Open-access harassment: science, technology and women; Guardian, 10/24/13

Georgina Voss Alice Bell, Guardian; Open-access harassment: science, technology and women: "Not of all these responses have been received well as their comment streams often stand testament to. Offering up the tech sector as a bastion of good practice around gender discrimination when such issues are ongoing and unresolved is incongruous, particularly given that pink-collar work is still prevalent in the industry. Making the call on whether to identify personal instances of harassment – and in particular, naming harassers – remains an impossible dilemma. However, academia’s steep and closed ranks are lesser (although not absent) which means that more open conversations with larger groups of participants can take place. The people – mostly men – at the top of the tech world wield considerably more power than those below, but not to the gatekeeper extent of the senior academics who are both untouchable for the millions of pounds they bring in in grant money for their institutions, whilst acting as gatekeepers to the entire system. These might be small mercies, but mercies they remain. One thing both science and technology communities share is an assumed neutrality combined with the mythos that career progression is egalitarian and meritocratic. Both academia’s hierarchies and tech’s allusions to freedom mean these go unquestioned. Moreover, this renders structural issues around sexism, racism and other areas of prejudice invisible, further disempowering those who find themselves at the receiving end. Want to start solving gender problems in science and technology? Bugger Google Glass: build the spectacles which render visible the invisible inequalities of power, culture and mythologies of meritocracy. In the absence of such a techno-fix, we should call those myths and issues out for what they are. In doing so, we can address a swathe of other problems too and make the fields more inclusive, productive, safe and fun for everyone."