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Men in the Middle Susan Estrich
Deborah Freund was about to be the first woman chancellor of the University of California Los Angeles. The position is one of the top jobs in public higher education. She was to be awarded this after having been passed over for the presidency of the University of Arizona. The announcement had been scheduled. Then, the economics and public policy departments declined to make an offer to her husband, and the deal was off. Last week, Freund withdrew, and the university announced that it would renew its search, albeit not from scratch. Fingers are pointing in every direction as to why the two departments, either of whose offers would have been acceptable, both found the would-be chancellor's quite distinguished husband not distinguished enough. As a longtime academic, I can only say that the only thing unusual about this story is the level of the participants involved. The saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely was coined in academia. A departing chancellor has little clout over a tenured professor, particularly in a public institution. No matter how many explanations there are for the departments' actions, there seems to be no question, in all the public and private reports, that it was the denial of an offer to her husband that prompted Syracuse's deputy chancellor and provost to withdraw from a search that had narrowed to her. Story Continues Below
The decision was explained as being best for the family. No one can second-guess the decisions of any other family, and I have no intention of doing so. But as a societal matter, we can certainly have opinions as to whether it is a good thing for people to make sacrifices for their spouses' careers, which is what didn't happen here. Why couldn't he just have gone to Loyola or Pepperdine, two other local universities? my friend Bobby asked. Why, indeed. The question posed by this example, considered as a symbol of the problem of our times, is whether men will make the kinds of sacrifices women have made for years, and whether women should continue to make them. Getting to the top is an endless and often thankless job, in academics as in corporate America. In an article published six years earlier in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Freund was among a handful of women who had made it almost to the top of higher education, and were about to emerge in the front tier of the next round of searches for university presidents, as Freund indeed has. If "she" were a "he," what would we say of the woman who blocked her husband from taking his dream job because they didn't want her as part of the package? Would it not, perhaps, rhyme with "witch"? Who could sympathize with Heather Mills McCartney's reported anger that she is not as famous as Sir Paul, as an explanation for the breakup of their marriage? Hello, again ... So why are we not as eager to judge men today? If the reality is that there are very few women who will even make it to the second spot, isn't it essential that the men in their lives, if they have them, be supportive - if they are to break the barriers necessary to get to the very top? If men, who have long held the levers of power, are always the first to admit how helpful a supportive spouse is in the climb to the top, should we expect women, who face additional obstacles both conscious and unconscious, to need that support less? Or is it just political correctness that stands in our way? Are we so eager to give women choices that we are afraid to criticize when our role models (present company included, at times) just seem to be making the wrong ones? At least it's fair to raise the questions, lest our sons and our daughters all be confused. Not to mention the rest of us. Besides, Loyola and Pepperdine are very good schools. COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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