My best guess is that, although OB/LW do a decent job of respecting women, they draw most of their readers from crowds that keep women out. There is definitely sexism within the libertarian-atheist-hacker segment of the Internet. Women are also less likely to major in economics and computer science, and gender roles probably play some role in that.
I suspect most LWers come from compsci, economics, math, hacker, atheist, or libertarian circles. Where do we find more females who would be interested in technical rationality if exposed to it, if not in those circles? Any suggestions?
I don’t know if it was intentional, but Eliezer’s decision to write a rationality fanfic as a brilliant gambit. Fanfic.net’s readers are overwhelming smart, young and female.
LW and OB have a lot to say about psychology and sociology, two fields where women are more interested then men. Perhaps we could reach out to those segments?
The meetups could also recruit women directly. Men don’t have to bring their girlfriends, a platonic female friend works too. Or you can hold the meetups in places where women are more likely to be present (think bookshops, not bars).
If you want more women at the Singularity Summit, we could make a survey for people did not attend. Ask why they didn’t come, and see if there’s a difference between men and women.
But the most important thing is to make sure the rationalist/trans-humanist community is a safe place for women. Keep an eye out for what Alicorn wants to reduce. Address concerns of sexism sensitively, instead of pulling a Dawkins. In general, LW’s treatment of women is better than other communities that pride themselves on being rational (e.g., atheist and Objectivist). Let’s keep it that way.
Skepchick and Rebecca Watson; they seem to have been effective in growing the female skeptic community. And the skeptic community has the same problem LW has only they’re much more resistant. LW is the more welcoming community. If it was my decision, I’d probably hire someone like Rebecca Watson for growing the female LW community, or at least try to pair up with skepchick and Watson in some way.
I believe Watson recruits by giving talks at universities, art communities, and events like Dragon*Con. She also comments on controversial women’s issues which then frenzies the blogosphere and sends a lot of traffic her way.
If your working definition of “sexism” is implying that women may in at least some ways be different from men in ways that reasonably imply inferiority, I disagree with your definition.
The antecedent of your conditional is not the case. I do not have a definition of ‘sexism’ and am fairly confident that such a thing does not exist. That is, I am skeptical that there is a list of necessary or sufficient conditions that will match the folk-term ‘sexism.’
However, the particular joke I linked to is the sort of joke that is often labeled ‘sexist’ by the sorts of people who care about such matters. That is good enough for me. More importantly, the joke is based off of (what seem to me to be) unjustified premises.
My best guess is that, although OB/LW do a decent job of respecting women, they draw most of their readers from crowds that keep women out. There is definitely sexism within the libertarian-atheist-hacker segment of the Internet. Women are also less likely to major in economics and computer science, and gender roles probably play some role in that.
I suspect most LWers come from compsci, economics, math, hacker, atheist, or libertarian circles. Where do we find more females who would be interested in technical rationality if exposed to it, if not in those circles? Any suggestions?
I don’t know if it was intentional, but Eliezer’s decision to write a rationality fanfic as a brilliant gambit. Fanfic.net’s readers are overwhelming smart, young and female.
LW and OB have a lot to say about psychology and sociology, two fields where women are more interested then men. Perhaps we could reach out to those segments?
The meetups could also recruit women directly. Men don’t have to bring their girlfriends, a platonic female friend works too. Or you can hold the meetups in places where women are more likely to be present (think bookshops, not bars).
If you want more women at the Singularity Summit, we could make a survey for people did not attend. Ask why they didn’t come, and see if there’s a difference between men and women.
But the most important thing is to make sure the rationalist/trans-humanist community is a safe place for women. Keep an eye out for what Alicorn wants to reduce. Address concerns of sexism sensitively, instead of pulling a Dawkins. In general, LW’s treatment of women is better than other communities that pride themselves on being rational (e.g., atheist and Objectivist). Let’s keep it that way.
The way I read your last paragraph is: “we should make lesswrong less rational, at least about gender issues, in order to better attract women”.
From my anecdotal experience, there are a lot of women in biology (or at least an equal ratio). Neuroscientists may be especially interested in LW.
Skepchick and Rebecca Watson; they seem to have been effective in growing the female skeptic community. And the skeptic community has the same problem LW has only they’re much more resistant. LW is the more welcoming community. If it was my decision, I’d probably hire someone like Rebecca Watson for growing the female LW community, or at least try to pair up with skepchick and Watson in some way.
I believe Watson recruits by giving talks at universities, art communities, and events like Dragon*Con. She also comments on controversial women’s issues which then frenzies the blogosphere and sends a lot of traffic her way.
Would you please refrain from throwing around those kinds of accusations without evidence.
I have noticed that reddit’s r/atheism is rather fond of basic sexist jokes such as:
http://todayilearned.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/how-men-and-women-take-photos.jpg
What sort of evidence would you like?
If your working definition of “sexism” is implying that women may in at least some ways be different from men in ways that reasonably imply inferiority, I disagree with your definition.
The antecedent of your conditional is not the case. I do not have a definition of ‘sexism’ and am fairly confident that such a thing does not exist. That is, I am skeptical that there is a list of necessary or sufficient conditions that will match the folk-term ‘sexism.’
However, the particular joke I linked to is the sort of joke that is often labeled ‘sexist’ by the sorts of people who care about such matters. That is good enough for me. More importantly, the joke is based off of (what seem to me to be) unjustified premises.
I think that reddit as a whole (ignoring some pockets) is fond of sexist jokes.
That is almost certainly the case.