Dalhousie - A Lesson in How to "Cure" Misogynistic Behaviour

Last year, just before Christmas, many Canadians were shocked, disappointed and offended that a number of male dentistry students from Dalhousie University in Halifax were being investigated for posting or participating on a Facebook page that clearly was disrespectful and offensive to their female classmates. It is always tempting to assume that males who are misogynists are men who are poorly educated, sheltered and perhaps even disempowered themselves.  We want to believe that such attitudes can be eradicated with education and exposure to alternative ways of relating to women. The fact the bright, educated men, most, if not all, of whom came from privileged backgrounds would display such behaviour was disheartening. Amongst everything else, one could not help to be surprised that young people, raised within an internet culture, could be so arrogant and so naive as to not to realize that what they were posting was visible to the public.

By after Christmas there were numerous suggestions as to what the university's administration should do. I like many other thought the response in terms of how they were going to deal with the students was slow, not harsh enough and certainly not transparent. While some did suggested that it was just a silly (if poorly judged) bit of fun, for others the only discussion point was whether or not the young men should be castrated before being expelled. I am delighted to be able to say that all of us who were concerned about the apparent low-key response of the university and its assumed ineffectiveness - were wrong.

Last week it was reported that the restorative justice process implemented by Dalhousie had been completed. Of the 38 people in the fourth year dental program, 29 students (14 women and 15 men) participated in this process. In both the news coverage on television (CBC) and in the print media (Globe and Mail) it is clear that the approximately 150 hours each of the male students spent in this process has had a powerful effect not only on those men but on the attitude of the administration. The impact of the 70 page report that was released last week will, if people read it, have long term, positive consequences for that university and for other universities that recognize that there is a problem. When one reads some of the comments from both the men and the women who participated in this process, it feels as if there has been significant personal learning; that both the men and the women were part of something that could provide a model for the future as to how to provide a meaningful consequence when men act badly.

This approach is diametrically opposite to that of Hydro One who threatened to fire an employee who  made, in public, abusive and obscene comments to a female reporter (see blog from May 14/2015). The university could have expelled those dental students. Within the various codes of conducts and policies of the university, they would have been well within their right  to do so. Many people including some human rights advocates would have cheered them for making what was perceived to be the hard decision. Probably no one of power or influence would have condemned them.  Twelve men would have lost their careers, but nothing else would have happened. The belief that harsh punishment is a sound deterrent to that behaviour would have been perpetuated. Punishing twelve people would have, if anything, driven misogynistic behaviour underground - making it even harder to eradicate.

 Dalhousie showed courage and leadership by creating/adapting a process that was harsh (150 hours is a lot of hours and I expect that some of those hours - especially when they were being confronted by their female peers and others in the community were more than painful), educational and life changing. With any luck the process has helped to created not twelve men who are embittered by a process that lost them their careers, but twelve men who accept and embrace the fact that they are responsible for creating an environment in their profession and in their world where acting badly or disrespectfully towards women is never, ever okay.