I sense that you don't see the fallacy in the OPs argument. It states that hiring women and minorities (not giving them preference) will lead to mediocrity. I support hiring based on merit but I suspect that many that are commenting here assume that this will maintain the status quo in terms of demographics. The fact is that university enrollment is up for women and "minorities" are outperforming on scoring for science and math. Merit is the way to go but those who may be displaced  need to maintain their own standards too