New subject: [OT] about sexism

22 Oct 2007 · *(the count actually went to 46, but two were just tests) *

      Hello Pders,
I just wanted to pick up where Alex left off and provide some more

statistics regarding gender balance in the papers sessions. Here are

some raw and slightly warmed-over stats:
===
Number of submissions received for the papers sessions :
44*
Number of submissions received for the papers sessions from men:
41**
or
42**
Number of submissions received for the papers sessions from women:
3**
or
2**
Percentage of submissions from women as a percentage of the whole:
3 / 44 * 100 = 6.81%
or
2 / 44 * 100 = 4.54%
*(the count actually went to 46, but two were just tests)
**(this is based on the name of the listed principal author, and

there is one name I am not sure about, I show the numbers for both

possible cases.)
===
Number of submissions which were accepted:
26
Percentage of submissions which were accepted as a percentage of the

whole:
26 / 44 * 100 = 59.09%
Number of submissions from women which were accepted:
2
Percentage of submissions from women which were accepted:
2 / 3 * 100 = 66.6%
or
2 / 2 * 100 = 100%
Number of women who were accepted and who did attend and present at

PdCon:
1
===
One of the clearly agreed and accepted principles shared by all

members of the executive and steering committees for PdCon was that

we wanted to enable - as much as possible - the participation of

women, minorities and people from outside of the euro-centric

mainstream.
Given those precepts, we did our best with what we had to work from.
Were we successful? I'll leave that for others to judge.
It is clear, in any case, that for these sorts of gatherings in the

Pd community, there is still a long way to go.
As an old "gauchiste", I have always believed that the ultimate goal

for human society was for all people to be considered and treated as

equals - in all aspects of life.
I also always understood the notion of "Politically Correct'" - a

critical term which originated in the left, but has now been co-opted

by the right - to indicate the tendency, of some, to be more

interested in linguistic semantics than material reality.
I am interested in material reality.
I am interested in seeing redress, actual material change  - in our

society, in our world - for those who have been materially

disfavoured. I do what I can to help that process along.
At the same time, there are real differences between women and men.
There is no point trying to minimise those differences.
Women are equal, but different.
What a beautiful difference.
Andrew
On 21-Oct-07, at 8:25 PM, pd-list-request@iem.at wrote:
...
Message: 3
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:13:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Alexandre Castonguay" acastonguay@artengine.ca
Subject: Re: [PD] [OT] Re: about sexism is TERMINATE THREAD PLEASE
To: ydegoyon@free.fr
Cc: pd-list@iem.at
Message-ID: 61802.137.122.128.159.1192983231.squirrel@artengine.ca
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Hi all, Yves,
Here are some facts may help explain and paint a correct picture of

the
convention's gender distribution.
Number of applications received for the exhibition component :
9 (F)
26 (M)
Invitations sent :
6 (F)
12 (M)
Number of applications for performances (* I am unsure as to the

gender of
one applicant as we didn't ask people to specify it in their

application.)
3 (F)
32 (M)
Invitations sent :
2 (F)
18 (M)
As Andrew Brouse noted, the applications for papers did not carry the
author's names so it makes it hard to get a picture of the gender
breakdown. Out of 46 'papers invitations', 2 were extended to women

and I
believe that may unfortunately be the number of applicants?  Andrew

may be
able to answer to that.
I believe that the impression Yves got is justified.  It is just

that the
community is overwhelmingly male and 'white' (another thread!).  It

also
seems that the juries for the papers, exhibition and performances were
conscious of the fact as it is somewhat reflected in the final

breakdown
of invitations sent.
Some observations on other parts of this long thread that may yet

yield
something positive.

The component of the convention that had the highest

representation of
women applicants was the exhibition. It shows that this form of
contribution is often the way through which women enter the

community. It
should be maintained and expanded through other conventions.

I heard through the application process that some women were

intimidated
by the perceived technological sophistication of the pd scene and

thought
that their work may not be 'pure' enough to warrant an application. In
that light, dismissing people whose work process calls on external
expertise to be realized does not help with that perception of purity.

I am personally glad that our efforts of providing better

documentation
and access to the software got a renewed push through the work

groups and
discussions happening at the convention.

Building a more representative community will take time and many

more
pd-conventions, workshops, efforts through documentation and

packaging,
participating in long email threads and chats.  Let's keep in mind

that
most of us take part in these efforts because we believe we can

make the
community more inclusive, make good work and have fun while doing it.
A bientot,
Alexandre
On Friday 19 October 2007 08:24:26 ydegoyon@free.fr wrote:
...
ola,
...
Honestly I wasn't even sure this sevy was really Yves, and for that
matter I know nothing about Yves.  As I said- the original

statement was
completely untrue; and the original poster hasn't responded to

that fact.
 I honestly did not believe the subject was a problem on this list.
wrong! i sent this after reading 'wettest dream' in a mail from 2

weeks
ago, but anyway it was 2 years or more that this was going on,
and was also a general feeling from pd convention
( seems work groups were only constituted of men ),
too bad some people speaking here were not there.

Re: [PD] [OT] about sexism