February 9, 2012
Re:“Hamilton statistics on students’ majors demonstrate disparity between genders”
To the Editor: As the chair of a department that has long sought to address the gender disparity in our concentrations, I read with interest Nora Grenfell’s recent story on this important subject. I was surprised, however, to find that Government was included among the departments with the “greatest gender disparity.” The department offers three separate, though interrelated, concentrations (Government, World Politics and Public Policy). Drawing data fromonly one of the three, the story presents an inaccurate picture of our concentrations, which—with a combined total of 46 men and 40 women in the class of 2011—are roughly on par with the national norms cited in the story.
— Robert WT Martin, Chair,
Department of Government