I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing!

Last week I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. It was a fun experience, well, mostly, so I thought I'd write about what I saw and did there.

I attended a variety of sessions, and I think most of them were pretty good this year. I think that means I did a better job at choosing which ones to go to this year! Here are the titles of all the sessions I went to. I'll do posts about the ones I found most interesting / have Opinions about, and may or may not say much about the others.

• Opening Welcome and Keynote - Shafi Goldwasser
• New Managers - What's your challenge? (Birds of feather session) - Emily J. Leathers (Brigade)
• Communicating for Impact and Influence - Denise Brosseau
• Male Allies Plenary Panel - Penny Herscher (Moderator, FirstRain), Mike Schroepfer (Facebook), Alan Eustace (Google), Blake Irving (GoDaddy), Tayloe Stansbury (Intuit)
• Keynote (day 2) - Satya Nadella in Conversation with Maria Klawe
• Accountability and Metrics for Gender Diversity - Denise Menelly (Bank of America), Lazlo Bock (Google), Danielle Brown (Intel), Theresa Kushner (VMWare), Jeanne Hultquist (Anita Borg Institute)
• The Dynamics of Hyper-Effective Teams: How inclusive environments drive innovation - Lori Mackenzie, Caroline Simard (both from the Clayman Institute for Gender Research)
• Reverse Male Allies
• Keynote (day 3) - Dr Arati Prabhakar (DARPA)
• New Perspectives on Gender-Inclusive Game Design - Elisabeth Gee (Arizona State University), Gillian Smith (Northeastern University), Carolee Stewart-Gardiner (Kean University), Gail Carmichael (Carleton University), Kate Compton (University of California)
• Addressing Stereotype Threat in the Education System: Brainstorming Possible Approaches - Beccie Magnus, Danielle Del Rosario (both from ThoughtWorks, Inc)

Aside from the sessions, I had a blast meeting tons of different women from around the world and talking to them! Overall, I think the conference was a net positive for me (although next year I think I will decline to do so many interviews - I had to miss several sessions, including part of the opening keynote!). I hope the Anita Borg Institute listens carefully to the feedback and media attention this year's GHC elicited, and improves on the parts which were not so good.

The 61st Down Under Feminists' Carnival

Welcome to the June 5, 2013 edition of down under feminists' carnival! There are lots of yummy links ready for your perusal.

Class/poverty

You can’t afford to lose your temper when you’re poor at blue milk.

Kate Marsh writes about the high costs and (in)accessibility of abortion in Australia - particularly in Queensland - in A matter for women and their doctors? If only at The Drum.

Family/Women's Work

Cristy presents Feminism and the terrifying dependency of children at Larvatus Prodeo.

Elizabeth writes about Mothers’ Day mourning at Spilt Milk.

QoT writes about recent parliamentary events in Parenting and politics just don’t mix! at Ideologically Impure.

Sarah hates the "supermum" meme because you shouldn't need to be superhuman to be a mum in When bad things happen to Mother's Day at The Sarah Monologues.

The north island is finally getting a unit to help mothers who face post-natal depression or distress.! AlisonM writes about it at Mother and Baby Support: A Long Time Coming at The Hand Mirror.

Race

Eutraphalia writes about casual racism at The Shake in Where are you from? On casual racism.

The Koori Woman at thekooriwoman is not going to "get over" colonialism in “Get Over It” On Colonialism.

Utopiana at Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist writes an Open letter to Bess Price.

General Feminism/Social Justice

Orlando writes about something horrifying: women being prosecuted for retracting domestic violence allegations in NSW at Hoyden About Town.

blue milk talks about double standards in who gets labelled "brainless" for their hobbies in Radical jam making.

Over at Hoyden About Town, Tigtog writes about Ron Lindsay's #wiscfi twist on the conventional Opening Speech.

On speaking as a woman at Can Be Bitter.

Jem at Just Ok White Shark wonders Why don’t young more women embrace feminism?

Privilege and Imagination at No Place For Sheep.

Orlando at Hoyden About Town has Our best sign yet that we are doing something right.

Blue Milk has some opinions on various topics in Opinions I hold that almost no-one agrees with.

[cn: fat hatred, bullying] Sleepydumpling is defying the bullies and their derailing tactics in WHY I TAKE NO SHIT FROM ANYONE IN MY ONLINE SPACES at Fat Heffalump.

Politics

Cristy at Larvatus Prodeo asks Is the gagging of NSW CLCs a breach of the implied freedom of political communication?

stargazer writes about the hillcrest park guardians group, and the recent council hearing she attended.

stargazer is unimpressed by the Waikato District Health Board's proposal for reducing the waiting times at the hospital's emergency department in this is unhealthy.

Victoria Rollison writes An Open Letter to Bernie Brookes, Myer CEO, with regards to his predictable opinion on social welfare.

missaleksia at I Totally Have A Blog writes about Tony Abbott's "women of calibre" remark and paid maternity leave in Paid maternity leave? It’s not about the money.

Gay marriage is still an exclusionary term at Opinions @ bluebec.com.

Disability

anthea at The Hand Mirror questions the language used by the media around payments for family member carers of disabled people in Adult disabled children.

Sex/Relationships

Over at The Shake, Veronica Foale takes on the idea that Female viagra will lead to crazed binges of infidelity; societal splintering.

LudditeJourno at The Hand Mirror asks us not to shut the door on nuanced understandings of desire and love in When did you choose? Every day, thanks.

Chally is Tossing the script of desire at Zero at the Bone. Then she writes beautifully about her personal experience in Something rich and strange.

[cn: suicide, heterosexism] LudditeJourno at The Hand Mirror writes about the NZ government's new plan to address suicide, and its lack of mention of the GLBT community in Killing us softly, so softly.

Life

Cate at Accidentally in Code writes about being OK in The Aftermath.

Media

At Can Be Bitter, a discussion about the Portrayals of women in Amy Heckerling's "Clueless".

[cn: violence] Tansy talks about the difficulty of being a feminist fan of 'A Game of Thrones' and the books they are based on at tansyrr.com

[cn: violence, rape culture] Deborah analyses recent media about the coverage of a rape in Hamilton at A Bee of a Certain Age in Today in rape culture.

Scuba Nurse at The Hand Mirror is disappointed by the latest Star Trek movie in Equality: The final frontier?

Jo at A Life Unexamined is heartened by the writers of The Big Bang Theory taking a turn towards Taking Sheldon and Amy Seriously.

[spoilers!] Racebending on Star Trek Into Darkness by TigTog at Hoyden About Town.

Kim at the news with nipples ponders on reporting practices and The ethics of re-writing someone’s personal story.

Gaayathri at A Human Story deconstructs a post by The Lesbian Mafia found on Storify in The Lesbian Mafia Has a Big Transphobia Problem.

The Body

[cn: eating disorders, sizeism] Sleepydumpling writes about Fat Stigma, Healthism and Eating Disorders at Fat Heffalump

ALRANZ on the Gosnell case as a reminder of why restrictive abortion laws must be overturned.

[cn: fat hatred] A speech that Kath from Fat Heffalump gave at UQ Women’s Collective Diversity Week event “Embracing our Bodies”: Wait...

[cn: reproductive coercion] Chrys Stevenson writes about her feelings about whether she would have an abortion, working with Catholics for Choice and the World Congress of Families Sydney in A Smidgen of Sophists – World Congress of Families, Sydney 2013 at Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear.

Kate Galloway considers the assisted reproduction industry and the source of human ova in Human Embryo Research: Who Donates the Eggs? at Curl.

Chrys Stevenson says Let's talk about bums and the health thereof at Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear.

[cn: alcohol, suicide] Cha at Shallow Depths writes about Bientôt l'été - a virtual reality simulator - in Summer's gone.

[cn: bullying] Bri at My Scarlett Heart writes a touching poem about a yellow bikini: Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny

Jacqui Clark at Settle Petal wonders What Does Reproductive Freedom Look Like?

Violence

[cn: rape] Ana Australiana at terra firma is disappointed by Solidarity's response Holding On.

[cn: rape, rape culture] Jem at Just OK White Shark writes a letter: Dear supporters of my best friend’s rapist…

[cn: abuse] Jennifer writes: Dear Clementine Ford. How I feel when you talk about me. at No Place for Sheep.

History

A look at the January 1978 edition of Broadsheet Magazine, published just after the 1977 Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act was passed, from ALRANZ.

Jo at A Life Unexamined studies some historic women in Patriarchy Past and Present: The Case of Cicero’s Clodia.

Linky collections

Galactic suburbia and Friday Links is Dressed as Amelia Earhart at tansyrr.com 

Down Under Feminists' Carnival in progress!

I'm currently compiling links from May for the 61st edition of the Down Under Feminists' Carnival.


Watch this space!

Australia's Paid Parental Leave scheme is flawed

I was having a discussion with a group of people about Australia’s paid parental leave scheme, and we noticed that it is biased against families where the birth mother earns more than her partner. As someone who could potentially end up in this position in the future (depending on the timing of things and whatnot), I find this rather concerning.

The government webpage (http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/centrelink/paid-parental-leave-scheme/eligibility) says “If you are the birth mother of a newborn child or the initial primary carer of an adopted child, you must lodge the claim for Parental Leave Pay .... if you wish to return to work early, transfer some or all of your unused Parental Leave Pay …. The person to whom you transfer Parental Leave Pay must lodge a claim for the scheme and meet the eligibility criteria. This person cannot be eligible for the scheme if the birth mother or the initial primary carer of the adopted child is not eligible.”

This means that for the partner to participate in the scheme, both members of the couple need to pass the means test.  For example, suppose there are two couples, A and B.  Couple A's mother earns $80k annually and her partner earns $155k annually.  Couple B reverses the salaries so that the mother earns $155k and her partner earns $80k.  Couple A will be able to participate in the scheme, but couple B will not, despite the fact that the two couples have the same income.

I realise that it might be a rare thing these days for a couple to be in a situation where the mother earns more than her partner and the partner wants to be the initial primary caregiver of their child. But, just because it is a rare situation doesn't mean it is all right for the scheme to discriminate against those people. Since the scheme was, in part, implemented to encourage women to stay in the workforce, I find it surprising that it can penalise mothers who earn more than their partners.

In light of this, I recently lodged  a complaint with the Department of Human Services. The woman I spoke to said she saw the hole in the system, and that the way these things get fixed is for people to lodge more complaints.

Please help get this fixed! You can lodge a complaint of your own here:

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/information/feedback-complaints

(phone number is 1800 132 0468 - select the option for centrelink)

Crochet cute

I'm bored of posting on my blog only when something bad has happened.

So today, I present the crochet dog I made. Just because.

Things not to do when waiting in line

[Content note: violation of personal boundaries, also foul language]

Dear denizens of the internet,

In light of an incident which happened to me when waiting for a table in a restaurant tonight, I'd like to give everyone who needs it a not so gentle reminder of waiting in line etiquette.

If you are waiting in line for something, and there is a woman, who is reading something on her phone while waiting in the same line as you, do not go put your arm around her and ask her if you can watch porn with her on her phone.

Now I know this might seem like common sense, but if you're unsure of why you shouldn't do that, it's because you come off as a creepy fuckwad who is invading her personal space. You will be setting off a million red flags in her brain which are there to help her avoid entitled assholes who are dangerous to be around. Even if you don't think you're dangerous, that's still what will be happening, because she can't read your mind. She gets to decide what sort of behaviour seems dangerous to her, not you. Also, even if you are "just trying to be friendly" by doing such a thing, and you can't see that you're being incredibly intrusive and rude, you're an idiot. If you can, and you don't care, then by gods you're a bigger jerkface than anyone could have predicted.

If you can't think of other things to do while you're waiting in line, try checking your own phone. Or talking to the group of friends you're with. Or staring at the ceiling. Or attempting to start a polite conversation that isn't about a sexually charged subject with a stranger. Or anything else that doesn't involve inserting yourself into somebody else's personal space without their permission.

If you do somehow find yourself in the embarrassing situation of having already put your arm around a woman who is a stranger to you, and she says "don't touch me", one thing you absolutely do not do is direct your apology to another man who happens to be standing near her. Most especially you do not apologise for "stepping on his toes".

I would have thought that this seems like common sense, but if somebody says to you "don't touch me", you generally apologise to the person you touched. There isn't anyone else to apologise to, since you are have invaded that person's boundaries, and nobody else's. A woman is not the property of her male partner or father, so you are not breaching any of their boundaries by touching her without their permission. A woman who goes out in public without her (male) partner or her father is not "free game to whatever to with impunity because she's out without an owner", because she owns herself. I really shouldn't have to remind anybody of this, but pre-school 101 still applies: keep your hands to yourself.

If somehow you're managed to invade a woman's personal space, and then apologise to the wrong person, and she and the group of people she's with get angry at you, you should know that "I was just trying to be friendly" and "I was just joking around" are not justifications for your behaviour. There is no justification. You don't get to touch people if they don't want it. That goes for everyone. If somehow you've got this far into the situation, and you're still trying to defend yourself, all I can say is "dig up, fool!". You've just perpetuated a nasty bit of retrograde sexism and rape culture which claims that women do not own their own bodies. You should be ashamed of yourself.

A response

Receive article suggestion from university friend that I "might find interesting" (read infuriating), and much typing is done in procrastination.

Article: http://postmasculine.com/why-im-not-a-feminist 

(Yeah, I didn't think it was going to be good, but I wanted to respond)

---

So what I'm getting from that article is

"citation needed on your rape statistic [1]",

"I call bullshit on genetic differences in spatial reasoning and emotional intelligence, that's learned behaviour (so very difficult to measure a genetic effect), and citation needed",

"Good, you're a nice guy who doesn't rape people. Have a cookie.",

"I call bullshit on rape being universally condemned, for sure it is in name, but actions speak louder than words. [2]. Also you just described rape culture in your refutation of it existence. Whoops!",

"feminism has accomplished all it's goals? ROFL NO, explain the dearth of women in power in the upper levels of politics, business, etc, and excluding women who take time off to be a mother doesn't correct anything, why aren't men doing that too? Why is it that women on average still have a much smaller economic power than men?",

"wait, we have full reproductive rights? I guess the odious Right to Life [sic] group isn't actually trying to take away women's right to their own body or anything, also like, everything that's happening in American politics right now, and the 7-year court case the Right to Life [sic] group has been having with the NZ justice system to try and take away our rights to control our own body. Also New Zealand's abortion law is still in the crimes act. Yes, there's clearly not any need to advocate for reproductive rights anywhere in the west any more [3]",

"LOL you think the current justice system actually deals with rape well. Yes, for all other crimes it's debated that it wasn't a crime at all because of your past actions. Like, you gave away a present once, that means that you didn't get robbed, you just gave the robber a gift! LOL of course that doesn't happen", and

"I think you don't understand the point of the Slut Walk. It protests the idea that women "deserve" rape if they wear "provocative" clothing, which is something you claim to support",




TL;DR: The article seems not very well informed, even though I'll admit that it is better than most things that come out of the "manosphere". Comment #3 by Paul has some good points, and later Mark Neil also makes an informative comment.




[1] If you want some real statistics on rape, it's estimated at 18%, not 8%, using a very narrow definition of rape (this number only includes rapes by force or impairment using substances. Rape via coercion is listed separately at 13%). (This is from a US perspective, but the culture there is not so dissimilar from here). This is from 2010 results of the The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey from the US Center for Disease Control (pdf):http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Executive_Summary-a.pdf

Fact sheet about victims and perpetrators of rape and sexual assault from the University of Massachusetts (pdf):http://www2.binghamton.edu/counseling/documents/RAPE_FACT_SHEET1.pdf


[2] You know, I'd type it all out and add more references, but Melissa McEwan's done it for me.http://www.shakesville.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html

Also, even if rape weren't so common in western society, the way it's held over women to generate fear would be a problem in itself. See this thread for some examples of how the threat of rape curtails women's daily movements:http://www.shakesville.com/2008/10/feminism-101.html


[3] Read any news relating to the American Republican Party, and their promises to "overturn abortion" and "fight contraception" and their all-male panel on contraception.

http://www.shakesville.com/2012/02/year-2012.html

http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/14/rick-santorum-wants-to-fight-the-dangers-of-contraception/

http://www.shakesville.com/2012/03/number-of-day_28.html

http://floridaindependent.com/75483/rick-scott-rape-crisis-centers

Right to Life [sic] (RTL) v Abortion Supervisory Committee (ASC) court case:

http://alranz.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/abortion-access-back-in-the-dock-part-2/

Love letters

I've been very tempted to add the following to my profile at work recently:

If you're about to send me a love letter, or a note telling me you like me, or similar, stop.

It's very unlikely that it is appropriate to use your work email to do so, and if you don't have a personal address to send it to, then you probably don't know me well enough anyway.

Seriously, I'm flattered that y'all think I'm cool, but fuck off.

Case in point.

I won't really put that up, but seriously, I would have thought guys would have enough sense to realise that that's probably not a good idea.