Quote:
Originally posted by eastcoastref
However, one place where I believe there is a bias is with male/female officials. There is a perception on our board that female officials are given the opportunity to move long the ranks a bit faster. My perception is that if there is a male official and a female official with the same ability that the female official will generally get the better assignment. It seems that female officials have a better chance to "move up" than male officials.
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From what I see, with women, it's a double edged sword. Women are encouraged to work the women's game and if they choose to do so, they have a better chance of moving up quickly than the men. However, opportunities for women to work high level men's games, even BV games are much much fewer and far between.
In terms of race, it seems like it has a lot to do with the area. I don't doubt that in some places minorities probably have to do more to get noticed in order to get hired, whereas in other areas, the minority official might get the nod among two equally qualified officials because conferences want to augment their ranks with minority officials.
Ultimately, though, it comes down to how you can call a game. Other factors, such as race, may help or hurt you depending on the area. That's not necessarily fair, but officials who have, "the look" will also get the benefit of the doubt, as will well connected officials. That shouldn't be an indictment on anybody, but the fact is that like any other job, the employer will hire who he/she thinks is the best fit, for whatever reason, and that coordinator of officials has to live with the results of who he/she hires. Basically, if the coordinator routinely hires people who can't get the job done, that person will ultimately be out of a job.