Jonathan, Thanks for the answer. The points you raised make sense for a "support group" (IMO) but not for a technical community (especially mailing list where even your geographical location is immaterial.)
*I *couldn't find answer to this question (easily) on http://www.pyladies.com/ either. On a completely unrelated note , here is a (completely imaginary) story for you to ponder .. All the incidents/characters/alphabets in the story are fictitious, any resemblance to real incidents/people is a coincidence - P *asked a question* (albeit in less than politically correct manner) - S and A were offended - they beat up on P till P apologized, twice (first one "conditional" second "unconditional") Several people supported both P and S&A - C sent a private email to S with some (unsolicited, but well meaning) advice *and* asked the *same question again* - S beats up on C publicly about sending private email, but forgot to (chose not to ?) answer the question - J answered the question - S and A (probably) want a good publicity for their cause, yet .. - Neither S and A have *yet *answered the question. -Mandar On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Jonathan Toomim <jtoo...@jtoomim.org>wrote: > I can give a few answers for you: > > 1. The desires of minorities tend to be poorly served in rule-by-majority > groups like democracies and anarchic mobs. > > 2. Being a minority (e.g. woman; expatriate) can be an unpleasant and > alienating experience. Humans are social mammals who seek out the company > of similar individuals. We have developed the ability to compartmentalize > those needs to some extent, and can get by some of the time by associating > with people we are compatible on one or two specific or important traits, > like occupation/hobby, gender, religion, native language, etc., but this is > never as fulfilling as associating with people with whom we are compatible > on multiple traits. A guy joining (e.g.) BangPypers gets to hang out with > other guys like him; a gal joining BangPypers gets to hang out with guys > that might be like her if she weren't a she. > > 3(a). Guys sometimes make sexual or romantic advances towards women around > them. When the gender ratio is heavily unbalanced, this can be a huge > problem. If each guy spends 5% of his time talking to and trying to flirt > with the girls around him, and there are 20 guys for each girl in a group, > then each girl will spend an average of 100% of her time dealing with guys > trying to flirt with her (if you interpret multitasking as double-timing, > at least). Perhaps you can see how this might be a problem in some > circumstances. > > 3(b). In groups with highly unbalanced gender ratios, the majority gender > tends to not get much practice and tends to be pretty awkward in how they > make or take the advances. As a female Physics major friend of mine used to > say about romantic prospects with her predominantly male classmates, "The > odds are good, but the goods are odd." > > 4. If you want to rectify the gender ratio imbalance, creating an > atmosphere that is extra-friendly towards women can be desirable, since it > would help counter any cultural prejudices against women entering science > or technology fields, and would also help to counter some of the effects > described in 1-3. It wouldn't fully counter either of those effects, but > it's a start. > > > On 9/8/2013 10:58 AM, Mandar Vaze / मंदार वझे wrote: > >> before, and I would be interested in your response: >>> "What purpose is served by creating a women's group, instead of >>> joining the existing group thus making it more diverse?" >>> In other words, what purpose is served by intentional segregation? >>> >>> Was this ever answered ? >> >> -Mandar >> ______________________________**_________________ >> BangPypers mailing list >> BangPypers@python.org >> https://mail.python.org/**mailman/listinfo/bangpypers<https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers> >> >> > ______________________________**_________________ > BangPypers mailing list > BangPypers@python.org > https://mail.python.org/**mailman/listinfo/bangpypers<https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers> > _______________________________________________ BangPypers mailing list BangPypers@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/bangpypers