Editorial
Where were the men?
By Editorial Staff
March 6, 2015
If you consider Hamilton’s reputation of a bursting number of government and world politics majors and a vibrant, public commitment to civil rights issues, you would think that a talk by one of the last decade’s greatest civil rights leaders would draw a packed crowd, and you would be right–except the chapel looked more like Kirkland College than Hamilton College. At this past Monday’s lecture by Lilly Ledbetter the audience included around 100 people, and less than ten of them were male. This disparity is at the very least statistically troubling and at the most a dire indication of gendered disinterest about significant women’s issues on campus. The woman who helped create the most significant pieces of civil right’s legislation in the last fifteen years came to Hamilton, and all the men of the political sciences apparently had something better to do.
To emphasize the significance of this gender disparity, consider that the government department average about seventy concentrators a year or around 210 total, not including first years, and more than half of those students are male. And yet when Lilly Ledbetter herself comes to campus to talk about taking on the Supreme Court and Congress to fight for pay equity, a stranger would be convinced that the government department overflows with active and engaged women who leave the men sorely underrepresented. This paradox is shameful. Imagine if Malcolm X came to campus and no white students attended his lecture; imagine Harvey Milk speaking to a room of only queer students. These scenarios represent a disappointing display of apathy, an abysmal show of empathy, and after Monday’s lecture a visible reality.
The men of Hamilton, and particularly the students, need to recognize that even if you do not have skin in the game, you should still find the interest and compassion to involve yourself in it. Fair pay for women literally affects fifty percent of campus; finding a reason to make an appearance should not require pleading, prodding, or promises of extra credit. It requires the bare minimum of social and political awareness about pay injustices and a respect for the incredible efforts that Lilly Ledbetter has put in to correct them. The Spectator hopes that all the men of Hamilton reconsider where their interests and passions lie and, in the future, use their time to support our female peers in their pursuit of political equality.