Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - 20293196
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED192048 AUTHOR: Bartlett, Bertrice; Barnes, Elizabeth
TITLE: Women's Vitae and the Problem of Perceiving
Competence.
YEAR PUBLISHED: (1978)
NOTE: 45 p.
ABSTRACT: Analysis of the search for selecting a president
and a dean for a small women's college in the midwest
showed how affirmative action goals, coupled with standard
career expectations, damage female candidates. Reasons for
failure to select a woman for either post included: (1) the
tendency to compare women with women and men with men in
the early stages of the search, rather than matching all
candidates against the job requirements; (2) male vitae
establish patterns against which female vitae appear
deviant; (3) late emergence of unannounced criteria, after
review of candidates' vitae, deflects search committee
attention from candidates' fulfillment of announced
criteria; (4) since the emergent criteria are credentials,
they devalue the credentials of female finalists; and (5)
the presumption that "having performed a function" means
"having performed it well" operates in favor of male
candidates because male credentials have become the
standard. Recommendations for affirmative action include:
look for evidence of "doing" rather than "being"; avoid
developing last-minute criteria for the post; write job
descriptions in terms of competencies, rather than
"positions held"; check candidates by personal contacts;
write final recommendations in terms of initial criteria;
and read the research the candidates have done. (KC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Administrator-Selection; Career-Ladders;
Careers-; Case-Studies; Competence-; Credentials-;
Employment-Patterns; Equal-Opportunities-Jobs; Higher
Education; Job-Analysis; Job-Applicants; Job-Performance;
Job-Skills; Males-; Occupational-Information; Sex
Differences; Single-Sex-Colleges; Womens-Education
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Academic-Deans; *Administrator
Qualifications; *Affirmative-Action; *College
Administration; *College-Presidents; *Females-
This is an ERIC database document. ERIC is the National
Education Information Network for providing ready access
to the literature of education -descriptions of exemplary
programs, research and development efforts, and related
information that can be used in developing more effective
educational programs. The ERIC database is currently
available on CD-ROM in the main library (ground floor of
the west wing) at Michigan State University. To locate
ERIC documents in the library identify the first line of
each record (i.e., the field ERIC TITLE NUMBER). ED
following ERIC TITLE NUMBER indicates an ERIC document,
an unpublished research study. Most of these items are
available in the Microforms library, located on the 3rd
floor of the west wing. All you need is the six digit ED
number. If EJ follows ERIC TITLE NUMBER the item is a
journal article. The complete journal name is listed after
the code JOURNAL.
This information is for educational purposes only. References
to commercial products or trade names does not imply
endorsement by MSU Extension or bias against those not
mentioned. This information becomes public property upon
publication and may be printed verbatim with credit to MSU
Extension. Reprinting cannot be used to endorse or advertise
a commercial product or company.
This file was generated from data base DP on 06/25/02.
Data base DP was last revised on 12/95/ .
For more information about this data base or its contents please contact
cook@msue.msu.edu . Please read our
disclaimer for important
information about using our site.