Sex and Gender Segregation in Competitive Sport: Internal and External Normative Perspectives

What are the justifications for mandatory sex segregation in competitive sport, and what are the arguments against it? This article takes up these questions. I argue that justifications of sex segregation in sport should be sensitive to two distinct perspectives that can come into play. The “internal” perspective emphasizes considerations rooted in an ethos of athletic competition. The “external” perspective brings into focus broader social norms such as anti-discrimination principles and equality goals. Both perspectives support the general idea of separate men’s and women’s competitions, at least in elite levels of sports that reward physical strength and power. The perspectives may diverge, however, on specific questions about who should be permitted to compete in each division, and more particularly, on the appropriate treatment of transgender athletes. What is important to see is that objections that arise from the external vantage point of equality and anti-discrimination cannot be fully answered by appeal to internal considerations about the competitive integrity of sport. Institutional decisions to exclude classes of individuals from participating in men’s or women’s competitions must consider not only what would be best for the sport, but what is required by antidiscrimination principles and genuine commitment to respect for gender identity and expression

Showcasing Diversity

Diversity initiatives are commonplace in today’s corporate America. Large and successful firms frequently tout their commitments to diversity, sometimes appointing women and racial minorities to highly visible posts, including seats on their boards of directors. Why would a profit-minded firm engage in such behavior? One frequently voiced explanation is that by creating such diversity, firms send out a positive signal about their attributes: a firm’s willingness to expend resources on diversity shows its commitment to workplace fairness and equality, which makes it more attractive to potential employees, customers and financiers. This claim has considerable surface appeal not only as an explanatory thesis, but as a rationale that conveniently bridges the normative gap between corporate self interest and the promotion of social justice. In this article, we raise some difficulties with the theory of diversity-as-signal in terms of both its explanatory adequacy and its normative implications

Showcasing Diversity

Diversity initiatives are commonplace in today’s corporate America. Large and successful firms frequently tout their commitments to diversity, sometimes appointing women and racial minorities to highly visible posts, including seats on their boards of directors. Why would a profit-minded firm engage in such behavior? One frequently voiced explanation is that by creating such diversity, firms send out a positive signal about their attributes: a firm’s willingness to expend resources on diversity shows its commitment to workplace fairness and equality, which makes it more attractive to potential employees, customers and financiers. This claim has considerable surface appeal not only as an explanatory thesis, but as a rationale that conveniently bridges the normative gap between corporate self interest and the promotion of social justice. In this article, we raise some difficulties with the theory of diversity-as-signal in terms of both its explanatory adequacy and its normative implications

P11 Resonances with Dubna-Mainz-Taipei Dynamical Model for pi-N Scattering and Pion Electromagnetic Production

We present the results on P11 resonances obtained with Dubna-Mainz-Taipei (DMT) dynamical model for pion-nucleon scattering and pion electromagnetic production. The extracted values agree well, in general, with PDG values. One pole is found corresponding to the Roper resonance and two more resonances are definitely needed in DMT model. We further find indication for a narrow P11 resonance at around 1700 MeV with a width of around 50 MeV in both pi-N and gamma-pi reactions.Comment: Contribution to the Proceedings of NSTAR 2011 - The 8th International Workshop on the Physics of Excited Nucleons, May 17-20, 2011, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Newport News, Virginia US

Initial Parton Distribution just after Heavy Ion Collisions

We study the initial distribution of a parton system which is formed just after relativistic heavy ion collision by the elastic scattering among the constituent partons in details and analyze the baryon and strangeness contents of the primary parton system. We present the rapidity and energy distributions of the system.Comment: 17 page