Gender Bias

BOSTON -- The heart of the story is the tape measure. Try to imagine the best and the brightest female tenured professors lurking around the halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, measuring the size of the men's labs and offices against their own.There is something so techie about it, so wonky, so MIT. The 15 women -- physicists, chemists, biologists -- were in search of hard numbers to prove what they had once been reluctant to admit: Men...

THE AMERICAN Association of University Women has a knack for riling 'em up.Six years ago, the association took considerable heat when it issued a report documenting the damage done to girls by gender bias in education.Girls are often "shortchanged" in coeducational settings, the report said. The self-esteem of the best female students can be badly damaged.The next year, conservative talk-show hosts went into full voice criticizing another AAUW report, "Hostile Hallways," which described pervasive sexual harassment of girls at all levels of schooling.

SUPPOSE A JUDGE handling the bankruptcy of a department store that had been driven to insolvency by shoplifting agreed to let the store stay in business, but only after requiring all females -- and only females -- to sign a police log upon entering the shop.Absolutely and certainly, such a ruling would roundly be criticized as sexist, misogynistic and demeaning to women in the way that Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger's decision in a domestic-violence case lately has been lambasted.

Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. launched a counterattack yesterday on critics who accuse him of gender bias, as his lawyer defiantly rejected calls for the judge's resignation from Baltimore County Circuit Court."

In an unusual public hearing before a state judicial disciplinary board, women's groups yesterday criticized as sexist Judge Robert E. Cahill's comments in sentencing a Parkton wife-killer in 1994.With just as much certainty, judges and law professors, including one woman, said the comments were appropriate and did not show sexism or disrespect for the law.The first day of the Judicial Disabilities Commission's hearing -- which could determine whether the Baltimore County judge remains on the bench -- examined comments made at the sentencing of Kenneth L. Peacock.

A Howard Circuit judge disputed yesterday assertions that he is biased against husband-and-wife lawyers who brought their baby to court when they couldn't find a sitter.In an interview, Judge Cornelius Sybert Jr. said he will have a hearing with John Condliffe and Judith Shub-Condliffe on their efforts to have him removed from their client's case, which alleges sexual misconduct by a Lutheran minister.The meeting, requested by the Condliffes, will give the couple a chance to air their grievance with the judge.

Chicago. -- Pope John Paul II has ordered Roman Catholic bishops in America to stop using a translation of the Bible they authorized, on the grounds that it is too ''gender-neutral,'' changing ''men'' to ''humanity.''In general, I think the pope has the better argument when it comes to freeing the Bible from gender bias. Admittedly that bias exists, and was bound to exist in the periods and for the people to whom God, in the eyes of believers like me, made a revelation.It is true, on the other hand, that God is no more male than female, because he is neither.

What were you doing most of last week? Were you working, looking for work, or keeping house?The question may sound innocuous enough, but because of its final three words, the U.S. unemployment rate was substantially underreported for nearly three decades until this January.That is because pollsters for the Bureau of Labor Statistics asked the question, in that form, only of women. For men, the question left off "or keeping house.""A lot of women chose to say that they had been keeping house, even though they might have worked part time or spent a few hours looking for work," bureau economist Peter Cattan said.

The NAACP, shaken by a sexual-harassment controversy that led to the firing of Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., welcomed two dozen women to its Baltimore headquarters yesterday and said it would review its policies for gender bias.The name of Mary E. Stansel, a former aide to Dr. Chavis, wasn't mentioned.But Ms. Stansel's charges of sexual harassment against the former NAACP leader -- and his secret deal to pay her up to $332,400 of NAACP funds to fend off a lawsuit -- formed the backdrop for the gathering, which was attended by elected officials and civic activists.

The Committee on Gender Equality has recommended and Judge Thomas J. Bollinger has agreed that he take sensitivity training. He displayed a lack of sensitivity, to say the least, with his sentence and his comments in a rape case in BaltimoreCounty Circuit Court last month. He criticized the law and the victim while letting the convicted man off with probation before judgment.The committee's recommendation is compassionate, to say the least. His attendance at training sessions would be the sum total of his "punishment."

If you know a young woman who is about to graduate from college or who has just started working, you ought to buy her a copy of Skirt! Rules for the Workplace: An Irreverent Guide to Advancing Your Career, by Kelly Love Johnson. It is advice on how to work smarter, faster, tougher and better than any guy - or any other woman - and get ahead. Johnson is the managing editor of the unfortunately titled Skirt magazine (Why not call it Dame or Doll magazine?) and she uses her own up-from-the-freelance-pool story to illustrate her tips.

Nearly one out of six U.S. employees say they were discriminated against at work in the past year, with women more than twice as likely as men to claim bias over hiring and pay, according to a new poll. The poll released this month by the Gallup Organization found that middle-aged women and minorities were more likely to report being victims. Out of the 1,252 part-time and full-time workers interviewed by telephone, women were more than twice as likely to claim discrimination (22 percent)

WASHINGTON -- Are critics of Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers guilty of sexism? Or do they simply feel she is unqualified to sit on the nation's highest court? As the White House and Miers' opponents prepare for what could be contentious Senate hearings, the fact that she is a woman is emerging as a weapon of choice for operatives on both sides. First lady Laura Bush waded into the dispute yesterday, when asked whether her husband's most recent nominee was a victim of sexism. "That's possible.

WASHINGTON - To understand the world that produced Raiford Chatman Davis, it is perhaps enough to understand how he got his name changed. It happened when his mother went to register his birth certificate. She told the man at the counter that her son was known as R. C. Davis. The clerk misheard her, but she didn't correct him. He was white, she was black, and this was Georgia. So R. C. spent the rest of his life under the name that resulted from an uncorrected error: Ossie Davis. He died Feb. 4 in Miami, a courtly and elegant man of 87 years, justifiably lionized for his accomplishments as a writer and actor in a career that spanned six decades.

BOSTON -- The heart of the story is the tape measure. Try to imagine the best and the brightest female tenured professors lurking around the halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, measuring the size of the men's labs and offices against their own.There is something so techie about it, so wonky, so MIT. The 15 women -- physicists, chemists, biologists -- were in search of hard numbers to prove what they had once been reluctant to admit: Men...

THE AMERICAN Association of University Women has a knack for riling 'em up.Six years ago, the association took considerable heat when it issued a report documenting the damage done to girls by gender bias in education.Girls are often "shortchanged" in coeducational settings, the report said. The self-esteem of the best female students can be badly damaged.The next year, conservative talk-show hosts went into full voice criticizing another AAUW report, "Hostile Hallways," which described pervasive sexual harassment of girls at all levels of schooling.

SUPPOSE A JUDGE handling the bankruptcy of a department store that had been driven to insolvency by shoplifting agreed to let the store stay in business, but only after requiring all females -- and only females -- to sign a police log upon entering the shop.Absolutely and certainly, such a ruling would roundly be criticized as sexist, misogynistic and demeaning to women in the way that Baltimore County Circuit Judge Thomas J. Bollinger's decision in a domestic-violence case lately has been lambasted.

Judge Thomas J. Bollinger Sr. launched a counterattack yesterday on critics who accuse him of gender bias, as his lawyer defiantly rejected calls for the judge's resignation from Baltimore County Circuit Court."

In an unusual public hearing before a state judicial disciplinary board, women's groups yesterday criticized as sexist Judge Robert E. Cahill's comments in sentencing a Parkton wife-killer in 1994.With just as much certainty, judges and law professors, including one woman, said the comments were appropriate and did not show sexism or disrespect for the law.The first day of the Judicial Disabilities Commission's hearing -- which could determine whether the Baltimore County judge remains on the bench -- examined comments made at the sentencing of Kenneth L. Peacock.

A Howard Circuit judge disputed yesterday assertions that he is biased against husband-and-wife lawyers who brought their baby to court when they couldn't find a sitter.In an interview, Judge Cornelius Sybert Jr. said he will have a hearing with John Condliffe and Judith Shub-Condliffe on their efforts to have him removed from their client's case, which alleges sexual misconduct by a Lutheran minister.The meeting, requested by the Condliffes, will give the couple a chance to air their grievance with the judge.