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Re: sex ratios
Ruby Rohrlich (rohrlich@GWIS2.CIRC.GWU.EDU)
Thu, 14 Mar 1996 14:34:08 -0500
Then, Danny, whydon't you suggest some women anthropologists as antowners
and governors. There must be three whom you trust and respect. Ruby Rohrlich
On Fri, 15 Mar 1996, Danny Yee wrote:
> Ruby Rohrlich writes:
> > Just to bring it down to the situation on this list,
> > do you think it is happenstance that the three antowners and five members
> > of the board of governors of Anthro-L are all male, even though women
> > constitute almost 40% of the list. I have mentioned this several times,
> > but none of the "governors" have even bothered to do anything about it;
>
> I'm not sure exactly what I'm expected to do about it. Being on the
> board of governors of anthro-l is, like most positions involving
> volunteer labour, nothing to get excited about. The "powers" involved
> are purely advisory, and while I would have no objection to holding
> elections it seems far more trouble than it's worth. I'm not sure how
> the board of governors was picked in the first place, but I suspect
> Hugh just asked people he knew who were active on the list and who he
> thought would be moderating influences. (And perhaps in my case
> because I maintain the list archive.)
>
> As for the list-owners being male, that's a pretty silly thing to
> complain about, as that's not something anyone can change. (You want
> to be a listowner? -- start your own list!) Hugh actually asked me if
> I wanted to be the listowner at one point, and my response was along
> the lines that it wasn't really possible to be a listowner without
> having good access to the underlying list infrastructure (ie the
> computer on which the list software actually runs).
>
> > If it doesn't really make any difference, what
> > would you all say if there were eight women running the show, with 40% of
> > the membership being men.
>
> You wouldn't catch me complaining.
>
> > Even if the governance here doesn't much
> > matter, the symbolism matters, and folks are accepting the situation
> > because they're used to having men run the show.
>
> I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd be more than happy to have a
> suitable women on the Board of Governors. I'm not sure Ruby herself
> would be a good candidate (she tends to polarise people a lot), but
> there are lots of other possible candidates...
>
> Danny Yee.
>
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