Esther Schindler dijo [Thu, May 10, 2018 at 04:16:33PM -0700]: > I’m thinking of writing a (hopefully both fun and useful) listicle > with advice from “women who have been there” for spotting companies > that really mean it when they say, “We want more geek women here.” > (...) > What should I include? And why would you consider that item a > heartening sign?
I don't know if there is (or should be) a real difference between wanting "more women here" and wanting "more geek women here". I mean - I know your work, and I know the peculiarities and distortions our work field poses on us. However, laboral oppression is not exclusive to the "geeky" side. In my university, a protocol for handling abuse against women in the workplace was enacted maybe two years ago. I am part of the "inner council" of a smallish research institute in the university. Of course, it's a completely different issue mandating something and have it properly implemented. There was a recent complaint about a male worker who hit (seemingly jokingly) a woman. We got many complaints stating this person's behavior is recurrent (although we cannot _legally_ act on many of the things we were told, as they happened years ago and weren't followed through). Our Director explained to us that the appropriate administrative steps were taken, but the university's legislation makes it clear that the penalization at this stage should be between one and eight days on unpaid leave. Anyway - What I wanted to point towards: I knew about many of the details because I'm part of this Council. I think this kind of procedures and the reasoning behind their resolutions must be clearly communicated; violence over women is something for which we must push the culture to change. Making aggressions and consequences known might sound harsh and invasive for the aggressor, but it _has_ to be known (and it has to be known to be addressed) if we ever expect it to really stop.