CCL: ICQC shame

 Sent to CCL by: janl#,#speakeasy.net
 With the flood of messages on the topic of equal rights for women, I would
 suggest that participating in this discussion requires some preparation. Some
 voices in the discussion that advocate broader participation of women in the
 "computational chemistry" field, from my perspective, sound awfully
 "paternalistic" and may offend both men and women that decided
 to read these messages. I suggest that the idealistic participants should spend
 30+ minutes
 and see this video:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiJVJ5QRRUE
 While it may be controversial, it is, however, quite entertaining. Then I
 suggest to read stuff on the Internet. For starters:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_equality
 The issue is not as simple, as just discrimination of "mail chauvinist
 pigs" towards the women. It may be a part of it, but not necessarily a big
 part, especially in the countries where there are laws against discrimination. I
 used to organize conferences, and I can tell you that "quota" system
 does not work. If you have 100 abstract submissions and 95 of them come from men
 and 5 from women, should you only present 10 papers at the conference, and
 accept all 5 contributions from women without peer review? Would it be right?
 This would be offending to the 5 female participants in my humble opinion. The
 problem with under-representation of women in the physical sciences is well
 known. It is changing for the better (from my life perspective), but the reasons
 are probably more complex than simple discrimination and laws on the books.
 This is my only voice in this discussion, so please do not expect any answers
 from me, though I can answer privately.
 Jan Labanowski
 CCL Manager