By now, Boise State University professor Scott Yenor’s misogynous remarks at a far-right gathering in Florida have been widely publicized, criticized and, no doubt, applauded in extremist circles.
“Our independent women seek their purpose in life in mid-level bureaucratic jobs like human resource management, environmental protection, and marketing,” he told the audience. “They’re more medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome than women need to be.”
That was awful, but it was another comment which probably elicited a big I-can’t-believe-he-said-that reaction from Idaho’s employers. “Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for med school. And the law and every trade.”
Sitting in his cozy office, clearly detached from reality, Yenor hasn’t noticed that we face an acute labor shortage across the country. You can’t go anywhere in Idaho without seeing “help wanted” signs. This labor shortage threatens our economic prosperity.
Given this crisis, it is startling that a tenured college professor would sell the foolish idea of removing 50 percent of the working age population from the labor force and relegate them to having babies and waiting on men.
Yenor apparently hasn’t noticed that Idaho has more engineering jobs open than candidates to fill them, including 3,500 last month, according to an Emsi Burning Glass report. Nor does he realize that Idaho faces the largest shortage of doctors per capita in the country.
And here’s where Yenor’s torturous thinking really comes home to roost. Women now make up 60 percent of all the students enrolled in higher education and the number of men enrolling in college is falling like a rock.
In fact, on his own campus, women out-number men 15,015 to 10,778 or 58 percent to 42 percent. Across Idaho’s eight postsecondary institutions this fall, there are 12,494 more women enrolled than men.
In short, demographics are not on Yenor’s side. Women are getting educated and too many men are not. It is highly likely that Yenor will live long enough to see women holding more top jobs in business, politics, engineering, law and, to his chagrin, academics. Already many of Idaho’s hospitals, utilities, corporations, media, non-profits, and colleges are led by women.
Furthermore, these women balance successful careers with happy marriages and families and will continue to do so as their leadership ranks swell.
It is true that we need more men to step up and get the education necessary to fill the jobs our economy needs. But the way, to get more men skilled up isn’t by tearing down women who are improving their lives through education.
Yenor may survive behavior that would have instantly landed him in the unemployment line if he were in the private sector. But he will lose his war on women because our nation needs their intelligence and talent.
