Diversity and Covid: Some silver linings
Something fascinating and dare I say positive happened in French academia recently. For those who aren’t familiar with the French system, to get into the elite French universities, there is a national competition in 2 stages: written exam, that determines the first cut, and an oral exam that seals the deal. Students prepare for this competition for 2 years of intensive prep in a “Classe Preparatoire” (CP). I went through the system for Engineering schools, but I will not be talking about the lack of women in STEM (which is appalling, I know). This is about the humanities.
The very elite and top French university Ecole Normale Superieur d’Ulm has decided this year to cancel oral examinations because of Covid-19. The make up of the class starting in September 2020 has been profoundly impacted as a result. According to an article in the French newspaper Le Monde, the proportion of women in the 2 main subjects has increased to 67% compared to an average of 54% over the last 5 years. This is closer to the proportion of women in literary CP of 3/4. The numbers following the anonymous written exams seem more aligned with the make up of the applicants, but it tilts in favour of men following the oral exams. I didn’t know that, but it begs the question of why this happens.
I can think of several possible reasons that might compound each other:
- Women are less knowledgeable: Not true, since that would show up in the written exams.
- Women are worse at oral examination: Possible. If so, there is a gap in the training. Is the teaching staff failing women by not appropriately preparing them and helping them overcome this weakness? This seems to be a massive shortcoming from the CP.
- The conditions and the format of the oral exams are somehow more favorable to men.
- The lack of diversity within the examiners: This is a point often cited in the lack of diversity in the workplace. I do not know if that is the case here. Moreover women can also be prejudiced against other women, or against women from a different socioeconomic or ethnic background.
- Can it be the periods? Some women feel less sharp during that time of the month. This doesn’t mean they’re generally any less smart and deserving. However, this doesn’t impact the gender make up at the written exam stage, so it is unlikely to explain this disparity.
This raises questions about the makeup of the class in terms of race, sexual orientation and religion. Is there such a bias against minorities that gets exacerbated during the oral exams stage? This is hard to assess since France doesn’t gather data on race, origin, religion or sexual orientation. If you don’t see an issue, you can’t deal with it unfortunately, though I understand why they prefer not to gather such data. One thing I will say is that during my studies I met very few French people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds or that were non-white. Diversity was coming from students that were not French.
In any case, this is a very interesting fact. We should take it away and think about how we can improve the chances of women and minorities to go through oral exams and interviews. Diversity is a work in progress!
Leave me a comment to let me know what you think.
