{"id":43801,"date":"2018-05-24T13:42:58","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T20:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=43801"},"modified":"2018-05-24T13:42:58","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T20:42:58","slug":"progressive-stacking-leads-to-a-wobbly-form-of-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/progressive-stacking-leads-to-a-wobbly-form-of-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Progressive stacking\u2019 leads to a wobbly form of equality"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the classic John Ford western Stagecoach<\/em>, a group of travellers have to make a decision about whether to continue their journey through\u00a0Apache territory. They decide to settle the issue with a vote, but with one important proviso: that the women have their say first.<\/p>\n

This kind of chivalry may seem outdated, but the idea that women should speak first has been making a comeback. One example in education is a practice called progressive stacking. This involves giving women the chance to speak before men do \u2013 as well as giving non-whites a chance to speak before whites (with non-white men being prioritised above white women). The practice came to public notice last year, when Stephanie McKellop, a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Pennsylvania, tweeted<\/a> about her use of it.<\/p>\n

It has honourable, democratic intentions.\u00a0The underlying rationale is that women and non-whites have suffered from various kinds of systematic disadvantage, which makes them less able to contribute to discussions. Giving them priority allows them to debate issues from a position of equality.<\/p>\n

But even if we accept those premises, the practice is open to a number of objections. One is that it is demeaning, since it seems to assume that people who aren\u2019t white or male need extra help to take part in a conversation. A stronger objection is that it is discriminatory, openly treating people differently on the basis of gender and ethnicity.<\/p>\n

You might not think that\u2019s such a bad thing in itself, but it opens the door to further objections, such as that openly categorising people leads to unhealthy in-group\/out-group dynamics. Or that ordering speakers by their gender or ethnicity \u2013 rather than their willingness to speak or the relevance, insight or novelty of their views \u2013 simply isn\u2019t a rational way of conducting a discussion.<\/p>\n

But, of course, proponents of progressive stacking know that it is discriminatory. For them, though, the discrimination is justified as a way of counteracting societal privilege. Its advocates\u00a0could also point to recent studies on differences in the way men and women behave in meetings. Last year, for example, a survey<\/a> of 247 departmental seminars found that if a man asked the first question, men tended to be over-represented in the rest of the Q&A, whereas if a woman spoke first, the session was more representative. Social psychology has a significant political bias, but if these studies bear up, they might well suggest that something needs to be done to help women get a fair hearing.<\/p>\n

As it happens, that idea of a fair hearing is one that goes back to ancient Greek democrats, one of whose most important values was is\u0113goria<\/em>, or \u201cequality of speech\u201d. They also had two practices \u2013 rotation and allotment \u2013 that might be able to help us fulfil the aim of granting a fair hearing to all without having to resort to the kind of discrimination involved in progressive stacking. Rotation involves granting a role to all the members of a group in turn. Allotment involves allocating it randomly by, for instance, picking names out of a hat.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take rotation first. In a seminar or meeting, it would involve going round the room, granting everybody a turn at uninterrupted speech. I\u2019ve rarely see this simple concept put into practice, but it has become one of my standbys. I pass around a \u201ctalking pencil\u201d and tell the students that they can only speak if they\u2019re holding it.<\/p>\n

That ensures that everybody gets a chance to speak, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that everybody will speak for a similar amount of time: that would require a timer, which can be a bit awkward and cumbersome. But it may be worth the trouble in contexts where equality of speech is something participants are really concerned about.<\/p>\n

The brilliant thing about rotation is that it ensures that everybody gets a chance to speak eventually. Even if a man speaks first, that won\u2019t mean that fewer women will speak; the pencil will get to all of the women present anyway. At the same time, rotation is only really practicable if you don\u2019t have many people in the seminar, or you have a lot of time. But what about, say, an undergraduate lecture?<\/p>\n

This is where allotment is more suitable. Like rotation, determining speaking privileges randomly ensures that everyone has an equal chance of speaking without openly categorising people by ethnicity or gender. But, unlike rotation, it does so without your having to work through absolutely everyone present. One simple way of doing this is by going down an alphabetical list of names.<\/p>\n

Of course, you may end up calling on more men during a particular session, but that will be offset by calling on more women in future sessions (that\u2019s how randomness works). And even when you end up calling on more men, it will be completely unrelated to the fact that a man spoke first in the session because\u00a0the name that comes next on an alphabetical list isn\u2019t the sort of thing that can be influenced by unconscious prejudices, intimidation or patriarchal norms.<\/p>\n

Progressive stacking, then, has the best of intentions, but the time-honoured democratic practices of rotation and allotment offer us the easiest discrimination-free way of making sure that everyone gets an equal chance of having their say. All we need to put them into practice is a bit of willpower \u2013 and maybe some pencils, paper and hats.<\/p>\n

Author Bio: <\/strong>James Kierstead is a senior lecturer in Classics at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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