Exploring Equity Further

I apologize, Mark, for the inartful way I juxtaposed my questions about what you meant by "equity" with my attempt to explain why I don't think equity arguments alone are going to provide corporations with the incentive to address the gender inequities you obviously appreciate.  It appears we both agree that there are good reasons for corporations to make efforts to restructure something about the way corporations work, and that doing so would most likely eventually have the effect of increasing the number of women on corporate boards, and that this would probably be a good thing.  (But maybe I went to far with the last "and" -- maybe you're not convinced of that.)

Another thing we both seem to agree on is that anyone interested in pursuing this debate needs to work harder at articulating exactly why it would be a good thing to have more women on corporate boards.  On March 16, 2007, the University of St. Thomas Law Journal is hosting a symposium on "Restructuring the Workplace to Accommodate Family Life," providing a forum for thinking through some of these issues.  While the focus of the conference is much broader than the issue of gender inequities in the corporate workplace (we will be addressing topics like just wage, immigration reform, welfare-to-work laws), it will provide an opportunity to explore some of the convergences and tensions between secular feminist legal theory and faith-based complementarity arguments.  Our two confirmed keynote speakers are Joan Williams (whose work on gender inequities in the workplace Mark alluded to in his last post) and Sr. Prudence Allen (author of the two-volume "The Concept of Woman" and thoughtful writer on complementarity).

We haven't yet completely constituted all the panels, so anyone who is interested in exploring these issues, or has suggestions for good contributors, should contact me ([email protected]).  And if you're interested in participating in this discussion, mark your calendar for March 16 and buy some tickets to Minneapolis, where the weather that time of year will alone be enough to make it worth the trip.........

Lisa