Op-Ed: When gender equality should trump religious accommodation

Another example of fuzzy thinking. If we do not allow accommodation for a male student requesting only working with male students, we should not allow accommodation for female students requesting only being with females. I agree equality does not necessarily mean identical treatment, but I fail to see why we would accommodate such a request.

What message does it say to other female students? What message to male students? What if the request was based on race or faith?:

Some have asked, well what if it was a female student who made the request because she didn’t want to attend a class with non-family men due to a religious belief? I think that accommodation request should be permitted. Equality in human rights does not mean identical treatment (formal equality). It means equal effects, or what is known as substantive equality. Equality also permits temporary special measures which, recognizing past and systemic inequities, can be applied to give women opportunities to meaningfully participate and offset, to the extent possible, factors which would otherwise exclude or limit women’s participation in any sphere — be it the family, the marriage, the workplace, in health care or in education.

Op-Ed: When gender equality should trump religious accommodation.