Pro-Male Affirmative Action?

By Carrie Lukas

In a culture quick to claim victim status, the existence of a concerted effort to hush up systematic discrimination may seem surprising -- particularly when that discrimination is against women. Yet as the University of San Diego law professor Gail Heriot and Alison Somin write in the Federalist Society's Engage, there's been a notable lack of public debate about pro-male bias in the college admission process. It's an open secret, they explain, that a growing number of colleges are holding male and female applicants to different standards to inflate the number of male students. Women already receive about six in ten bachelor degrees, so many colleges that don't want their student bodies skewed too heavily female are making it easier for men to enroll. Just how prevalent is the practice? It's tough to say, since, as Heriot and Somin describe, an effort by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to study the situation was recently terminated. There are numerous reasons why so many would prefer to ignore, rather than analyze,.... (Read Full Article)