Thanks a lot for this excellent piece, really appreciate it.
I’ve been wondering for some time whether differences in interests (if they exist) might contribute to the gender imbalance in EA, and if so, what lessons we might draw from that. Maybe focus groups (especially with women and men who stopped attending events) could contribute to answering this question.
Certainly one of the hypotheses I was exploring was that men and women might benefit in different ways. In this case, I didn’t find any evidence that women were less interested in the ideas of EA than men—the results were very similar.
What you’re saying matches my personal experience.
I was wondering whether there might be a discrepancy among those who stop attending – any thoughts on that?
ETA: This seems more plausible to me than a general tendency because women and men in EA have already self-selected based on being interested in these ideas. Though maybe something similar could be said of people who attended once but stopped.
I’d be really happy if someone interviewed some people who decided to stop attending EA events and asked about interests as part of their research. It seems worth investigating, although I’m sceptical about gender essentialism as a rule. The different interests hypothesis also doesn’t really explain why women are equally likely to attend lectures on EA topics, but less likely to attend EA London-hosted Disney princess movie marathons (or any EAL social events).
Thanks a lot for this excellent piece, really appreciate it.
I’ve been wondering for some time whether differences in interests (if they exist) might contribute to the gender imbalance in EA, and if so, what lessons we might draw from that. Maybe focus groups (especially with women and men who stopped attending events) could contribute to answering this question.
Certainly one of the hypotheses I was exploring was that men and women might benefit in different ways. In this case, I didn’t find any evidence that women were less interested in the ideas of EA than men—the results were very similar.
Thanks!
What you’re saying matches my personal experience.
I was wondering whether there might be a discrepancy among those who stop attending – any thoughts on that?
ETA: This seems more plausible to me than a general tendency because women and men in EA have already self-selected based on being interested in these ideas. Though maybe something similar could be said of people who attended once but stopped.
I’d be really happy if someone interviewed some people who decided to stop attending EA events and asked about interests as part of their research. It seems worth investigating, although I’m sceptical about gender essentialism as a rule. The different interests hypothesis also doesn’t really explain why women are equally likely to attend lectures on EA topics, but less likely to attend EA London-hosted Disney princess movie marathons (or any EAL social events).
Haha, interesting, thanks! :)