Associated Press
For years, political scientist Scott Yenor has advocated for overhauling colleges and universities, which he has argued undermine traditional American families by encouraging women to pursue careers and put off childbirth.
Now Yenor may get a chance to implement his policy proposals after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to the Board of the University of West Florida, a public school in Pensacola with about 14,000 students.
The Republican Governor’s appointment of Yenor and four others to the UWF Board of Trustees this week comes two years after DeSantis stacked the Board of another public school, New College of Florida, in what critics called a hostile political takeover. Within weeks, New College’s new Board fired the sitting President and then replaced her with a former state lawmaker and ally of the Governor.
A professor at Boise State University, Yenor has written extensively on what he sees as the dangers of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education as well as the declines of traditional marriage and birth rates in the U.S. He’s also a former fellow at The Heritage Foundation, which proposed Project 2025 as a policy blueprint for a hard-right turn in American government and society.
Speaking at the National Conservatism Conference in 2021, Yenor detailed what he sees as the “evils” of feminism, labeled “independent women” as “medicated, meddlesome and quarrelsome” and decried colleges and universities as “the citadels of our gynecocracy” — a form of government run by women.
“If we want a great nation, we should be preparing young women to become mothers,” Yenor said, “not finding every reason for young women to delay motherhood until they are established in a career or sufficiently independent.”
Yenor argued that higher education “delays growing up,” saying that college and universities are “indoctrination camps” that society should de-emphasize in order to make progress on “family matters.”
“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 said.
“If every Nobel Prize winner is a man, that’s not a failure. It’s kind of a cause for celebration,” he added.
Yenor did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about his past statements, but said he supports DeSantis’ education agenda.
“An education system shapes the culture. Our current education system, with its divisive DEI policies and ideological monoculture, has produced an ever-worse culture,” Yenor told the AP in an email, saying Florida’s education system is better off because of DeSantis’ policies.
Chasidy Hobbs, an Earth and environmental science instructor and president of UWF’s faculty union, called the comments “disheartening” and “offensive.”
“My most important work of my life was being a mother,” she said, “while also working as a professional woman in a career that I find almost as important as motherhood — to help the future generation learn to think for themselves.” But she added that she looked forward to working with the new Board.
Julia Friedland, the Governor’s deputy press secretary, said the new Board members will “break the status quo” and “help refocus the university on the core mission of education.”
She did not respond to questions about Yenor’s previous statements on women in higher education.
In articles and speeches, Yenor has labeled DEI as a “grave and gathering danger to national unity and state governance,” called for eliminating certain disciplines like African Diaspora Studies and said even departments of History and English could be on the chopping block. He’s also advocated for sex-segregated education and called for banning state employees from collecting data on the basis of race or sex.
Yenor and the other new appointees to UWF’s 13-member Board must be confirmed by the Florida Senate.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
18 comments
Gerry James
January 9, 2025 at 7:21 pm
What do you know. Common sense
George
January 9, 2025 at 8:13 pm
Common sense = get ’em pregnant young? Keep ’em barefoot?
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Silly Wabbit
January 10, 2025 at 5:17 pm
Gewwy kwazy.
Ed
January 13, 2025 at 6:17 pm
Is this nonsense whst passes as common sense to threatened white males?
ScienceBLVR
January 9, 2025 at 7:25 pm
Is Scott trying to channel his inner Handmaid’s Take?
Shades of Phyllis Schlafly have taken over his cognitive functions.. yikes!
Skeptic
January 9, 2025 at 8:32 pm
When the incoming freshman class contains no women, where will the boys find dates? The Pensacola girls Matt Gaetz didn’t want?
PeterH
January 9, 2025 at 8:41 pm
Yet another deplorable loser.
Peachy
January 9, 2025 at 8:54 pm
You talking Karen Bass or Gavin Newsom obviously. 😜
Lawlib
January 10, 2025 at 1:07 pm
This “professor” fits right in with reactionary ldeologies & should never be allowed to leave Idaho. While we’re at it, that’s the perfect new home for our illustrious governor. He’d make a real splash as a lecturer at Boise State.
Victoria A Olson
January 10, 2025 at 2:42 pm
this guy who woman should stay home & have babies, can go F himself how absurd they are scared of their power if women get too smart which we are we will take over, this is basically what this comes down to. Stupid people are easier to control it’s all about power.
DeadHead
January 11, 2025 at 5:41 am
Got to keep everyone uneducated and ignorant, that’s the only way these republicans can stay in power.
Cindy
January 11, 2025 at 9:52 am
The social problems with housewives and less pay ,No one speaks about the lack of money no one wants to compensate. Like.retirement funds ss we all cheat the genders out of..That includes people by gender and race.
We as a civilized ( so called) nation ..despise giving a helping hand to widowers that lack insurance policies.
We despise giving equal pay to the mothers that have to support a single family home structure.
Cindy
January 11, 2025 at 10:48 am
Women should pick loads of cash instead of propreation and satisfying a man gender thing
Madeleine M.
January 11, 2025 at 4:12 pm
If Professor Scott Yenor wants to remain anchored in the 19th century when it comes to his opinions about women’s rights to higher education and self-determination, that is his prerogative. However, in 2025!!, shouldn’t our fair state want the leaders of our public universities to have a less, shall we say, antediluvian mentality?
Take off your rose-colored glasses, Professor Yenor. Not all was better in the world when our mothers and grandmothers HAD to marry young, depend on their husbands financially, and have three or five children and be the “angels of the hearth” because that was what society mandated of the fair sex.
You can pathologize feminists and independent women all you want, but believe it or not, there were plenty of unfulfilled, quarrelsome and medicated women in the good ol’ days too.
MH/Duuuval
January 12, 2025 at 10:11 am
We know the country is in trouble when Mark Zuckerman starts prating about anti-masculinity.
Madeleine M.
January 12, 2025 at 10:27 am
Folks should take the time to read some of Professor Yenor’s many articles online.
In order to produce his tidy and practically Victorian ideas about the “male-female dance,” Prof. Yenor conveniently ignores the gargantuan fact that most women want to find a loveable, admirable man to marry. The huge wedding industry in our country is driven my millions of American women who DO want to get married and be wives and mothers. Yes, even college-educated women . Guess those nasty, all powerful feminists (your “gynecocracy”) weren’t able to poison all American women of childbearing age! And, holy smokes, those women with B.A.s are even having babies and are happy to settle down with “successful” men
despite all that woke indoctrination they received in their English and Sociology courses!
And along with arrogantly ignoring facts that contradict his theories, the professor doesn’t seem to realize that, even if a woman wants to stay at home with her young children, for the last many decades most families NEED two full-time incomes in order to make ends meet. Most families these days can’t afford to provide for even one or two children if the woman isn’t employed full-time.
And what if a husband dies, leaves, or is an abusive husband and father? What is a woman and mother to do? Should she and her children have to end up in penury?
We women know all this. Our sisters and mothers and aunts and grandmothers taught us vital and often painful life lessons about female strength, dignity, and vulnerability, which is why female education, self-determination, and, yes, investment in careers–and if it is in STEM or law, good for you, girl– is vitally important.
Let’s hope that young, smart Fl9ridian women aren’t discouraged from enrolling at UWF now that one of the University Trustees is so openly ambivalent, if not hostile, to their educational aspirations.
Cindy
January 12, 2025 at 3:24 pm
Seriously , don’t you not like it when women’s clothing is higher priced alongside the make-up they want you to wear..and the 5 jobs you have to take on to make ends meet..
Yes become a dependent women today
Plus if a women goes homeless less resource.