At Fri, 30 Nov 2012 11:34:41 +0000,
MJ Ray wrote:
> 
> Esmé Cowles <[log in to unmask]>
> > Also, I've seen a number of reports over the last few years of women
> > who were harassed at predominately-male tech conferences.  Taken
> > together, they paint a picture of men (particularly drunken men)
> > creating an atmosphere that makes a lot of people feel excluded and
> > worry about being harassed or worse.  So I think a positive
> > statement of values, and the general raising of consciousness of
> > these issues, is a good thing.
> 
> I'm a member of software.coop, which helps write library software,
> including Koha - we co-hosted KohaCon12 this summer.  Like all co-ops,
> our core values include equality.  I would like to see an
> anti-harassment policy for code4lib.
> 
> However, I'm saddened that I seem to be the first to object to the
> hand-waving ("number of reports") and prejudice in the above
> paragraph.  The above problems seem more likely to arise from being
> drunk or being idiots than from being men. […]

Hi MJ,

Starting from this incorrect position will lead to the wrong
harassment guidelines being drawn up. Obviously the goal is equal
respect, but you don’t get there by pretending that the root problem
is drunkenness, or that men and women treat one another with
disrespect in equal amounts. It’s not hand-waving to say that sexual
harassment happens, and that (with negligible exceptions) it is is men
who are the perpetrators. To pretend otherwise will not produce an
effective anti-harassment policy.

best, Erik



Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>.