MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Who is Scott Yenor? Boise State prof slammed for saying women should focus on having kids

Yenor expressed his nostalgia for the time when 'women used to have many children when the odds of dying in childbirth were actually very high'

A political-science professor at one of Idaho’s top universities, Scott Yenor, is facing backlash for saying that women must be kept out of engineering, medical school, and law so that they can focus on “feminine goals” such as “homemaking and having children”. After Yenor's comments went viral on social media, female students and female lawmakers said that they were extremely scared. He made these comments at a National Conservatism Conference on October 31.

“He has power. He has power to issue a grade. It’s disgusting. He needs to come into the current century, but it doesn’t sound like he will,” Boise State MBA student Emily Walton told the Statesman.

READ MORE

Female student, 17, sexually assaulted by teen males in 'woke' LA school restroom

Donald Mobelini: Principal let students drink, smoke in 2008, ignored rape allegation

Who is Scott Yenor?

The Boise State University professor has previously served on far-right Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s task force that investigated right-wing claims of “indoctrination” in schools. Yenor lives in Meridian, Idaho with his wife, Amy, and his five children. He has reportedly earned his Ph.D. from Loyola University, Chicago (2000) and his B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (1993).

Yenor is the author of articles on David Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment, presidential power, literature and politics, and other topics. In his latest controversial statements, the professor also said that a nation could only be “great” if men and women were kept separately in their respective spheres. “Young men must be respectable and responsible to inspire young women to be secure with feminine goals of homemaking and having children,” he told the crowd. “Every effort must be made not to recruit women into engineering, but rather to recruit and demand more of men who become engineers. Ditto for med school, and the law, and every trade."

Yenor expressed his nostalgia for the time when “women used to have many children when the odds of dying in childbirth were actually very high". The video of his speech soon went viral on social media. In fact, Yenor himself reshared it on Twitter, captioning it, "Our independent women are more medicated, meddlesome, and quarrelsome than women need to be. Without connections to eternity delivered through their family, such women gain their meaning through their seeming participation in the global project."

Yenor later released a video in response to the criticism that he received for his statements. "Feminists are outraged about a talk I recently gave, and I've become an object of their hatred on TikTok. Well, I'd like to respond."

"As Americans in 2021, the so-called independent and empowered woman has become one of our most sacred values," Yenor said in his response on Twitter. "But what is she independent of? In what way, is she truly empowered?" "After the feminist revolution in the 1960s she abandoned aspirations of a family and children mostly for the sake of a mid-level job," Yenor said. "Is this a good trade? Are we even allowed to ask if it's worked out for her? Sure, the weakening of a family has been good for some, but for others, it has brought addiction, suicide, misery, crime, pain, and purposelessness."

A number of students demanded that the university take action against the professor, but a spokesperson for Boise State has told the Statesman that Yenor will not face consequences. "Boise State University understands that the open exchange of ideas, which is fundamental to education, can introduce uncomfortable and even offensive ideas,” Mike Sharp said. "However, the university cannot infringe upon the First Amendment rights of any members of our community, regardless of whether we, as individual leaders, agree or disagree with the message. No single faculty member defines what Boise State—or any public university—endorses or stands for.”