Re: [boost] [IBD] Help request, A Woman's Point of View

From: Stjepan Rajko (stipe_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-07-06 12:54:51

On 7/6/07, Martin Bonner <Martin.Bonner_at_[hidden]> wrote:
> ----Original Message----
> From: boost-bounces_at_[hidden]
> [mailto:boost-bounces_at_[hidden]] On Behalf Of Matias Capeletto
> Sent: 06 July 2007 13:07 To: boost-users_at_[hidden];
> boost_at_[hidden] Subject: [boost] [IBD] Help request, A Woman's
> Point of View
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Joaquin's post make me realize that we are not a _truly
> > multidisciplinary_ team.
> > We are currently lacking a woman's point of view.
> >
> > Is there any female Booster willing to help us?
>
> Why?  I mean, what is there that is specifically different about a "woman's point of view"?  I can certainly see that an /international/ point of view is useful (a native speaker to get the grammer right, a non-native speaker to remove colloquialisms for example), but I really don't see the point when it comes to men/women.
>
>

I feel compelled to chime in here, being that I live in two worlds
that have opposing gender imbalances - the world of
programming/computer science (male dominated), and the world of dance
(female dominated).  And I have to say that I've definitely observed
that dance communities (dance companies, classes, etc.) tend to be
more lively (and perhaps even more committed and productive) if the
gender imbalance is not too great.  There's just something really nice
about diversity, whether its gender, nationality, ethnicity, etc, in a
productive environment.  Maybe we're more likely to want to impress
someone that is different than us, I don't know :-)

Anyway, I'd really like to applaud Matias for actively trying to
address the gender imbalance, since if it wasn't for the female
dancers that were encouraging of my participation in dance, I wouldn't
be a dancer now (and I suspect not nearly as happy a person).  I think
that until you start to fix the gender imbalance, you don't even
realize what kind of useful feedback, opinions, and participation you
might be missing out on.

Just my two cents.

Stjepan