Women report not “getting up the nerve” to ask questions, so researchers propose that “question time be unlimited” at scientific talks. Because, you know, time is a construct. If you won’t hang around waiting for others to speak, you must be a misogynist.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0202743 …
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Then people accuse me of expecting all women to be as confident as me but I had real panic attacks before my first Battle of Ideas last year. Had to see Dr. You might remember how nervous I still was in February. Just did 3 panels at BOI & 4 live radio shows calmly & confidently.
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I'd be supportive of initiatives to help women be more outspoken if they were confidence building classes to prepare for competing equally. Was delighted my university just held a seminar on overcoming wage gap for women which was tips on negotiating salary and raises.
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Obv, this kind of thing should also be open to nervous or socially awkward men tho.
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Helen, I wrote your comment down from an event you did with Heather, Peter, and James in Portland last year. May not be word for word: "If we are assuming the choices men make as the ultimate best choices, we are making men the default humans, which is sexist and infantilizing...
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I was reminded of this point too - which I feel isn’t really being echoed in what you’re saying now, Helen. I don’t think unlimited question time sounds like a great solution but nor do I think the answer is that women just have to learn to act like men to compete.
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Realistically, we do, I'm afraid. We can't socially engineer situations in which more women struggle so they don't. When I say that women don't have to make the same choices as men to be worthwhile, I still think they have to bear the consequences of those choices - eg lower pay.
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Yes, and if I remember the discussion correctly, Helen, you followed up the "men-default human" premise with the idea: it follows therefore that if women aren't making the same choices men are, they're doing something wrong or have fallen prey to malicious patriarchy programming.
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That is the claim, yes. I'm not sure if you see the same inconsistency that Rebecca does or not? Do you think if we accept that men & women differ on average, this gives us a responsibility to alter things to make women do the same things as men?
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Still, given these data and me being a person who is slightly overconfident in asking questions after presentations, I will try to apply some kind of 'ladies first'-principle in the future.
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I'd object if you felt I needed such help to be heard. I get this a lot. Feminist men who've never had a popular article let alone a viral one tell me they need to be quiet so I can be heard.
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Ah yes — the self-emasculation of the “Woke”...
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I just find it presumptuous. Maybe women are less forthcoming on average but don't assume this and think we need your help to speak. I don't mean to be harsh. I *know* it is well-intentioned & I appreciate those intentions, but I would just ask men to treat us as full adults.
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Women tend to be less prone to being risky, impulsive, & showing off - and public speaking is often a bit like that. I know a number of successful female profs and Deans and they can be as a tough as nails. But perhaps even they tend to be a little less ‘loud’ in open forums.
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Questions can be intimidating. From experience, one option is to to allow people to text/tweet questions in real time & anonymously: they can then be offered/spoken to the speaker by a moderator.
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And that is perhaps a valid option for very sensitive topics or for conferences/events in which attendees are not people who have come to listen to, explore and challenge ideas. Let's not encourage timidity. If you have a question or comment, have the guts to ask or make it.
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Or if we are going to cater to people who are afraid of speaking rather than allowing them to decide whether to push themselves or remain unengaged, let's not make it "women" we protect from this. We're overlapping populations and many women are more outspoken than many men.
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@HPluckrose, could you make some videos on some of the topics you have been talking about recently? I would love to watch a lecture series on many of the subjects you have touched on. -
Thank you! I don't make videos but
@MikeNayna is producing some short ones and ultimately a documentary which will cover a lot of the things I talk about on here and I will continue writing articles!
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A group of us came to the second day of a two-day conference. I asked an incredibly intelligent question, and some pinhead from the British Council sneered, "We answered that question yesterday." "Since I'm not H. G. Wells," I said, "would you mind repeating yourself?"
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Just because someone is quiet doesn’t mean they don’t have insight. Just cause someone has a list of questions doesn’t mean they’re adding value to the discussion Coaxing ?s out of introverts has definite value. There’s no reason to be content with fielding ?s from the eager
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