[EM] Gender imbalance in the voting reform community

[Jameson Quinn]

It's no secret that these mailing lists are overwhelmingly male; to the
point where even a single post by a woman is an unusual event. It's also
obvious that if we want to be effective activists for voting system reform,
we can't ignore half of the population.

So, what can we do about this problem? The first step is to face it without
defensiveness. Something this pervasive almost certainly has multiple
causes, and if we get hung up on arguments about "no really, I'm not a
sexist person" we'll never even identify, much less deal with, most of them.

Second is to look at and address each of the underlying causes. With
some advice
from Quora<http://www.quora.com/Sexism/Besides-sexism-what-are-the-reasons-that-a-particular-subcommunity-would-be-almost-all-male>,
here's my surely-incomplete list of the possible causes and what I think we
can do about them:


   - Harassment. I have no idea if this happens around here, but it should
   go without saying that it's not acceptable. If a woman shows up, there
   should be no inappropriate comments or even creepy hovering.
   - Sexism. Again, I don't think this is a big part of the problem but
   it's important to make it clear that we won't have it. Don't assume women
   are incapable of understanding the issues, don't assume they're not
   interested, and don't explain things as if they were stupid.
   - Looking like crackpots. In a lot of ways, women may be the canary in
   the coal mine for crackpottery, and if that's so, then this coal mine here
   is not healthy. There's a number of sub-aspects to this:
      - Jargon and acronyms: it's OK if you're deep in a thread, but when
      you use a term for the first time in a while, try to link to the
electorama
      wiki.
      - "This Explains Everything": yes, voting systems are a very big
      deal. But let's not pretend that, if we could implement a good
system, that
      we'd have a political utopia. Countries like Germany don't have perfect
      systems, but they have things that are much better than any major
      English-speaking country, and yet they still have serious problems and
      issues.
      - "No, you idiot": I'd bet kind of intellectual scorn we direct at
      each other on this list closely resembles chauvinist scorn. It may be all
      in good fun among many of us, because our pride and nerdiness
both give us
      thick skins, but I think that if we don't want to remind people of sexist
      cranks, we should try to tone it down. You can take a clear stand for the
      truth without having to insult people who, as you see it, are making a
      mistake.
      - "All you're saying is...": Trying to summarize what you understand
      from the other side is an important part of a productive
conversation. But
      there's a big difference between that and straw men. You should
try to make
      your summaries of the other side as strongly and sympathetically as
      possible. Build steel men, not scarecrows to knock down.
      - "And another thing...": Let's keep our posts to one topic at a
      time, and if a discussion thread is branching off into two separate
      directions, try to split it in two with appropriate new subject lines.
      - "nuh-uhh × infinity": When a debate goes back and forth enough
      times, and each side has made its points, let it drop; don't keep on in a
      pointless quest to have the last word.
   - Being welcoming. There are women in FairVote, women in Black Box
   Voting, not to mention the League of Women Voters and Common Cause. We
   should make an to participate in those related discussions and give people
   a good impression of our community.

I'm sure the above list is incomplete. I also am NOT trying to claim I am
perfect example in these regards. But I think it's worth thinking about,
and I'd love to hear what others have to say.

Jameson
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