Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 10:04:30 -0400
From: Thomas F Brown <tombrown@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Subject: Re: "Stranglehold"
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Message-id: <97Jun23.100436edt.265-7@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu>
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>I was unclear.  Recruiting women into gender specialties does, indeed,
>increase the likelyhood of marginalization.  It is not necessarily the
>intend of departments who do so, but that is a potential unexpected
>outcome.  There are two arguments that support why a department may do
>this.
>
>These two points serve to create a job market with a decided preference
>for women, especially in gender related departmental areas.  Job markets
>effect choices made by both students and their advisors, scholarly
>independence not withstanding.

You've explained the mechanisms behind discriminatory demand structures
with regards to hiring race and gender specialists. You've explained
how this can create a potential for marginalization. But is there any
evidence that marginalization of any particular demographic group in
sociological work actually exists today?

Do we have any instances of any particular group being constrained or
strongly discouraged from entering whatever specialty they desire?

So far, we only have one example--white males are excluded from teaching
gender. But how can we consider this marginalization when white males
dominate the discipline generally?