Yale Law Study - Gender Disparities in Congressional Nominations

brewmeist

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I just came across this recent report (July 2019) highlighting gender disparities in congressional nominations to SAs. While the numbers are correct, the focus is on the relatively low % of females receiving nominations (27% over the past 15 years). What the study does not account for is, what percentage of females actually apply for nominations vs males? At least I didn't catch that figure. Interesting read, regardless.

https://law.yale.edu/studying-law-y...erans-legal-center-military-service-academies
 
That was my first take away from the article. No way to nominate females who don't apply.
 
But what if you had 25 female applicants with 36 ACT, 4.0 GPA, Captain of the Soccer Team, Girl Scout Gold Award, Girls State participation and 75 male applicants with 36 ACT, 4.0 GPA, Captain of the Soccer Team, Boy Scout Eagle scout Award, Boys State participation...what would you expect the % of males/females nominated to be?
 
Too many intangibles to answer that question. We have no idea how those prospective candidates interview, or how their personal statements or teacher evaluations or letters of recommendation were. Those stats cannot stand alone, it still comes back to WCS and their physical interviews and evaluations.
 
That's actually the number one policy objective of this study: collect numbers and post them from year to year. There's no decent data for any of this analysis, but what emerges is not encouraging. Senators from NC, to grab the first example I saw, rank #5 best and #1 worst while sharing an applicant pool. But before going after the senators, who knows what list was laid on the desk by the selection committee? Who applied to which academy? The underlying goal is drawing the best applicants, so figuring out who is applying is a necessary first step.
 
Theoretically all things equal, would you expect to see 50-50 or the nominated percentage reflectimg the the percentage of applicants?
 
Theoretically all things equal, would you expect to see 50-50 or the nominated percentage reflectimg the the percentage of applicants?
If it is purely merit based, however you measure merit, there shouldn't be any preconceived expectation.
 
The study mentioned provides nothing but its summary of "data", much of which is missing or incomplete. The original article does have some links to data provided by the academies, but it provides no data on number of applicants. As others have mentioned, without knowing how many have applied it is impossible to know if the number being nominated is truly out of whack.

I scanned through a couple of the data sets, and it is confusing. Slates should be no more than 10, right? but I saw slates for individual years and individual nominators as high as 21. I saw some slates as small as 2. I saw some slates that were all female and no males.

This "study" is conducted by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic, within the Yale Law School, on behalf of the the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) in support of its efforts to combat what it perceives as gender inequality at the Military Services Academies. There is nothing scientific about this study at all, which explains the dearth of data.
 
Approximately 60% of college students are female. Therefore, logically, 60% of cadets and midshipeople should be female. Because, being an officer in the military is just like working for Google or Microsoft. Damn these unenlightened congresspeople.
 
Figures don't lie, but.......
the people who work with them do? These figures say what their proponent wants them to say. It creates a catchy but misleading headline, and 99% of the public will never go beyond the headline and realize that the authors are providing answers to the wrong questions.

I respectfully disagree
I think your sarcasm detector is broken.
 
IMO it boils down to how many females are even interested in an SA. No science to back this up, but I’ve attended many Academy briefings for prospective candidates, and there are always more boys than girls in attendance. How many of them then actually go on to complete their application and apply for a NOM?
I know WP is trying to attract more females, and their marketing is targeting them specifically. The new WP brochure has a female on the front, and almost exclusively pictures of females doing a variety of activities in the entire brochure. The SA outreach to attract females is there, but this “study” and it’s determination of gender discrimination is ludicrous .
 
images
 
This "study" is conducted by the Veterans Legal Services Clinic, within the Yale Law School, on behalf of the the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) in support of its efforts to combat what it perceives as gender inequality at the Military Services Academies. There is nothing scientific about this study at all, which explains the dearth of data.

I agree. "Studies" that already have a conclusion in mind before they analyze any data are usually not very objective.
 
Approximately 60% of college students are female. Therefore, logically, 60% of cadets and midshipeople should be female. Because, being an officer in the military is just like working for Google or Microsoft. Damn these unenlightened congresspeople.
Just for grins and giggles..."Midshipman" is a rank, not a gender-specific term. "Midshipeople" is not a term describing a naval aspirant.
(although I could easily see some legislative bodies thinking it needed correcting)

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
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