The Old Girl Network


The New York Times thinks diversity is very, very important. But when women selectively hire their sorority sisters because they want employees who are just like them, it's not bad -- it's cute and trendy.

Fresh out of college, a job applicant hands in a resume to the company exectutive. After studying the resume, the executive remarks, `You're from Long Island; I'm from Long Island. You went to school in the Midwest; I went to school in the Midwest. You were an A.E. Phi. I was an A.E. Phi. I’d like you to come work for me.” Later, the executive explains that "The fact that we came from similar backgrounds was almost a pre-screening mechanism. It showed we had an intellectually and culturally similar view of the world. It was definitely an indicator that we would be on the same page."

If you saw this in the New York Times news or business sections, you might well expect it to be presented as a striking example of the old-boy network that blocks meritorious women, minorities, and the poorly-connected from the good jobs, right? But not in this case.

Why not? Because this article , in the Sunday Styles section, is about women using their sorority connections to get ahead in business. While there’s a brief suggestion that hiring on the basis of sorority connections is elitist and opposed to hiring based on merit, the overall tone of the article is positive. Apparently, when men selectively hire their fellow frat members, it’s an evil discriminatory outrage, but when women do it, it’s a cute new trend.

Now I have no problem with the old girl network (I went to a old girls’ school myself, in case anyone wants to offer me a lucrative position). It’s well understood that networking is an essential part of business success.

What’s interesting is that no one at the Times appears to have been bothered a bit by the thought of executives “pre-screening” job applicants to find those with similar world views. Didn’t I just hear a whole awful lot about “diversity,” and how utterly essential it is that any university or company contains people with the proper mix of backgrounds and viewpoints? Yet here the Times is indicating that an executive (well, a female one at least) can pick employees based on who’s most like her, and that’s just peachy. Guess the Times’ editorial staff doesn’t pay much attention to the Styles section.

Posted: Mon - July 14, 2003 at 09:15 PM      

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