My apologies if this shows up twice - I tried to post it yesterday and haven't seen it.
I work for the Canadian federal government, and we have Employment Equity. We're encouraged to self-identify as women, visible minorities, or persons with disabilities.
I'm a Marine Communications and Traffic Services Officer with the Canadian Coast Guard. The application process includes an aptitude test, an interview, language testing for positions in bilingual centres, and a typing test (we log all our calls, especially the emergencies, and getting information down quickly is really important for us).
After all the testing and interviewing, an eligibility list for future positions was released. I'd scored higher than a man.
When I got to the Coast Guard College for training, I met that man because he'd also applied to work at another centre and gotten on there. He knew who I was from the eligibility list (I have an uncommon name), and asked how I'd done with the testing and interviewing.
All innocence, I told him. He replied that he'd scored a full nine points higher than I did on the aptitude test and that his interview had gone better than mine had, and clearly I'd only gotten the position because I was a woman.
I was devastated. It was a huge blow to my confidence. I felt like I didn't deserve my job. I felt incompetent. I started to wonder about the fairness of Employment Equity.
And then I discovered that he'd failed the typing test in both the interview for my position and the one he'd gotten. He proceeded to fail the typing test twice at the College.
So was he wrong about why I'd gotten the job over him? Yeah, probably. Did I deserve my job and am I competent? I'd certainly like to think so, and my supervisor seems to agree. Should he have made that comment to me? Of course not.
But the fact that he honestly believed I'd only gotten my job because I was a woman is very telling, and very worrisome. How many other people believe that women are less competent but are getting hired just because they're women? How many times will I have to face that as I advance in the federal government? How do I deal with comments like that?
What are your thoughts on Employment Equity/Affirmative Action? How do you deal with its failings? Do you have any moral qualms about self-identifying as a woman/visible minority/disabled person in hopes of it being a deciding factor (I ask because I did)?
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I'm a recent graduate and I've been applying to a few government jobs lately (and even places like Banks), and when I get to the section about gender (well, they use sex), I cringe a little. I don't want to have to define myself, shouldn't my application speak for me? I definitely share your insecurities whenever I check the "Female" box.
I thought asking 'gender' on a job application wasn't legal? Or maybe that's just in Canada? Or maybe I'm wrong all together and it was some propaganda my parents told me when I was younger and pretty androgynous?
Shae - I'm guessing that if the federal government does it, it's probably legal. ;) It is strictly voluntary, though, and I don't know the legality of it in other countries.
From an institutional standpoint, I'm all for employment equality/affirmative action. Diversity is so important to a workplace or a school, and hiring people, even those less qualified, for diversity can help to control subtle discrimination. It's also rarely taken into account the importance of diversity for customer relations; I'm sure I'm not the only one who is daunted going into a store when it's all men, or all people of a different race. And all the times when you actually need a minority viewpoint; I'm kind of sick of hearing about, say, female consulting groups, which are apparently there to make up for companies not hiring women to give them input from the inside.
But from an individual standpoint, I'd also be pretty hurt if I was hired over a more qualified man. Everyone wants to be hired because they're the most qualified, but unfortunately quite often the "most qualified" becomes "the guy who we get on well best with at the bar" or "the guy who talked football at the interview".
Hmm...yeah. It's just I remember applications for a couple of jobs and they like, took one look at me and said "you don't have to fill in the gender part. you know...if you don't....want to or something. it's illegal for us to make you." So yeah, I guess you can ask it but an applicant doesn't have to answer it.