tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post7340280130441272549..comments2024-03-25T10:22:36.277-04:00Comments on Women In Astronomy: Why Gender Equity is Everyone's BusinessAmanpreet Kaurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08734178178113146899noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6374266320411149509.post-70474061928993058112015-11-03T15:05:05.970-05:002015-11-03T15:05:05.970-05:00Your point is a good one. My experience comes from...Your point is a good one. My experience comes from MIT, and I was incomplete. In 1994, 16 of the 17 senior women in the MIT School of Science joined together to write what became the famous 1999 report, http://web.mit.edu/fnl/women/Fnlwomen.htm. By 2011, significant progress was reported by the women, http://news.mit.edu//sites/mit.edu.newsoffice/files/documents/women-report-2011.pdf. Fewer women were engaged in gender equity efforts as strongly as before, and the women concluded "that the efforts of central administration, working collaboratively with women faculty, need to be continued for the foreseeable future." This reflected a healthy move towards the vision that gender equity is everyone's business.<br /><br />My estimate of fewer than 1/4 was an estimate of active affiliation in gender equity efforts at MIT, and you are right to question it. The estimate certainly undercounts the support of gender equity by women faculty, whether that support be tacit or expressed in other ways than committee work. I don't know how to quantify the total support, but private conversations suggest that a significant majority of women support gender equity. I chose to begin my blog entry with a question raised about lack of visible support.<br /><br />The fact remains, there are women and men who do not participate for the reasons I mentioned, and probably other reasons, too. There may be variation across departments, universities, and academic disciplines.Ed Bertschingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10067026365640664690noreply@blogger.com