[shasta]

> Who properly bears the burden of proof is a question of your policy objective.

Well, the context was the discussion of policy objectives. If you're saying that we should presume the existence of ongoing discrimination to be the cause of gender inequality during those discussions, then that seems flatly wrong. The rational way to discuss policy is to have an honest assessment of the current situation and then predict how policies will affect outcomes. You don't start by making unproven assumptions. The burden of proof in an argument is on the person making the claim.

You can certainly weigh potential outcomes and decide to go ahead with a course of action even though the benefits haven't been proven.

> It has the strong advantage of being an approach that has actually worked in the past.

Maybe.

[rayiner]

There are basically only two kinds of possible causes for observed disparities in gender representation: discrimination (either active, passive, or social), or intrinsic preferences and aptitudes. Once you've established that a disparity does exist, the cause has to be one or the other.

Presuming that the cause is some sort of discrimination is equivalent to presuming that the cause isn't intrinsic differences, at least unless that presumption is rebutted.

And remember the usual posture of these situations. People establish a prima facie case that something is wrong by showing that there is a gender disparity. Then defenders of the status quo invoke "preferences" (i.e. intrinsic differences) to explain the disparity. I see no problem with requiring them to adduce evidence in support of their explanation.

[dwmtm]

So three coin flips leads to a gender disparity- I guess if you don't observe any of them, no discrimination of heads or tails could occur...