I apparently wasn’t clear enough that I absolutely agree and support things like icebreakers etc. But we shouldn’t either expect them to or judge their effectiveness based on how much it increases female representation. Absolutely do it and do it for everyone who will benefit but just don’t be surprised if even if we do that everywhere it doesn’t do much to affect gender balance in EA.
I think if we just do it because it makes ppl more comfortable without the gender overlay not only will it be more effective and more widely adopted but avoid the very real risk of creep (we are doing this to draw in more women but we haven’t seen a change so we need to adopt more extreme approaches). Let’s leave gender out of it when we can and in this case we absolutely can because being welcoming helps lots of ppl regardless of gender.
I apparently wasn’t clear enough that I absolutely agree and support things like icebreakers etc. But we shouldn’t either expect them to or judge their effectiveness based on how much it increases female representation. Absolutely do it and do it for everyone who will benefit but just don’t be surprised if even if we do that everywhere it doesn’t do much to affect gender balance in EA.
I think if we just do it because it makes ppl more comfortable without the gender overlay not only will it be more effective and more widely adopted but avoid the very real risk of creep (we are doing this to draw in more women but we haven’t seen a change so we need to adopt more extreme approaches). Let’s leave gender out of it when we can and in this case we absolutely can because being welcoming helps lots of ppl regardless of gender.