Chilly climate for men, too

Print

Thursday, September 6, 2007
Reforms intended to prevent a recurrence of the offensive spoof edition of the Gazette and to implement ways of dealing with it, should it happen again, form part of a framework that ideally would address both external and subjective factors.

 

In the article “Gazette meets May 31 deadline for reforms" (Western News, June 7), the emphasis is on attempting to control the environment, for the benefit of women and select minority groups.
 
A related article (Fearing reputation, May 24), expresses concern that future students, staff and faculty may turn against Western because of the spoof edition of the Gazette.
Would this be a good time to remind Western that even after Marc Lepine killed a dozen engineering students in 1989, numbers of female applicants to engineering continued to rise.
 
This is about women taking their place alongside men in the university and in their careers, as suggested in the article on the same subject “More reforms needed to thaw 'chill'" (also May 24). Women aren't about to relinquish their power and chances at fulfilment in life that easily.
 
The 2007 spoof edition of the Gazette seems to have become a focal point for all of Western's concerns about injustice towards women, just as the killings at the Polytechnique in Montreal did in 1989. Yet in neither of these situations have the social-psychological factors of masculinity and the relationship between men's careers and sexuality been seen as a subject of concern, worth investigating.
 
It is not just women who have to struggle to get the careers they deserve, it is men, too - that is, unless people really believe that the numbers of great jobs just keeps expanding along with the numbers of qualified, knowledgeable people.
 
The 'chilly climate,' the '80s term feminists still like to refer to, is not a state caused by men and directed towards women, as Jenna Owsianik (Target of 'Spoof,' April 19) and Kathleen O'Kruhlik (More Reforms, May 24) suggest, but can also happen in the other direction, by women towards men (as Marc Lepine so resolutely stated), as well as by women towards women and men towards men.
 
Blaming men, without exploring changes in men's expectations and opportunities for fulfilment in life (career-wise and sexually) that have occurred in the last few decades since feminism took hold of society, is just a tad unfair.
 
How can the 'chilly climate' be expected to improve when there are so many men getting left out, and when a career is so important to have, for both men and women, though for different reasons.
 
Sue McPherson (BA '93)
Oshawa
 

Also from this web page:

About

Hours

Weekdays
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
(holidays excluded)

Contact

Publisher:
Helen Connell (hconnell@uwo.ca)

Editor:
Jason Winders (newseditor@uwo.ca)

Reporter/Photographer:
Paul Mayne (pmayne@uwo.ca)

Reporter/Photographer:
Heather Travis (htravis2@uwo.ca)

Advertising Coordinator:
Denise Jones (advertise@uwo.ca)

Off-Campus Advertising Sales:
Chris Amyot, Campus Ad (campusad@sympatico.ca)

National Advertising Representative:
Campus Plus

Phone:
519-661-2045

Fax:
519-661-3921

Mail:
Western News, Suite 360
Westminster Hall
The University of Western Ontario, London N6A 3K7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Western provides the best student experience among Canada's leading research-intensive universities.