[toAnswerIt]

"The University of Melbourne recently advertised for three senior positions in mathematics intended for women. Their argument is that, by underrepresenting women on the faculty, they are not providing adequate support and representation for female students in mathematics (and by extension other STEM fields)."

So their argument is that female teachers teach feamle students better. So in this line of reasoning, traditional schools that separate by gender are better? Way to go full circle.

[twobyfour]

That's not my takeaway. My takeaway is that with few to no female faculty, female students may feel that they don't belong in the field; that they have no role models; or that they just don't have anyone to talk to about succeeding as a woman in a male-dominated field.

It has nothing to do with their being more effective at teaching the students (though there's no reason to think they'd be less effective either) and everything to do with helping the students feel like they belong in the department at all in order not to repel female students from the field.

[toAnswerIt]

so should we make black only positions? jew only? muslim only?

[twobyfour]

I don't know. Maybe. What's your argument that we shouldn't?

I'm not ready to argue that this is the best possible way to go about things. I just don't agree that it implies that those doing the hiring necessarily think segregation is more effective for teaching.