many moons ago ... there was a post that referred to a case at MIT ...
where women biology faculty charged sex discrimination in that they thought
their salaries were much lower than they should be ... due to the fact that
they were women
then, there was post after post ... arguing this point or that ... in fact
there was so much heated debate ... the SUBJECT line even changed ... from
what is above to inappropriate hypothesis testing
now, after all these posts ... i am asking myself: what good has come from
all of this?
at the moment, i can see none ... nothing that jumps right out at me anyway
seeing that a major purpose of this list is to provide help to people who
are in the business of TEACHING statistics ... and communicating to
students beneficial uses of statistics (while hopefully cautioning them
about (to use a phrase) "inappropriate" ones) ... i would like to reiterate
that the original setting ... and the issue at hand there ... is important.
so, the question is: how can statistics (if at all) be used in the context
of a discrimination case ... in this context, over the issue of salary?
i pose the following general scenario
let's assume that at an institution, a group of people (women, hispanics,
clerical workers, associate professors, ... you name the group) files a
suit against the university charging ____ discrimination
again ... let's assume that the target variable is salary ... and this
"group" claims that they have been hugely UNfairly treated
what can we as those charged with teaching people about statistical
analysis ... share with them as to how statistical analysis can be useful
in this context? NOT in the sense of "proving" that discrimination DID
occur ... or did NOT occur ... but rather, to show them methods that would
yield data that might be useful in helping resolve a case like this?
Suggestion 1
Suggestion 2
Suggestion 3
and so on
can we bring some closure to this PARTICULAR MIT discussion with some
general "findings" as to what students could take away from all this prattle?
thanks
ps ... a conclusion that lots of people don't agree with one another will
not be too helpful
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