"Ladies, Join An Oil Rig-A-Thon To Increase The Presence Of Women Working On Oil Rigs!"
You never see tweets like that.
But here's a tweet I just saw:
Yes, there are far fewer female editors than male on Wikipedia.
Why? Oops, can't call it "discrimination!" -- since it's a voluntary job.
What I want to know is why people so often feel compelled to push women into jobs they show no interest in taking -- as if pushing them into these jobs is a good thing.
Twenny years ago I emailed some professional alliance for lady firefighters and asked how many volunteer FF's were female. The respondent wasn't defensive, but she said 'nobody knows'... And guessed something under 5%.
See this from Christina Hoff Sommers last month. An important theory is that sex differences are greatest, not slightest, when men and women can choose how they want to live. It's the cultures where everyone's just scraping by (or controlled by other forces) where you see fewer differences.
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 28, 2015 12:54 AM
And Bob in Texas: See February 27, 2015 1:03 PM, as well as Sommers. (Sommers got famous at this even before Paglia did.)
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 28, 2015 12:59 AM
Thanks -- big fan of CHS.
Amy Alkon at February 28, 2015 5:13 AM
And don't forget the 2nd Annual Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon, March 7-8, 2015, online + worldwide - another organized effort to get more women involved in Wikipedia.
Is anyone tracking the effect of these efforts? Of course there must be local effects - bumps in women's participation during and shortly after the edit-a-thons. But are there long-lasting effects?
The Wikipedia Foundation reported that 10 percent of its editors were women in April 2011, and the Atlantic article that Amy links above was posted in October 2013. Today we still are told that only 10 percent of Wikipedia editors are women.
Will we see a payoff in terms of a higher percentage, or is this going to be a perpetual complaint of Team Woman?
DrPinWV at February 28, 2015 5:15 AM
And from a post I never remembered to put up about pushing women into professions they don't want to be in (like programming -- computer, not TV):
Amy Alkon at February 28, 2015 5:15 AM
More -- from a previous one of my posts:
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/12/04/gender_bias_in.html
Amy Alkon at February 28, 2015 5:16 AM
Thanks Crid. My bias showing and would have been my loss. I will enjoying a slower read of that interview later.
Bob in Texas at February 28, 2015 5:53 AM
I've come to the conclusion that capital-F Feminism, like any other capital-letter version of an ideology, not only encourages, but REQUIRES a complete dismissal of objective reality. . .
Keith Glass at February 28, 2015 6:39 AM
I was so hopeful about that oil rig-a-thon. While I wouldn't recommend onshore work the offshore should be safe and pays even more.
Ben at February 28, 2015 7:12 AM
Also, why is the weasel-woman in the photograph smirking?
Is it because she's figured out how to type large articles into Wikipedia without trimming her fingernails?
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 28, 2015 7:29 AM
Serious-balls, check out the proportions of that enormous claw poised under her head... It almost looks like it was P-shopped in to frighten children.
Is "women writers," strictly speaking, grammatically correct?
So they're saying a wicked-fertile twenty-year-old with good skin and high cheekbones pins back her hair and slips into tightly-tailored businesswear in order to edit Wikipedia articles on a LAPTOP improbably situated in front of some essentially barren bookshelves?
Let's face it, that image wasn't composed to attract women... This how Jimmy Wales encourages lonely geek men to participate. He's selling the fantasy that the [few] women of Wikipedia look like that. 'We'll all see you at the Christmas party, guys!'
It's like the opening shot of a porn film. Narrative hook: Uptight Librarian. The catchphrase from the flying ribbon artwork on the box: "When she says 'citation needed,' she's not fucking around!"
The next one in the series will be the Pizza Delivery: "This spanky little minx is ALL about the extra toppings!"
Crid [CridComment at Gmail] at February 28, 2015 7:50 AM
"What I want to know is why people so often feel compelled to push women into jobs they show no interest in taking"
Because they must keep the Feminist narrative rolling along; please don't confuse the issue with reality.
Matt at February 28, 2015 7:52 AM
Crid, it should be "female" writers. I couldn't bear to make the same error, which is why the title of the post isn't a very exact match.
And right on on the talons. Any sort of fingernail length while I'm typing (and I type FAST) is annoying as fuck. Clickety...nailclippers!
Amy Alkon at February 28, 2015 8:13 AM
(You wouldn't say "men writers.")
Amy Alkon at February 28, 2015 8:14 AM
I didn't see it till you mentioned it Crid, but you are right. There is a significant porn flavor to that pic.
Ben at February 28, 2015 8:51 AM
I can see the porn flavor...
It looks to me like she has stopped editing on the computer and is instead day dreaming about doing something she enjoys.
At work there is a big push for diversity, etc. Recently a post was made by a high up about stories of bias he had been told...neither of them really showed it though it could be. Or maybe there are more details that were left out. The one that really stuck out is a women was annoyed because some guy thought she was a secretary and asked her for supplies. In my office area there is about 300 people, about 100 of which are women - only 1 is a secretary. So sexism might have played a role - still there was something else that got them from the 100 to 1. My office space is pretty typical for my division - if anything it is one of the more unbalanced.
The Former Banker at February 28, 2015 11:33 PM
Wikipedia is a joke anyway. Its standards for articles are arbitrary and self-contradictory, and there are a handful of alpha editors who can lock down or get rid of content that they don't like. After I butted heads with them a few times, I gave up. (And no, I wasn't editing anything even remotely political.)
Cousin Dave at March 2, 2015 9:18 AM
Leave a comment