[Publib] Military recruiters & libraries: WAS Army and homelessand Army Pursues Homeless Youth

[Robert L. Balliot]

Greetings,

If you contrast the demographics of library employees
and the demographics of the armed services, it would
appear that hiring practices of libraries have overtly
discriminated based on sexual orientation. I think they
always have.

When I studied Library Administration and Management
back in 1988, I had the chance to review texts on
personnel and management written in the 40's and 50's.
The texts were written by men and were in use at
Columbia U.  In the 40s and 50s, there was no such
thing as reference and the recommended hiring practices
by the authors were to:

1. Hire women at the lowest possible wages
2. Hire women who would not distract the scholars from their pursuits
3. Hire women who are unlikely to marry and would not have children
to help to guarantee attendance at work.

The process was extraordinarily misogynistic and I believe
that most of the library directors at the time, especially
in academics were men.  As time went on, more and more
women became upper level administrators.  But their own
employment and qualifications for employment were influenced 
by the misogynistic paradigm. If the institutional values
that brought you into employment asked that you be
unattractive, non-distracting, unlikely to marry, and
work for low wages - it seems that would greatly influence
your outlook when empowered to employ.

Whenever I see irrational reactions of outrage to sexual
issues in libraries, I have to wonder how much of that is
influence by the legacy of misogynistic management.

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Robert L. Balliot
1-401-441-5763
Skype: RBalliot
Bristol, Rhode Island
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
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-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of K.G. Schneider
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 9:17 AM
To: Publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] Military recruiters & libraries: WAS Army and
homelessand Army Pursues Homeless Youth


But keep in mind that the military still discriminates on the basis of
sexual orientation. 

So am I opposed to recruitment in libraries based on that issue? Yes and
no. If you tell the military they can come back when they change their
policy, then I'm somewhat cool with it. 

It's Friday, isn't it? All day?

K.G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com
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