Sorry all. The original question posed by Chad was whether or not we should be concerned about the number of women presenters at Code4Lib. I countered with a "Dunno? How many women are in the community?"
If the survey finds that the "number of women that proposed a talk" = "number of women in the community" then we might want another survey to focus on why women aren't in this community -- at which point we would be aiming the survey at a different group of people. If the survey finds that the "number of women that proposed a talk" < "number of women in the community" then we might want another survey to focus on why women aren't getting involved in this community -- at which point we would be aiming the survey just at this list. So the survey I propose first seeks to take a look at gender demographics. Once we know that, then we can do more. Make sense? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNlSv4SUYWo On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 12:03 PM, Karen Coyle <li...@kcoyle.net> wrote: > Rosalyn, > > That could be interesting, but the real issue would be to compare those > results with actual employment results. The members of c4l are > self-selected and won't be representative of the actual worker-bee > situation. (e.g. it will be heavily weighted for academic libraries, I bet). > > kc > > > On 11/27/12 8:46 AM, Rosalyn Metz wrote: > >> Ok since I brought up our demographics I'll run the survey (I like >> surveys). Simple survey with two questions: >> >> 1) Do you consider yourself part of the Code4Lib Community >> 2) What is your self-identified gender >> >> I'll send it out at the end of today if there are no objections to the >> questions and then share findings next week. >> >> Thoughts? >> Rosalyn >> >> >> >> On Tue, 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<http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/**9392874> >>> <http://www.worldcat.**org/oclc/9392874<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? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>> Karen Coyle >>> kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net >>> ph: 1-510-540-7596 >>> m: 1-510-435-8234 >>> skype: kcoylenet >>> >>> > -- > Karen Coyle > kco...@kcoyle.net http://kcoyle.net > ph: 1-510-540-7596 > m: 1-510-435-8234 > skype: kcoylenet >