A friend of mine is one of the principals behind "The Survey for People Who Make Websites" from A List Apart:
http://aneventapart.com/alasurvey2011/00.html Is that the sort of thing we'd like to do? If so, I can get some insights from him about how he develops, organizes, and runs the survey. Peter On Nov 27, 2012, at 11:23 AM, Karen Coyle <li...@kcoyle.net> wrote: > I would really like to see such a survey. I did one at my previous place > of work, the California Digital Library (nee Division of Library > Automation) where I worked for over 20 years. I had kept org charts and > phone lists, and was able to see that over that span of two decades the > tech staff (which was most everyone there since all we did was tech > development) was from 2/3 to 3/4 female. But when I said this in front > of a group of employees the men were startled. I'm guessing that they > saw themselves as techies, and the women as "helpers" -- even though the > DBA, the data designers, and many of the programmers were women. So it's > not that there aren't women in technology, it's that the women in > technology are often considered to be "not doing technology" because > they are women. [1] > > So we should survey. I believe that we will find that in library > technology departments there are many "invisible" women. Sadly, women > will be more present in that environment for the wrong reasons -- mainly > that it's lower paying and that men are more likely to get the higher > paying industry jobs. (The University of California overall staff ratio > is 65% female -- as perhaps many government agencies are.) > > kc > [1] Must read: Joanna Russ. How to suppress women's writing. > http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9392874 It's about writing but actually > pertains to all activities. > > > On 11/27/12 6:57 AM, Rosalyn Metz wrote: >> I think first we would need to do a survey of how many women are in the >> community. if it turns out that this community is only 17% women then >> we're on target. who knows, maybe we're actually 10% women and we're way >> above target. in which case the real question might be "how do we get more >> women in tech." >> >> >> On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Chad Nelson <chadbnel...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Ooops. Hit the wrong key. >>> >>> So, about our presenters... >>> >>> Is it a problem that only 4 of our 33 presenters are women? Or that only 16 >>> of 95 proposers were women? >>> >>> Is there something this community needs to do to encourage more women to >>> feel like they can and should speak / propose sessions? -- Peter Murray Assistant Director, Technology Services Development LYRASIS peter.mur...@lyrasis.org +1 678-235-2955 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 800.999.8558 Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org LYRASIS: Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers.