From: Amara Graps (Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Thu Feb 15 2001 - 15:07:15 MST
Re: gender percentages of 'extropians'
I wrote:
>This stated percentage appears too low to me. (Just a guess, but
>I would put it at 20-30%.)
I should have stated my reasoning for the above, which is that I've
noticed more female participation in the discussions on this list
than, say, 8-10 years ago. My own participation with this group has
waxed and waned in that same time-frame, though, so my observation
could be severely biased.
In addition: the gender ratio that I've seen at the Extros. I didn't
go to the previous Extro, but I was at the other three (does Mark
Desilet's Santa Cruz extropaganza count too?), and I noticed roughly
1/3 women there. These women were not primarily partners/spouses of
the others, either.
"E. Shaun Russell" <e_shaun@extropy.org> wrote:
>I hate to break it to you all, but it is actually 12.6%.
>I wouldn't say that this is a reflection of anyone who considers his or
>herself "extropian," but a reflection of those willing (or able) to put
>their money where their minds are.
True.
E. Shaun graciously didn't tell that I was not one of those females
that he counted in the above Extropy membership numbers. :-(
(Thank you for being kind, Shaun)
Chris Rasch <crasch@openknowledge.org> wrote:
>However, are these statistics unique to Extropianism? Do other radical
>social movements (radical in the sense of advocating large changes from the
>status quo) show similar disproportions? I have no hard numbers but the
>greens seem to attract a much higher percentage of women.
I don't know about 'radical', but I can tell you some things about the
sciences in the US and in Germany.
In my U.S. physics courses (>10 years ago), ~1 in 10 were women.
In my U.S. astrophysics courses (>10 years ago), ~1 in 5 were women.
In my professional astronomy conferences now (European and US), the
gender percentage is about 20% women (Europe), 25-35% women (U.S.)
In Germany the gender ratio in physics and astronomy courses is
about 1 in 30-50 being women (that's what I am told since I've not
taken courses in Germany). In my Max Planck Institute, which is a
mix of different professional physics researches of 300-400 people,
the gender ratio is about 1 in 50-100 being women. Most of the women
physicists at my Institute are not German, they are foreigners (BTW,
I'm the only one at my Institute being American). It's very unusual
to find women German physicists/astronomers.
In the last 3 years, though, a large dropoff has occurred for people
of both genders going into PhD programs, so that most German
researchers are having trouble finding students. The sciences are
not an attractive career option for young people in Germany,
apparently.
Amara
--
*********************************************************************
Amara Graps | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik
Interplanetary Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1
+49-6221-516-543 | 69117 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de * http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps
*********************************************************************
"Never fight an inanimate object." - P. J. O'Rourke
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 08:05:51 MST