Gender and SF

[bcholmes]

This is an excellent post about gender representation in SF.

Money quote:

I am not suggesting that the participants are consciously sexist or intend to suppress or erase the existence of women writers. I am saying that this conversation follows a typical social pattern in which (a) men talk more than women in mixed company; (b) men promote male writers significantly more than they promote women writers; (c) the criteria which determine value or worth inherently favor men's contributions over women's, which are deemed trivial or inapplicable; (d) women's contributions to the critical or cultural canon are systematically devalued, forgotten, or erased.

One thought about people speaking at con panels: at a lot of commie events I go to, the moderator often deliberately alternates between male and female speakers when taking questions. Why isn't that more common in fandom?

Comments

[kalmn]

i'll do it this year at wiscon if you do it. whatcha gonna moderate? :)

[wrdnrd]

Kickass class panel, of course!

[trouble]

I try to do that when I'm teaching but there's a huge gender disparity in my class.

[lisaquestions]

This kind of thing is why I've minimized contact with the "greater geek community."

[bibliofile]

Um, it's too easy/obvious? D'oh! Simple solutions....