Analysis of the search for selecting a president and a dean for a small women's college in the midwest showed how affirmative action goals, coupled with standard career expectations, damage female candidates. Reasons for failure to select a woman for either post included: (1) the tendency to compare women with women and men with men in the early stages of the search, rather than matching all candidates against the job requirements; (2) male vitae establish patterns against which female vitae appear deviant; (3) late emergence of unannounced criteria, after review of candidates' vitae, deflects search committee attention from candidates' fulfillment of announced criteria; (4) since the emergent criteria are credentials, they devalue the credentials of female finalists; and (5) the presumption that "having performed a function" means "having performed it well" operates in favor of male candidates because male credentials have become the standard. Recommendations for affirmative action include: look for evidence of "doing" rather than "being"; avoid developing last-minute criteria for the post; write job descriptions in terms of competencies, rather than "positions held"; check candidates by personal contacts; write final recommendations in terms of initial criteria; and read the research the candidates have done. (KC)