in: blairtrewin; blairtrewin > 2006-09-06;
| # Posted 2006-09-07 15:48:40 | |
| Disco: | Popped any lately? |
| # Posted 2006-09-07 15:51:52 | |
| blairtrewin: | News of our conference dinner (and the "entertainment" provided at it) obviously travels quickly :-). I managed to be otherwise engaged during the balloons-popping bit. |
| # Posted 2006-09-07 16:12:33 | |
| blairtrewin: | I wondered how you'd heard about this and then found out that it had hit the media - looks like I might have been witness to a capital-S Scandal.
For those who haven't noticed, you can read the gory details at: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/climate-confer... I found it embarrassing rather than offensive, but can certainly understand why some others were offended. By the end I reckon about half of us had drifted to the bar next door (some spent a bit too long in there for their own good, but that's another story). We started the night on our table by having a toast to Canberra public transport (neither the bus nor the taxis that were supposed to take people to the venue turned up), and finished it with a toast to women in science. Not sure what, if anything, to read into the fact that most of those under 40 were somewhere between unimpressed and outraged, and most of the older ones couldn't see what the fuss was about. Rumour has it that the entertainment was suggested by the organiser's wife :-) |
| # Posted 2006-09-07 17:54:11 | |
| Disco: | Yeah, bizarre planning.
Incidentally, I was also surprised by the balloon lady's dumpy appearance. Is government funding really that low? |
| # Posted 2006-09-08 04:11:41 | |
| Shep: | great stuff blair! just what i needed to start the day! |
| # Posted 2006-09-08 23:09:39 | |
| unpronunciation: | What really pissed me off was not so much the stripper (although it's in bad taste, and they could have at least had a male stirpper too if the organisers thought that was appropriate entertainment...) but the Prime Miniature saying that women walking out was an overreaction.
How many of the over-40s who couldn't see what the fuss was about were women? (Claire) |
| # Posted 2006-09-08 23:13:25 | |
| feet: | Hopefully the toast to Canberra public transport (because it doesn't work) isn't associated in any way with analogous thoughts about women in science, Blair... (OK, it's pretty clear from context that that's unlikely, but the juxtaposition reads oddly.) |
| # Posted 2006-09-08 23:30:19 | |
| unpronunciation: | Or there's the parallel reading that just like Action has good intentions but is undermined by slack service, bad planning, and the like, so too there are fairly regular attempts to increase the participation of women in science that are undermined by the same sort of thought process that leads people to order strippers at conference dinners. |
| # Posted 2006-09-09 14:21:41 | |
| blairtrewin: | I hadn't thought of that conjunction but it sounds pretty close to the mark.
(And both genders were represented amongst the unconcerned over-40s, although I suspect any of these people who are in management positions anywhere will be making sure on Monday morning that everyone knows that they were absolutely outraged). I have to stay I'm staggered by the amount of attention this story got (number 4 story on the CNN International website, believe it or not). |
| # Posted 2006-09-11 09:28:14 | |
| jmm: | I am sure the whole thing was in jest, like you say. The over/under 40 dichotomy I find interesting, though.
My hypothesis would be that those females over 40 are used to dealing with this sort of thing, having put up with it their whole career in this field, which would result in them just looking at is "more of the same", whereas those females under 40 have been brought up in an environment where this sort of thing isn't seen as appropriate, and that they shouldn't stand for it. Personally, I think the under 40's have it right. I have personally heard some pretty innapropriate comments from older male scientists, directed at female scientists, and I have always felt bad for not confronting them with it (career prospects be damned). |
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