There is a state law on the books from session 2021B that requires the following:
Public schools and Florida College System institutions shall develop and implement methods and strategies to increase the participation of students of a particular race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status in programs and courses in which students of that particular race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, or marital status have been traditionally underrepresented, including, but not limited to, mathematics, science, computer technology, electronics, communications technology, engineering, and career education.
It makes no caveat that it is specifically for women. While programs for women have proliferated, programs for men remain effectively non existent. Yet, men face massive under representation in many majors, often to a greater degree and number of total majors than women in engineering fields.
If you are in the US you probably heard about the recent law Florida passed that bans diversity programs (and does a lot of heinous stuff along with it). Since this is a hot topic in the US these days, the info here is a good reference for pointing out that diversity programs are discriminatory in implementation. Even if everyone can participate in the developed programs, who they choose to increase representation of is not based on developing a diverse college, it is based entirely on the demographic they help. The public is thoroughly gaslighted into thinking diversity programs are noble, fair, and for the point of diversity. If you only put forward effort to increase representation of women in majors where they are underrepresented, and ignore majors where men are underrepresented, it is sexism, not a diversity initiative. There are huge parts of the recent law that was passed that I disagree with, but I think banning diversity programs was the correct thing to do. If you can't run these programs without discriminating, and the systems in place to keep things in check aren't working, it's time to stop the bullshit.
Even in other states which might not have the same requirement Florida had, these initiatives follow the same pattern. Develop programs to help specific demographics, and ignore other demographics that are similarly situated. Higher education invariably fails the "even handedness" required in developing diversity programs. It is bigotry. This stuff has been going on for decades and there are no serious attempts occurring to be evenhanded, no enforcement is coming from agencies like the Federal Dept. of Ed. Office of Civil Rights. If you have had decades and still can't stop discriminating, it's time to end the programs. The bill Florida recently passed doesn't ban diversity programs. They never existed. It bans the "diversity program" shield that bigots were using for discrimination.
After looking at the rest of the bill, I am sure that the people who passed the new law did not have this as their reasoning for banning diversity programs, but at least this small part isn't what the media makes it out to be.
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