[Web4lib] Code4lib 2008 Minority Scholarship

[Jennifer Heise]

I've been keeping quiet in this thread, mostly with the excuse "Don't feed
the troll." But I agree with KG here.

It's absolutely true that in systems and technology librarianship there is a
much higher proportion of men than women. I can think of a lot of reasons
why that would be. I'm not in the mood to discuss them.  But it seems to me
that when you have a subset of the whole whose composition is grossly
different from that of the whole, you wonder why. And if you are in the
business of recruiting people to help solve problems, you ask what you can
do to recruit the majority.

That's true both in library directorships, and in technology. We know that
part of the reason there are still so many male library directors-- in the
'bad old days' men got hired and promoted faster in the profession than
women. And that leaves a long tail.

But in technology-- I'm not prepared to argue about why technology, in
libraries and elsewhere, is more heavily weighted toward the male half of
the population. I am prepared to say that if you want to make women not hang
around your club, complaining about how affirmative action is discrimination
against white males is probably a good way to do it.

And I'll leave you with a Terry Pratchett quote, which pretty much says it
all:

-----------------
'It's like that in the Watch, too,' said Angua. 'You can be any sex you like
provided you act male. There's no men and women in the Watch, just a bunch
of lads. You'll soon learn the language. Basically, it's how much beer you
supped last night, how strong the curry was afterwards, and where you were
sick. Just think egotesticle. You'll soon get the hang of it. And you'll
have to be prepared for sexually explicit jokes in the Watch House.'

Cheery blushed.

'Mind you, that seems to have ended now,' said Angua.

'Why? Did you complain?'

'No, after I joined in it all seemed to stop,' said Angua. 'And, you know,
they didn't laugh? Not even when I did the hand gestures too? I thought that
was unfair. Mind you, some of them were quite small gestures.'
-----------------

-- Jenne Heise
who if this goes on would be quite tempted to start telling women-only
jokes.