Editorials / Opinion

Seattle Times letters to the editor

Dissenters may be mediocre themselves

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, examines what’s preventing a world of gender equality in her book “Lean Back.”

In Sharon Pian Chan’s column commenting on “Lean In,” [“The Seattle leadership gender gap,” Opinion, March 21], she says, “Progress is when mediocre women get treated like mediocre men.” This is a legitimate point, cleverly expressed. But wouldn’t it be better to say, “Progress is when mediocre men get treated like mediocre women?”

True, mediocre men are too often promoted to positions above their skills. But the ideal solution is not to replace them with mediocre women; it is to replace them with qualified women and demote the men to positions commensurate with their abilities.

Incidentally, many of the hostile comments on Chan’s column illustrate the fallacy called argumentum ad hominem, assuming that by attacking her personally, they can discredit her reasoning. To further illustrate the fallacy, perhaps the comments were written by mediocre men who feel themselves threatened by her argument?

–Robert and Susan Stanton, Seattle