A federal jury found that Harvard did not discriminate when it failed to promote a librarian who often dressed in — well, a way that librarians don’t usually dress. Desiree Goodwin had been rejected for 16 promotions or transfers at the school; a supervisor had told her that she was “a joke” who “was seen merely as a pretty girl who wore sexy outfits, low cut blouses, and tight pants.”

The main element of her complaint, however, was that she was not promoted because she was black and female. This seems prima facie weak — it’s hard to believe that Harvard, one of the hubs of the PC universe, would not act in just the opposite way and go out of its way to retain and promote a black female with two master’s degrees.

So there must have been other reasons for not advancing her, such as competence or those tight pants — neither of which (yet) makes her a member of a protected class.

According to the Boston Globe article, “Goodwin said she will continue to work as an assistant librarian at the Frances Loeb Library at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design while looking for a better job.” Hmmm, asking for a raise at her next review may not work out so well ….

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 5th, 2005 at 11:05 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Brilliant, but uncategorizable, Funny ... to us, Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.