So are any of the ladies in the group going to TODAY'S NYC Seven Sister's event that's designed to address these issues?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/SevenSisters/March2014SevenSisters Sent from my Droid 4 Elias Friedman A.S., CCEMT-P אליהו מתתיהו בן צבי elipo...@gmail.com "יְהִי אוֹר" On Mar 4, 2014 1:44 PM, "Jennifer Baek" <bae...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Dorothy, > > Thank you for your thoughtful and honest email. You raise very important > matters that the group should begin discussing openly. I have had similar > experiences with Wikimedia NYC and other tech/activist groups, and > sometimes felt a little discouraged or shy about speaking up, and a lot of > times, I rationalize and brush off what I experience as something I would > always experience in groups that are predominantly male. > > I'm happy to coordinate our efforts on conference planning to begin a > conversation about this. If you need any assistance in organizing a > diversity training for our group or would like to set aside time to have a > Wikimedia NYC Board meeting for this, please let me know. I will do > anything and everything to help start this conversation. > > Thanks again, > Jennifer > > > > > > > Jennifer Baek > bae...@gmail.com > (646)756-9783 > > > On Mon, Mar 3, 2014 at 2:56 PM, Dorothy Howard <dhow...@metro.org> wrote: > >> Dear All, >> >> As one of the few female members of Wikimedia NYC I want to express to >> you all my thoughts on the gender dynamics of the group to put things in >> perspective. I hope that this email can continue into a wider discussion >> about the gender politics of Wikipedia and how to address potential issues >> of sexism in our community. >> >> First off, I have been incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work >> with all of you and have learned a lot from my participation in this group >> and the gracious help of many of you. >> >> That said, I have felt that the attitudes of some community members has >> been quite antagonistic towards myself and that this had made me feel >> unwelcome. Part of my criticism is that I have felt judged at different >> points for not having the same technical strengths and/or community >> connections in the group. I think it is important for older members of >> Wikimedia NYC to remind themselves that not everyone has the same set of >> skills/references to draw from and in order to create a friendly and open >> environment for new members we have to be patient teachers to newcomers, >> not judgmental exclusivists or lecturers. I also bring this up because I >> have had several other women that have been in some way involved or have >> worked with Wikimedia NYC members at events express discomfort at the >> masculine and/or sexist undertones of some of the training styles of >> members of Wikimedia NYC this was even true at the ArtAndFeminism event- >> which I found very concerning. This greatly concerns me as the group >> already is mostly male members, and the perception of this kind of negative >> attitude could only prevent the diversification of our group and its >> addressal of the concerns with the gender gap more widely in the Wikipedia >> community. >> >> I think one of the problems is that attendees of events don't want to be >> told how things are and lectured to as much as they want to be given enough >> encouragement to go out and learn the policies/editing on their own. The >> difference might seem subtle but I think it is noticeable. I ask each >> member of this group to please consider if perhaps you may be implicated in >> my concerns here, because this email is not coming out of nowhere but out >> of the discomfort and conversation among other members of the group to >> which I will leave unnamed. >> >> I also want to stress that Wikimedia NYC should not be a place for >> unwanted, unprofessional romantic attention. This kind of attention makes >> it hard to feel like a real person when one's intellectual interests are >> being interrupted by an objectifying gaze. I ask that the group treat our >> events and meetings like a workplace in the sense that harassment of a >> sexual or romantic nature should not be tolerated. >> >> Thanks for listening. I hope this conversation evolves perhaps into a >> training on how to faster a friendly space environment in groups and/or a >> larger discussion of the potential gender gaps within the group. I really >> think it should be a conversation- I just felt I needed to express these >> frustrations upfront instead of continuing to leave them unaddressed. >> >> Thanks for reading, >> >> Dorothy >> >> -- >> Dorothy Howard, Open Data Fellow >> Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) >> 212.228.2320 x127 >> <http://metro.org/> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Wikimedia NYC Board" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to wikimedia-nyc-board+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to wikimedia-nyc-bo...@googlegroups.com >> . >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wikimedia-nyc-board. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-US-NYC-Discuss mailing list > Wikimedia-US-NYC-Discuss@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-us-nyc-discuss > >
_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-US-NYC-Discuss mailing list Wikimedia-US-NYC-Discuss@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-us-nyc-discuss
