumption is that this is a matter of coercion rather than choice. I dispute that analysis but, first, a quick word about doctors.
The high number of female GPs, many of whom opt to work part-time, is a legitimate cause for concern. It’s a public health issue if we are short of doctors willing to work weekends or make night calls. There is a strong argument that when the State spends several years and a lot of money training doctors, those doctors have a moral obligation to treat their patients even if they get sick at inconvenient hours.
But moral obligations are unfashionable and, since it’s a free world, doctors have the right to practise any way they want. As taxpayers and patients, we have a corresponding right to fret about the shortage of male doctors who will drive the streets after-hours while their female colleagues put their feet up.
Dissuading women from becoming GPs or compelling them to work full-time is, shall we say, problematic. However, when the State has to deal with the consequences of so many women exercising their right to choose office hours, the response from the usual suspects should be a little less chippy.
Why women just want to go home - The Irish Times - Wed, Aug 26, 2009