1st December 2005, 05:19 PM
I have been involved in recruitment on an intermittent basis over a large number of years. As such, I have been aware of issues of race and gender balance, in particular that within my organisation we have never had a non-white archaeologist and never more than 18% female (note - that means that we once had 2 women in a team of 11!).
However, anyone recruiting staff can only choose from amongst the applicants they get. When we advertise we often get 100% white male applicants and never more than around 20% female. We have had very few non-white applicants, none of whom even came close to having the required qualifications, and all of them applied from outside the EU. In this situation, a 'positive discrimination' policy wouldn't help - you can't discriminate in favour of someone who doesn't apply.
All our jobs are advertised on BAJR and the JIS. I can't say that we have ever done any 'outreach' specifically in relation to recruiting.
I think that the solution has to start well before recruiting. In a predominantly (although not entirely) graduate profession we will never address this issue successfully until the universities can attract ethnic minority students to archaeology courses.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
However, anyone recruiting staff can only choose from amongst the applicants they get. When we advertise we often get 100% white male applicants and never more than around 20% female. We have had very few non-white applicants, none of whom even came close to having the required qualifications, and all of them applied from outside the EU. In this situation, a 'positive discrimination' policy wouldn't help - you can't discriminate in favour of someone who doesn't apply.
All our jobs are advertised on BAJR and the JIS. I can't say that we have ever done any 'outreach' specifically in relation to recruiting.
I think that the solution has to start well before recruiting. In a predominantly (although not entirely) graduate profession we will never address this issue successfully until the universities can attract ethnic minority students to archaeology courses.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished