Feminism out of control?

[Montmorency]

To take the topic away from just the gender in language...

So if we were to look at the Backroom as a government branch or business how should we *fix* this lack of female participants? Is there a culture that isn't allowing their participation, should female gamers be given special encouragement for playing historical strategy games?

Is the 'Babe Thread' so sexist that it discourages females from participating in the off-topic forum parts?

Is it wrong to just accept that there are differences between the sexes and that their interests and abilities may not be equal? There are already exceptions to the rule of course. Access, wages, legal rights etc... should of course be equal for females but why is a preponderance of males in any group considered something that needs to be fixed.

A lack of female CEOs, Generals or any leadership position always is presented as a problem to be fixed instead of just a reflection of interests, abilities, personal ambition.

Can't think of a policy for our situation since we don't have a real inflow here to manage. This is more like a rural village with all the young people moved out, the old ones dead or out to pasture, and the middle-aged ones left to bicker in the dank pub.

It is possible for our culture to reduce female participation, but I'm not sure how to assess it retroactively in the Org context. Most of the women here, and most of the newer arrivals overall, I have interacted with over games of Mafia.


In many cases, a preponderance has less to do with differences in interests than with differences in external messaging and stereotypes combined with exclusionary internal practices.

In living memory the fields of social work, nursing, and clinical therapy have been dominated by women. We have no reason to believe that women are intrinsically more interested or suited for these professions; it's mostly gerrymandering. We can change it over time, open up the fields for men - as has been happening to various extents.* In technical fields, especially Computer Science, men are the ones who dominate, and retrenchment in the late 20th century has regressed the ratio today. To repeat, both external (upbringing, messaging, and conditioning) and internal (professional and academic culture) factors can and should be addressed to even out the proportions.

It is not that having equal proportions in all things is ideal in itself, but that very frequently unequal proportions have more to do with harmful ideas and practices than with "choices and preferences".

*Note that even in these fields men have remained over-represented in the upper ranks, administration, and management.


A lack of female CEOs is not a problem from the standpoint that we should not be encouraging more people to be CEOs (or financiers, for example) - but the generic issue of power imbalance and representation in leadership remains. Leadership selection in business and the workplace, at least as much as in politics and the military, relies on networking over merit. We don't have much reason to reflect on "interests, abilities, and personal ambitions" while chauvinism prevails.