September 19, 2007

The Margin
SMC's E-Board is not gender-balanced

Tom Kingston | contributing columnist
tkingston@smcvt.edu

Equality is a great concept. We must keep in mind that the genders are different. Men are stronger. Women are smarter. Long ago, domination was attained through brute strength. These days, mental power is more valuable, yet the tradition of male dominance has been perpetuated.

History writers exaggerate the roles of men. Important decisions and discoveries made by women are partly or fully credited to men. The legend that we were handed is that Christopher Columbus sought support from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. In fact, Isabella was the monarch of one of the most economically vibrant nations in the world. She was interested in exploration. Ferdinand had nothing to do with it. Ferdinand’s main accomplishment was facilitating Isabella’s desire to have an heiress—who later became known as Queen Juana.

Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Harvard were all founded as men’s colleges before the colonies declared independence from England. A smattering of women’s and coeducation colleges began to materialize in the 1830s. Philanthropists preferred to give money to the all-male colleges, thereby creating better educational opportunities for men and preserving male dominance in society.

In 1960, 65 percent of bachelor’s degrees were conferred to men. Since then society has improved. Most colleges have become coeducational and new laws have been made to assure level playing fields for women. In the 2007 graduating class of St. Michael's College, the average GPA was 3.25 for women and 2.93 for men. Fifty-five percent of the graduates were women. The figure for women nationally is 58 percent. Even though the college environment has been equalized, activities that interest the genders are different. Women outnumber men 8 to 1 every year at the St. Michael’s College apple orchard excursion. For the annual St. Michael's College Snowboard Jibfest, the ratios are reversed. In the greater society, men are still dominant in politics and business.

On this year’s Student Association E-Board, women are outnumbered by men 7 to 2. The president and vice-president are elected by the entire student body. The remaining seven E-Board members are selected through a multi-step process which starts with a written application to the Personnel and Nominations Committee—a five-member panel elected by the Student Association Senate. Ideally, the P&N Committee and the president and the vice-president will agree upon the applicants to recommend to the full Senate, which ultimately decides who gets on.

Those expressing interest in serving on the E-Board this year were predominately men, according to Vice-President Mallory Wood. Selections were based on the combination of skills that people would bring. Women interested in student government have become class officers and women have been more prevalent on the E-Board in past years, according to Wood. (There typically have been four women on the E-Board in the past six years.)

A major responsibility of the Student Association is to distribute the Student Association Budget of $480,000 to other student organizations, clubs and events. Is it necessary for the Student Association leadership to reflect the composition of the student body? Should the Personnel and Nominations Committee have looked across the gender gap and recruited equally well-suited candidates or are they obliged to select from those who are most obviously gung-ho?