Interesting Links for 17-12-2011

[andrewducker]

• How not to interview people for academic positions
  (tags: academia interview sexism epicfail )
• An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress
  (tags: politics technology internet law usa )
• Publishers acting as a cartel to control ebook prices.
  (tags: publishing ebooks business )
• In which the question is answered "Would Jedi Ninjas be

Comments

[fyrie]

Jedi versus ninja is what episodes 1-3 should have been like :D

[alitheapipkin]

You don't have to a rich white man to get ahead in academia; my boss is a hairy socialist who goes to international conferences in tatty jeans and rugby tops*, but it is totally an old boys network, and not participating in the drinking culture makes you an instant outsider. That interview is the most epic fail sexism in academia I've come across though.

*Having said which, we're environmental scientists not classicists.

[erratio]

I'd say it's completely dependent on the field. When I was in computer science there were basically no female faculty and it was common for me to be the only girl or the only white person at any given outing. Most of us got along by being 'one of the guys' and cultivating a high tolerance to dick jokes. I imagine a girl being interviewed for a compsci scholarship would have to prove a much more rigorous understanding of the material because of the perception that guys are just naturally better at it.

And then I went into linguistics via philosophy and psychology and found completely different ratios. Philosophy had that 'old boys' reek about it in a way that computer science didn't, despite similar gender ratios. Psych seemed to be tilted towards male, but more balanced than any other department I saw. And in linguistics it totally depends on subfield but as a whole the departments I've seen have the men outnumbered 3:1 or 4:1.

[alitheapipkin]

I bow to your more varied experience, I should probably have put the footnote referring to the old boys network remark as well.

[andrewducker]

Julie's experience of psychology undergrads is about 90% female. But the higher you get the further it swings - lecturers are around 50:50.

[luckylove]

Samantha Burton, the confined pregnant woman who later miscarried, won her appeal against the State. http://www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/florida-court-upholds-right-pregnant-woman-determine-medical-care

[andrewducker]

Excellent news. Thank you!

[skreidle]

Ha, I just noticed my tag. :D

[andrewducker]

:->

I decided to start doing that. Only had to do it once so far though!

(And I'll undoubtedly make mistakes)

[skreidle]

It's harder for me to keep track of the source for links that come from FB or G+, but with LJ I can just open that person's entry, pull the links from it and cite as I go. :)