Originally Posted by ultramarina
I don't think this gets around the issue at all. If admissions should be merit-based and blind to all other factors, then they should be merit-based and blind to all other factors, regardless of Smith's existence. You're not in favor of anything else I can think of that does anything to address gender imbalances--for instance, the paucity of women in STEM fields.

Sex preferences can go both ways. I think MIT should be allowed to give preferences to female applicants, and I believe it does.

I think the gross inequality in academia between tenure-track and adjunct professors hurts women. Women (and men) who step off the tenure track to raise a family cannot get back on and are paid a fraction of tenure track faculty for the same teaching load, with no job security.