Even if women are 25% of STEM, women are way more in libraries.  At the
NASIG meeting this summer, they had the sheriff come in, check that the
hotel men's restroom was clear, and then temporarily convert it to a
women's room for the conference.  Men at the library conference, had to go
to the hotel lobby, not the conference part of the hotel.

So, if a library oriented and coding oriented group has the same percentage
of female participation as the STEM fields generally, then that's worse.
The fields generally are pulling from the population generally, so from a
50/50 male female population.  A coding group centered on libraries is
pulling from a female-slanted population.

Although... here I am throwing that out, without checking the male female
ratio in libraries generally.

-Wilhelmina Randtke


On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:35 AM, Laura B. Palumbo <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> As a soon to be librarian and a female engineer, I can tell you that your
> numbers generally reflect the status of women in the STEM areas as a
> whole. According to the Economics and Statistics Administration, women
> hold less than 25% of tech jobs (2009). I think that you are right on
> target in wondering how to attract more women into the techy end of
> libraries; in addition to promoting STEM areas to young women, I feel that
> a good place to start is to advocate for more integration of coding
> (beyond basic web design) into required library courses.
>
> Laura
>
> > Rosalyn,
> >
> > If we are only 17% women, when we are subset of the broader Library
> community, which is majority women, then we are doing something wrong.
> And
> > that deeper question, what do we need to do to encourage more women to
> participate in the community, to make the community as a whole appealing
> and safe, is the question I am really asking.
> >
> > Chad
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Rosalyn Metz <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> >> I think first we would need to do a survey of how many women are in the
> community.  if it turns out that this community is only 17% women then
> we're on target.  who knows, maybe we're actually 10% women and we're
> way
> >> above target.  in which case the real question might be "how do we get
> more
> >> women in tech."
> >> On Tue, Nov 27, 2012 at 9:11 AM, Chad Nelson <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >> > Ooops. Hit the wrong key.
> >> >
> >> > So, about our presenters...
> >> >
> >> > Is it a problem that only 4 of our 33 presenters are women? Or that
> >> only
> >> 16
> >> > of 95 proposers were women?
> >> >
> >> > Is there something this community needs to do to encourage more women
> >> to
> >> > feel like they can and should speak / propose sessions?
> >> >
> >
>