Hi, Gary,
>
> Speaking for myself, I love female hams !!
>
> We need more.
OK. This is off topic for the reflector so I won't get into a debate
here, but... have you ever considered why there are so few women in ham
radio?
Here is some food for thought:
Ham radio isn't marketed to women. Look at ham magazines. If
you ask most men what is so great about the hobby they'll talk about
building and fixing radios, morse code, contests to work as many people
in as short a period of time as possible without actually talking to
them, and so on. None of that appeals to me nor most women I know. If
these same guys took a few minutes to look around at the women they do
know in the hobby and ask them what is appealing about it *to them* they
would have no problem encouraging women.
Most women I know who are active hams are into public service work and
emergency communications, which is a form of helping the community.
Many like getting on the air and meeting people and making friends.
There seem to be a very decent percentage of women involved in working
QRP. That tends to tie back into emergency communication. Women seem
to be disproportionately involved in mentoring and educating. Now, the
majority of people who do these things are men. Somehow, though, they
never manage to communicate the wonderful sense of community, of
helping, of cooperation that can come out of a ham radio license to the
wider non-ham world. Hence the lack of female participation.
>
> ((by the way...you single ? will you marry me??))
>
> Just kidding of course. :)
I know you are kidding. OTOH, I have been hit on at almost every
hamfest I have ever gone to, and I am neither young nor beautiful.
I don't believe for a minute Max was trying to exclude women by using
the word "gents" or that there was any deliberate slight on his part.
There is simply an assumption that ham=male that is made by most
everyone. My point was to make everyone (not just Max) aware that it
gets perpetuated and it is neither right nor fair. I don't think Max is
sexist in the least. I think his choice of language was unfortunate.
It's not the one word "gents". I can point out four or five posts in
the last few days that were worse. Max had the bad luck to write the
post that broke the proverbial camel's back. Poor guy. I don't mean to
pick on you, really.
I work in a very male dominated profession and I happen to also have a
male dominated hobby. That's fine. I'm comfortable with that. Many
women wouldn't be. The effect of unintended sexism, though, is to make
many women feel uncomfortable. We are socialized as girls to defer and
not to make an issue. So... rather than be uncomfortable we stay away.
I hang out in enough women's technical groups (both online and IRL) to
know the impact of this sort of language. Most men don't see it as a
problem and don't realize the impact. Many men then decry the fact that
its so very hard to get women into the hobby. Well... if you (plural,
not you personally) don't even realize how you're making it
uncomfortable for some women then things won't change.
Being hit on by some guy I've never even talked to except maybe once or
twice on the air is way more uncomfortable than poor choice of language,
BTW :)
If you want to discuss this let's take it off list and leave the
discussion here to Ten Tec radios. I hope this post puts the on-list
discussion to bed.
My post did do one good thing: it sure made a lot of y'all think :)
73,
Caity
KU4QD
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