Women and TLUG - a personal rant

[David Mason]

Thanks for the reminder.

I don't attend that often, and unfortunately missed any meetings you -
or, to the best of my memory, *any* woman - attended.  As a professor
of computer science, I am appalled at the utter male domination of our
field, and appreciate being reminded of at least one of the factors
leading to the the dearth of women.  It behooves all of us to root out
misogyny wherever we see it!

../Dave

On 9 December 2013 12:19, Renata Rocha <natzilla-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I like TLUG a lot, and used to attend the meetings. But you haven't
> seen me at the meetings in a while, and probably won't see me anytime
> soon.
>
> Some men who attend TLUG and we know who they are have a
> predatory/harassing behaviour when in presence of women. If you attend
> TLUG, have seen this happen and have ignored this behaviour of your
> colleague, you are enabling violence against women to keep happening
> at the TLUG environment, and keeping women away from the group.
>
> I have myself promised not to come back to the meetings while I see
> this kind of harassment in public being ignored, and the people who do
> it not held accountable for their actions.
>
> What you can do: talk to these members and make them at least
> apologize for their actions and make women feel safe and comfortable
> again at the TLUG meetings. I'd love to learn and hang out with you,
> but your environment is not welcoming for me and for other women in IT
> I know. We're in this for the same reason as everyone else - learning
> and sharing.
>
> (Yes yes I realize there's more than man/woman in the world, but for
> this case specifically I wanted to keep the universe limited. )
>
> Renata Rocha
> http://renata.org
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