tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/sex-discrimination-33416/articlesSex discrimination – The Conversation2023-11-06T05:39:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2142152023-11-06T05:39:38Z2023-11-06T05:39:38ZFieldwork can be challenging for female scientists. Here are 5 ways to make it better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555493/original/file-20231024-23-98o1fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5851%2C3818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Merla, Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women coastal scientists face multiple barriers to getting into the field for research. These include negative perceptions of their physical capabilities, not being included in trips, caring responsibilities at home and a lack of field facilities for women. Even if women clear these barriers, the experience can be challenging. </p>
<p>This is a problem because fieldwork is crucial for gathering data, inspiring emerging scientists, developing skills, expanding networks and participating in collaborative research. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">Our recent study</a> revisited an international survey of 314 coastal scientists that revealed broad <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">perceptions and experiences of gender inequality</a> in coastal sciences. We offer five ways to improve the fieldwork experience for women. </p>
<p>Our collective experience of more than 70 years as active coastal scientists suggests women face ongoing problems when they go to the field. Against a global backdrop of the #MeToo movement, the <a href="https://www.pictureascientist.com/">Picture a Scientist</a> documentary and media coverage about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00097-4">incidents of sexual harassment</a> in the field, conversations between fieldworkers and research managers about behaviour and policy change are needed. </p>
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<img alt="A collage of photos showing female fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Disrupting the narrative: Women fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering network</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-harassment-impacts-university-staff-our-research-shows-how-211996">Sexual harassment impacts university staff – our research shows how</a>
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<h2>Our research: what we did and what we found</h2>
<p>In 2016, we surveyed both male and female scientists about their experiences of gender equality in coastal sciences during an international symposium in Sydney and afterwards online.</p>
<p>From 314 responses, 113 respondents (36%) provided examples of gender inequality they had either directly experienced or observed while working in coastal sciences. About half of these were related to fieldwork.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">recent paper</a> in the journal Coastal Futures revisits the survey results to further unpack fieldwork issues that continue to surface among the younger generation of female coastal scientists whom we supervise in our jobs. Many of those younger women don’t know how to address these issues.</p>
<p>The paper includes direct quotes from 18 survey respondents describing their experiences. One woman, a mid-career university researcher, said:</p>
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<p>As I fill in this survey, the corridor of the building I work in is lined with empty offices. My colleagues are out on boats doing fieldwork. I have a passion for coastal science. That’s why I’m working in a university. But I have a disproportionately large share of administrative, pastoral and governance duties that keep me from engaging in my passion. I’m about to go to a committee meeting of women, doing women’s work (reviewing teaching offerings). Inequality is alive and well in my workplace! </p>
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<p>Collectively, the responses highlight barriers to fieldwork participation and challenges in the field, such as sexual harassment and abuse.</p>
<h2>A pressing issue, on and off campus</h2>
<p>Universities have recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/14/universities-criticised-for-failed-response-after-report-details-extent-of-sexual-violence-on-campuses">criticised for failing to respond</a> to sexual violence on campus. But women employed by universities working off campus – at field sites – can be even more vulnerable. </p>
<p>The social boundaries that characterise day-to-day working life in the office and the laboratory are reconfigured on boats or in field camps. Personal space is reduced. Fieldworkers can be required to sleep in close proximity to one another, potentially putting women in vulnerable situations.</p>
<p>As this female early-career university researcher wrote:</p>
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<p>Sometimes women are ‘advised’ to avoid fieldwork for security reasons. Or [we] are considered weak, or we are threatened by rape for being with a lot of men.</p>
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<p><a href="https://tos.org/oceanography/article/women-in-oceanography-continuing-challenges">Women working on boats</a> commonly face inadequate facilities at sea for toileting, menstruation and managing lactation. Some women said they were “not allowed to join research vessels” or “prevented from [joining] research in the field because of gender”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-from-the-field-our-voyage-investigating-australias-submarine-landslides-and-deep-marine-canyons-184839">Photos from the field: our voyage investigating Australia's submarine landslides and deep-marine canyons</a>
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<h2>Reminded of our personal experiences</h2>
<p>Just reading the survey responses was difficult for us. Tales of exclusion and discrimination were particularly confronting because they resonated with our own personal experiences. As one of us, Sarah Hamylton, recalls:</p>
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<p>I remember spending a hot day in my early 20s on a small boat taking measurements over a reef. I was the only female. When one of the four guys asked about needing the toilet, he was told to stand and relieve himself off the stern. I had to hold on, so I was desperate when we returned to the main ship in the afternoon. </p>
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<p>But that wasn’t the only challenge Hamylton encountered on that trip:</p>
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<p>We got back into port and the night before we departed to go home, I was woken by the drunken second officer banging on my cabin door asking for sex. The following year women were banned from attending this annual expedition because someone else had complained about sexual assault.</p>
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<h2>Gender stereotypes and discrimination</h2>
<p>Coastal fieldwork demands diverse physical skills such as boating, four-wheel driving, towing trailers, working with hand and power tools, moving heavy equipment, SCUBA diving and being comfortable swimming in the surf, in currents or underwater. </p>
<p>But our survey revealed roles on field trips – and therefore opportunities to learn and gain crucial field skills – are typically handed to men rather than women. Several respondents observed female students and staff being left out of field work for “not being strong enough” and “too weak to pick stuff up”. </p>
<p>Body exposure can also be an issue for women in the field. Close-fitting wetsuits and swimsuits can increase the likelihood of womens’ bodies being objectified by colleagues. Undertaking coastal fieldwork while menstruating can also be a concern.</p>
<p>Another of us, Ana Vila-Concejo, notes:</p>
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<p>Some scientific presentations show women in bikinis as a ‘beach modelling’ joke. Beyond self-consciousness, I have felt vulnerable wearing swimmers and exerting myself during fieldwork. Women students and volunteers have declined to participate in field experiments for this reason, particularly while menstruating. </p>
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<p>The issue of body exposure also sheds light on the interconnections between race, religion, class and sexuality, which can create overlapping and intersectional disadvantages for women. Vila-Concejo adds:</p>
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<p>I am old enough now that I don’t care anymore. I can afford a wetsuit, but many students and volunteers don’t have one. For some women, it isn’t socially or culturally acceptable to wear swimmers, or even to do fieldwork.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Gender inequality in coastal sciences: Overcoming fieldwork challenges.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Five suggestions for improvement</h2>
<p>To improve the fieldwork experience for women in coastal sciences, our research found the following behavioural and policy changes are needed: </p>
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<li><p><strong>publicise field role models and trailblazers</strong> to reshape public views of coastal scientists, increasing the visibility of female fieldworkers</p></li>
<li><p><strong>improve opportunities and capacity for women to undertake fieldwork</strong> to diversify field teams by identifying and addressing the intersecting disadvantages experienced by women</p></li>
<li><p><strong>establish field codes of conduct</strong> that outline acceptable standards of behaviour on field trips, what constitutes misconduct, sexual harassment and assault, how to make an anonymous complaint and disciplinary measures</p></li>
<li><p><strong>acknowledge the challenges women face in the field and provide support where possible</strong> in fieldwork briefings and address practical challenges for women in remote locations, including toileting and menstruation</p></li>
<li><p><strong>foster an enjoyable and supportive fieldwork culture</strong> that emphasises mutual respect, safety, inclusivity, and collegiality on every trip. </p></li>
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<p>These five simple steps will improve the experience of fieldwork for all concerned and ultimately benefit the advancement of science.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">Gender inequalities in science won't self-correct: it's time for action</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hamylton receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Vila Concejo receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other sources unrelated to the subject of this article. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Power receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW State Government State Emergency Management Program, the Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund, the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund, and ship time from Australia's Marine National Facility. She is a member of the NSW Coastal Council and is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shari L Gallop works for Pattle Delamore Partners (PDP). She has an honorary lectureship with the University of Waikato. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p>Growing awareness of sexual harassment and discrimination in the field prompted an international survey and research into potential solutions.Sarah Hamylton, Associate professor, University of WollongongAna Vila Concejo, Associate professor, University of SydneyHannah Power, Associate Professor in Coastal and Marine Science, University of NewcastleShari L Gallop, Service Leader - Coastal, University of WaikatoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140502023-10-08T17:14:29Z2023-10-08T17:14:29ZWhy do so few women take on scientific careers?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549417/original/file-20230608-25-g76o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4127%2C2373&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women are still in the minority in the laboratories.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/9dxalrR0xFI">National Cancer Institute/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There were around 8 billion human beings in 2022, 50% of them women. Although there are as many women as men, the former continue to be underrepresented in science.</p>
<p>The list of Nobel Prize laureates is a case in point: out of 965 winners, <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_des_femmes_dans_l%27attribution_du_prix_Nobel">only 64 (7%) are women</a>. Could the differences between men and women justify such a disparity?</p>
<h2>Natural differences?</h2>
<p>The first difference between the sexes can be observed at the level of chromosomes. Human beings are endowed with 23 pairs of chromosomes, the last pair differing according to sex: two X chromosomes for women, and one X and one Y chromosome for men. This difference accounts for the difference in genitalia, which are distinguishable from birth in over 99% of cases.</p>
<p>Gender, a social norm that defines how we should behave according to our sex, comes on top of these biological differences. Throughout history, gender expectations over how we ought to speak, sit, walk and dance have varied not only across time, but space: in 17th-century France, wealthy men wore shoes with heels, reflecting their high social status. Nowadays in Europe, with the notable exception of the Scots, few men wear skirts. In Asia, however, skirts are widely worn by men. Such variations show that when it comes to expressing gender identity, a person’s sex counts less than their social and cultural context.</p>
<p>Gender is also defined by stereotypes on skills, which as we shall see largely explain why women are so little present in science.</p>
<p>We know that, from the earliest age, boys’ and girls’ environments differ according to these stereotypes. And yet, by the time they enter first grade in France, <a href="https://www.education.gouv.fr/filles-et-garcons-sur-le-chemin-de-l-egalite-de-l-ecole-l-enseignement-superieur-edition-2021-322668">girls outperform boys</a> in French and are on a part with them in maths. Once in academia, however, only 22% of mathematicians are <a href="https://femmes-et-maths.fr/enseignement-superieur-et-recherche/statistiques/effectifs-a-luniversite/">women</a>.</p>
<p>What has happened in the meantime? Phenomena that affect not only the women on the receiving end, but also teachers, recruiters and parents – namely, stereotypes and gender bias.</p>
<h2>The power of stereotypes</h2>
<p>Stereotypes are character traits that are arbitrarily attributed to specific groups of people. Although they have no scientific basis, they nevertheless influence the way people behave.</p>
<p>Girls, for example, quickly take to the idea that they are not cut out for maths. Such gendered stereotypes are hardly new. During the Renaissance, a dark period for equality between men and women, women were excluded from the cultural, economic and political spheres. Then, during the Enlightenment in France, feminine names that existed for intellectual and artistic professions (author, painter, poet, doctor, etc.) <a href="https://editions-iconoclaste.fr/livres/les-grandes-oubliees/">were suppressed</a> by the Académie Française, legitimising the absence of women in these professions.</p>
<p>Research in the 21st century has continued to starkly expose such preconditioning. In 2009, researchers at the University of Aix-Marseille sought to test the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002210310900105X">mathematical skills of 12-year-old children</a> of both sexes, divided into two groups. In the first group, the children were told they were taking a geometry test. In the other, they were told they were taking a drawing test. The boys ended up outperforming the girls in the “geometry test” group, while girls not only beat them in the “drawing test”, but outscored the boys from the first group. Although the test was the same, the girls performed less well when told they were taking a geometry test. So, it is the mention of geometry that is an obstacle, not differences in ability, since in the “drawing test” instruction, they are better than the boys.</p>
<p>This is the stereotype effect: we observe a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-04591-001">drop in performance</a> in situations where individuals fear confirming a negative stereotype attributed to the group to which they belong. This is known as stereotype threat. While the stereotype itself has no biological basis (at the cerebral level, <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/prof-daphna-joel/gender-mosaic/9781913068011/">the brains of two men have just as many differences as those of a man and a woman</a>), it induces behaviour in those who are its target that conforms to it: women will be less self-confident, and feel less legitimate in disciplines from which stereotypes exclude them, such as maths, and science in general.</p>
<p>Stereotypes will also induce biases in those who teach, judge, evaluate and recruit. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211286109">One study</a> has shown that, for the same CV sent for a position of a laboratory manager in a university, a male candidate (boy’s first name) will be judged more competent than a female candidate (girl’s first name), and will be offered a higher salary. This is what we call gender bias: we treat people differently, not because of their skills or qualities, but because of their gender.</p>
<h2>The exclusion of women from scientific careers and its mechanisms</h2>
<p>Gender inequality, which is evident at the outset of scientific studies, is amplified throughout a career. Although their numbers are on the <a href="https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/content_migration/document/Note_DGRH_N_4_Avril_2021_La_situation_des_femmes_universitaires_dans_l_enseignement_superieur_en_2020_1405949.pdf">increase, women are still in the minority among teaching and research staff</a> in all disciplines (40% in 2021 in France), but more pronounced in the sciences (at the same date, 34% of female lecturers and 19% of female professors in science and technology). This erosion is described and analysed in the documentary <a href="https://www.pictureascientist.com/"><em>Picture a Scientist</em></a>.</p>
<p>Because women are endowed with the same abilities as men, could it be that they have less of an appetite for the sciences?</p>
<p>It is significant to note the wide variations from one country to another in the proportion of women in scientific courses. Paradoxically, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-legalite-entre-les-sexes-nefface-t-elle-pas-les-segregations-dans-les-filieres-scientifiques-152272">more egalitarian the country, the more women are excluded</a>. Indeed, women who manage to study in countries where they have to fight to gain access have already made a transgressive choice, so their disciplinary orientation is freer. We can see that these variations are explained by context and, as mentioned above, not by natural gender differences. In countries where women’s access to education is not in question, stereotypes play a role in the choice of disciplines. It also has an overall impact on test results, according to the mechanism known as stereotype threat described above.</p>
<p>As a result, the percentage of women in France’s top scientific schools is very low, particularly at ENS-PSL (École normale supérieure), as described in the study: <a href="https://presses.ens.psl.eu/464-cepremap-filles-sciences-une-equation-insoluble.html">“Girls + Sciences = an Unsolvable Equation?”</a>. We were particularly struck to find how commonplace gendered appreciation was in teachers’ school reports. Specific teacher training is therefore desirable to limit these biases.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is not limited to studies. The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0686-3">behaviour of promotion juries</a> at the Centre for National Scientific Research (CNRS) has been analysed by Isabelle Régner: it is not the implicit bias that is responsible for inequality in terms of women’s promotion, but its non-recognition by the jury.</p>
<h2>Why act and how?</h2>
<p>We need to work toward greater individual and social equity, which will in turn lead to greater efficiency. In academic research, but also in industry and education, <a href="https://online.uncp.edu/articles/mba/diversity-and-inclusion-good-for-business.aspx">several studies</a> have shown that mixed groups (gender, social origin…) perform better.</p>
<p>We need to capitalise on this observation on a global scale. Given the scientific challenges we face, we must not lose 50% of our brainpower.</p>
<p>We therefore need to inform and convince people of the deleterious effects of gender bias, which is more widespread than is generally believed. With <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Association Implicit Test</a>, the strength of this bias can be measured in the difficulty, via slowness, of associating the words <em>man</em> with <em>literature</em>, or <em>woman</em> with <em>science</em>.</p>
<p>A perverse effect should also be mentioned: while representation on university bodies is parity, which is desirable, there are also burn-out effects on women’s careers. Indeed, since the pool of female professors remains unequal, particularly in the higher positions (full professor, called “A rank” in France), women find themselves individually over-solicited for collective tasks that are not particularly rewarding in terms of their careers. The result is ultimately, and paradoxically, contrary to the objective of equity.</p>
<p>Instead, we should be looking at the foundations – that is to say, the conditions of access to university and research careers. Incentive measures could be envisaged to encourage laboratories to recruit young women by helping them at the start of their careers: welcome funding in addition to that already in place, award of a thesis grant within two years of taking up the position… Measures also justified by inequalities in terms of biological clocks. And above all, in order to objectify these issues of gender bias, we need to collect gendered data on careers and working conditions: Nancy Hopkins in the documentary <em>Picture a Scientist</em> shows that, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), laboratory space allocated to female professors was significantly smaller than that allocated to male professors. And, as Jane Willenbring says in the same documentary, it is important to make scientific universities a welcoming place for women.</p>
<p>In short, even if changes are moving in the right direction, they are still very slow. Should we carry on at the current pace, a <a href="https://cache.media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/Charte_egalite_femmes_hommes/90/6/Chiffres_parite_couv_vdef_239906.pdf">recent study</a> by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research estimates that gender equality within the field of higher education and research won’t happen before 2068, despite being enshrined in law. Action is thus urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>From primary school to academic positions, despite some progress, gender inequality continues to be rife.Clotilde Policar, Professeure, directrice des études sciences à l'ENS, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSLCharlotte Jacquemot, Chercheuse en sciences cognitives, directrice du département d'études cognitives à l'Ecole normale supérieure, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098182023-07-17T12:24:47Z2023-07-17T12:24:47ZDemocrats revive the Equal Rights Amendment from a long legal limbo – facing an unlikely uphill battle to get it enshrined into law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537520/original/file-20230714-23-855i72.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney speaks during a press conference in December 2022, calling to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1447783358/photo/rep-maloney-calls-on-the-senate-to-affirm-the-equal-rights-amendment.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=hGcNpi9mEXQibuonF4NTKVn8RnM_0m2G7RxTDeTNy50=">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Democrats in Congress are making a new push to get the long-dormant proposed Equal Rights Amendment enshrined into law. As legislation, it would guarantee sex equality in the Constitution and could serve as a potential legal antidote to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf">Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</a>, which removed the federal right to an abortion. </p>
<p>“In light of Dobbs, we’re seeing vast discrimination across the country,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/politics/democrats-equal-rights-amendment.html">said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand</a> of New York in an interview July 13, 2023. “Women are being treated as second-class citizens. This is more timely than ever.”</p>
<p>Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and other Democratic lawmakers are arguing that the Equal Rights Amendment, often referred to as the ERA, has already been ratified by the states and is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/politics/democrats-equal-rights-amendment.html">enforceable </a> as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. </p>
<p>Efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to recognize women’s rights have faced major challenges for the past century. Most recently, in April 2023 Senate Republicans <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2023/04/27/senate-gop-blocks-resolution-nixing-equal-rights-amendment-ratification-deadline/">blocked a similar resolution</a> that would let states ratify the amendment, despite an expired deadline. </p>
<p>I’m a scholar who <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/sociology/political-sociology/abortion-politics-mass-media-and-social-movements-america?format=HB&isbn=9781107069237">studies gender</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2329496515603726?casa_token=4HXIJlECyQQAAAAA%3AY9b0XOGxgif8EinuzkdxBcW53F80hF0khTztRdnu3Kx6DxC5I0_Nou7RiY8K3KsLxdIk6QgaxWyb">politics</a>. Here’s a quick summary of how the country got to this point and the barriers that still exist to adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo shows women marching and holding signs that say 'Pass the equal rights amendment NOW'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537525/original/file-20230714-15-iem14i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Members of the National Organization for Women demonstrate outside the White House in 1969 for the Equal Rights Amendment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/515572176/photo/n-o-w-members-picket-the-white-house.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=RjyB65MvzHJceIHpUB_K5B6PVhAuv81ysYkW70bUuWk=">Bettmann/Contributor</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Ladies against women’</h2>
<p>Women’s rights advocates argue that sex discrimination is a pervasive problem that could be resolved by the ERA. Even though the Equal Protection Clause in the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html">14th Amendment</a> prohibits states from denying any person equal protection under the law, women’s rights are not explicitly guaranteed.</p>
<p>In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which took away a woman’s right to an abortion, women’s rights advocates argue that the ERA is critical in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/politics/democrats-equal-rights-amendment.html">post-Dobbs</a> world. The amendment could help protect women’s access to reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception. </p>
<p>Proponents also believe that the ERA can be used to push back against legislation that <a href="https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2022/3/22/why-passing-era-critical-lgbtq-folks-equality-act">threatens the rights of LGBTQ+ people</a>. </p>
<p>The push for equal rights first heated up in the 1920s after women gained the right to vote. </p>
<p><a href="https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012280242">Alice Paul</a>, a suffragist, proposed the first version of an Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/women/era">language of the legislation</a>, which is very similar to the amendment Democrats are currently championing, guaranteed equal rights under the law, regardless of a person’s sex. </p>
<p>The proposal was adopted and turned into proposed legislation by two Kansas Republicans, Sen. Charles Curtis and Rep. Daniel Anthony Jr., and was brought up during every congressional session between 1923 and 1971 without success.</p>
<p>The idea of an Equal Rights Amendment, however, gained momentum among politicians and the broader public. <a href="https://bepl.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f0$002fSD_ILS:316728/ada">World War II</a> opened many doors for women, who filled gaps in the labor force while men were off fighting. During this time, women were welcomed into politics, onto juries, openly wooed by educational institutions and encouraged to take up male-dominated majors such as math, science and technology.</p>
<p>The fledgling feminist group, the <a href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100290360">National Organization for Women</a>, adopted the passage of the ERA in its 1967 Bill of Rights for Women and began staging massive demonstrations and lobbying politicians in the late 1960s and early 1970s in an effort to get Congress to pass the amendment. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42979.pdf">in 1972</a>, the ERA passed both houses of Congress. The amendment had seven years to be ratified by three-fourths, or 38, of the 50 states.</p>
<p>While 30 states ratified the ERA in 1972 and 1973, the amendment ultimately came up three states short of approval by the 1979 deadline. </p>
<p>This was in large part due to the <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo5977742.html">efforts of conservative</a> women’s organizations <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/sociology/political-sociology/abortion-politics-mass-media-and-social-movements-america?format=HB&isbn=9781107069237">opposed it</a>. Conservative women <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/32/4/348/1734706">said that the ERA</a> was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-the-era-pass-in-the-metoo-era-87901">threat</a> to family and child-rearing, because it would disrupt traditional gender roles. They also believed women would lose, among other things, their exemptions from the draft and combat duty.</p>
<p>At the same time, for a number of reasons, <a href="https://history.nebraska.gov/blog/nebraskas-again-again-relationship-equal-rights-amendment">Nebraska</a>, Tennessee, Idaho, South Dakota and Kentucky rescinded their ERA ratifications between 1972 and 1982. Some state legislators argued that the amendment was <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo5977742.html">too controversial</a> given its potential to upend traditional gender roles and legalize what they called “abortion on demand.”</p>
<p>States such as Illinois and Florida became battlegrounds for liberal and conservative women fighting over the amendment. Feminists successfully lobbied Congress to extend the ERA’s ratification deadline to June 30, 1982. The ERA, however, was not ratified by the three states needed to ensure its passage. In 1982, conservative women proclaimed the Equal Rights Amendment officially dead. </p>
<p>In 2023, conservative women’s groups like the Eagle Forum and Concerned Women for America continue to make the same arguments against the ERA. Instead of focusing on the battlefield, however, the groups argue that the ERA will <a href="https://eagleforum.org/topics/era.html">eliminate restrictions on abortion</a> and erase “<a href="https://concernedwomen.org/dont-erase-women-with-an-equal-rights-amendment/">women-only safe spaces</a>” like bathrooms and locker rooms.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blond woman yells into a megaphone and has a green sticker on her cheek that says 'ERA Now'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537523/original/file-20230714-16543-hkfcq9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters gather to call for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in Washington, D.C., in September 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1428419441/photo/house-democrats-hold-a-news-conference-to-speak-on-the-equal-rights-amendment.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=HGFwhCAjx1QQg-_0bwZEcuXghYQYVjWfgnj7Hppi9-g=">Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Another chance?</h2>
<p>Since 2017, three more states – <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/15/796754345/virginia-ratifies-the-equal-rights-amendment-decades-after-deadline">Nevada, Illinois and Virginia</a> – have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment, bringing the total to 38 states, which is the number required to ratify the ERA and officially make it the 28th Amendment. That is why Democrats believe they have legal standing. </p>
<p>Some constitutional experts see Democrats’ latest attempt to codify the ERA as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/us/politics/democrats-equal-rights-amendment.html">political stunt</a> rather than a legitimate legal move. To some extent, I think this may be true.</p>
<p>More than a dozen states have <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-level-equal-rights-amendments">ERA equivalents</a> that protect women’s equal rights in their constitutions. And four states, including <a href="https://www.wxxinews.org/capitol-bureau/2023-01-24/new-york-legislature-moves-on-equal-rights-amendment-that-includes-abortion-rights-protections">New York</a>, have active ERA initiatives.</p>
<p>The current push for Democrats to pass the ERA seems to be largely about advocating for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/11/abortion-choice-roe-dodds-confrontation/">abortion access</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4052425-supeme-court-abortion-democrats-political-gift-elections/">mobilizing abortion rights supporters</a> ahead of the 2024 presidential election. </p>
<p>About half of the states across the U.S. have enacted restrictive abortion laws over the last year, with some <a href="https://states.guttmacher.org/policies/texas/abortion-policies">states</a> banning the procedure altogether. State ERA efforts, like the one in New York, are <a href="https://www.wxxinews.org/capitol-bureau/2023-01-24/new-york-legislature-moves-on-equal-rights-amendment-that-includes-abortion-rights-protections">a response</a> to these bans. </p>
<p>The renewed push for the ERA makes the fight over abortion access, once again, a national battle. In the current polarized political environment, abortion access promises to serve as a political lightening rod in coming years. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-2019-womens-rights-are-still-not-explicitly-recognized-in-us-constitution-108150">article originally published on Dec. 13, 2018</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deana Rohlinger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women’s rights groups and politicians have pushed, ultimately unsuccessfully, for the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the Constitution for the past several decades.Deana Rohlinger, Professor of Sociology, Florida State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992282023-02-21T13:25:09Z2023-02-21T13:25:09ZFlorida will no longer ask high school athletes about their menstrual cycles, but many states still do – here are 3 reasons why that’s problematic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510662/original/file-20230216-20-2sy4zs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If female athletes have to answer menstruation-related questions in order to play team sports, that could be a form of sex-based discrimination. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/arvada-and-columbine-face-off-at-jeffco-stadium-in-lakewood-news-photo/1431460237">AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2022/10/05/florida-high-schools-are-asking-female-athletes-5-questions-about-their-menstrual-periods/">Concerns are being raised</a> across the U.S. about whether schools have a right to compel female athletes to provide information about their menstrual cycles.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://fhsaa.com/index.aspx">Florida High School Athletic Association</a> Board of Directors <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/education/2023/02/07/florida-legislators-call-on-fhsaa-to-scrap-menstrual-history-questions/69882335007/">rejected a proposal</a> in February 2023 that would have required high school girls to answer <a href="https://fhsaa.com/documents/2023/1/19//SMAC_PPE_Draft_1_17_2023.pdf?id=3887">four questions about their menstrual cycles</a> in order to play on school sports teams. The questions had previously been optional.</p>
<p>The four questions were: Have you had a menstrual cycle? How old were you when you had your first menstrual period? When was your most recent menstrual period? How many periods have you had in the past 12 months? </p>
<p>The answers, along with the rest of students’ medical history, would have been entered into an online platform and stored on a third-party database called <a href="https://www.aktivate.com/">Aktivate</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/us/florida-student-athlete-periods.html">School personnel</a> would have had access to this information.</p>
<p>While Florida decided to scrap the questions from their student forms, many states currently ask similar questions of their female athletes prior to participation in their sport.</p>
<p>As researchers who are experts in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dYfhb9sAAAAJ&hl=en">Title IX</a>, sports and health care equity, and <a href="https://law.umn.edu/profiles/david-schultz">constitutional law</a>, we have identified three reasons why schools and states tracking female athletes’ menstrual history may conflict with federal laws.</p>
<p><iframe id="M8CbI" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/M8CbI/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>1. It may violate federal anti-discrimination law</h2>
<p><a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">Title IX</a>, a federal policy passed in 1972, prohibits federally funded schools from discriminating against students based on sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. The goal of the policy is to <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-proposed-changes-title-ix-regulations-invites-public-comment">end sex discrimination, sex-based harassment and sexual violence </a> in education.</p>
<p>While Title IX applies to all school settings, it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/wspaj.2022-0053">often most associated with athletics</a>. </p>
<p>Requiring female student-athletes to submit menstrual cycle data to their schools could be a form of <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/guid/ocr/sexoverview.html">sex discrimination</a> and therefore violate <a href="https://www.nfhs.org/articles/nine-ways-title-ix-protects-high-school-students/">Title IX</a>. The reason it is potentially discriminatory is because girls are the only students at risk of being denied the opportunity to play sports if they choose not to provide schools with details about their menstrual cycles.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2114&context=all_fac">2020 Harvard Journal of Law and Gender study</a>, three scholars argue that schools should create educational settings free of “unnecessary anxiety about the biological process of menstruation.”</p>
<p>“Because menstruation is a biological process linked to female sex,” they write, “educational deprivations connected with schools’ treatment of menstruation should be understood as a violation of Title IX’s core proposition.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot of a medical form with questions about menstrual history" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510680/original/file-20230216-18-n8pjoe.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Questions about students’ menstrual history were removed from the Florida High School Athletic Association’s physical evaluation form.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://fhsaa.com/documents/2023/1/19//SMAC_PPE_Draft_1_17_2023.pdf?id=3887">Florida High School Athletic Association</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. It threatens constitutional rights</h2>
<p>Tracking female athletes’ menstrual history may be downright unconstitutional. </p>
<p>Forcing only females to disclose private medical information may violate the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xiv/clauses/702">equal protection clause</a> of the <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-8-8-1/ALDE_00000830/">14th Amendment</a> of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.</p>
<p>Also, <a href="https://www.npwomenshealthcare.com/privacy-rights-in-state-constitutions-may-protect-their-abortion-access/">11 states</a> have a “right to privacy” written into their state constitutions. For example, the <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/laws/constitution#A1S23">Florida Constitution</a> states that “all natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights,” including “the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.”</p>
<p>While other states do not explicitly provide a right to privacy in their constitutions, legal precedent has determined that this right is <a href="https://www.dataguidance.com/jurisdiction/arkansas">implicit in the U.S. Constitution</a>.</p>
<p>And finally, federal laws that protect <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html">medical</a> and <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html">educational</a> records do not have <a href="https://rems.ed.gov/docs/2019%20HIPAA%20FERPA%20Joint%20Guidance.pdf">standards</a> for maintaining medical records that are shared with schools and stored on third-party databases. This lack of precedent may result in privacy breaches.</p>
<h2>3. It could be used against transgender students</h2>
<p>The recent passage of several anti-LGBTQ+ policies in Florida made the Florida High School Athletic Association’s attempts to track and digitally store menstrual data particularly worrisome to trans rights advocates.</p>
<p>In June 2021, Gov. Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/1028">signed a bill</a> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1002405412/on-the-first-day-of-pride-month-florida-signed-a-transgender-athlete-bill-into-l">prohibiting trans girls from playing on girls athletic teams</a>. </p>
<p>In March 2022, DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, better known as the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/03/28/1089221657/dont-say-gay-florida-desantis">“Don’t Say Gay” bill</a>. It prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in K-3 public school classrooms. </p>
<p>And just one week after the proposed mandate was struck down, a <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2023/02/16/fhsaa-desantis-board-private-homeschool-prayer-announcements-menstrual/">Florida House committee advanced a bill</a> that would place the Governor’s office in control of the Florida High School Athletic Association.</p>
<p>As more states try to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-health-business-florida-government-and-politics-78e417a184718de8b9e71ff32efbc77f">ban trans youth from receiving gender-affirming medical care</a> – including hormone therapy, surgical procedures and other treatments – menstrual tracking in athletes could serve as another mechanism to harm and criminalize transgender youth. </p>
<p>Tracking menstrual cycles could “out” trans youth if they are required to disclose information about their menstrual cycle – whether that is the presence or absence of a cycle. If a school is responsible for outing trans kids, they violate both <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trans-students-should-be-treated-with-dignity-not-outed-by-their-schools">constitutional rights</a> and <a href="https://www.knowyourix.org/college-resources/title-ix-protections-lgbtq-students/">Title IX policy</a>, and they risk endangering the outed students’ welfare. </p>
<h2>Protecting period privacy</h2>
<p>While the proposed Florida mandate was rejected, we have found that most states do in fact collect data on high school athletes’ menstrual cycles. </p>
<p>Based on our collection of sports pre-participation forms, only four states – Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York and Oklahoma – as well as Washington, D.C., do not currently ask any questions about menstrual history on the sport pre-participation medical forms provided by their state athletic association. </p>
<p>Following the vote on the Florida proposal, <a href="https://www.news-press.com/story/news/education/2023/02/09/congress-introduces-menstrual-questions-legislation-aimed-at-florida/69889797007/">three House Democrats introduced legislation</a> called the Privacy in Education Regarding Individuals’ Own Data Act, or <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/schiff-omar-bill-menstruation-desantis">PERIOD Act</a>. It would prohibit schools from collecting menstrual information altogether. </p>
<p>If this legislation is adopted, the estimated <a href="https://www.nfhs.org/media/5989280/2021-22_participation_survey.pdf">3 million American high school girls</a> who play sports in a state that still asks about menstrual history will no longer have to share this information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199228/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When schools ask student-athletes about their menstrual cycles, they may be infringing on anti-discrimination and privacy laws.Lindsey Darvin, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Syracuse UniversityDavid Schultz, Professor of Political Science, Hamline University Tia Spagnuolo, Doctoral Student in Community Research and Action, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980162023-02-03T05:57:21Z2023-02-03T05:57:21ZFuture of Welsh rugby at stake after misogyny allegations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507603/original/file-20230201-10491-xvmqx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3882%2C1827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Allegations of sex discrimination should be a watershed moment not only for Welsh rugby but the people of Wales</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Prime Minister Harold Wilson said “a week is a long time in politics”, it’s unlikely that many thought Welsh rugby would one day be the subject of this truism. But a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64333230">BBC Wales investigative documentary</a> has exposed a “toxic culture” within the sport’s governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), highlighting some very serious allegations of sexism and misogyny on the part of union employees.</p>
<p>The union’s CEO, Steve Phillips, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/29/steve-phillips-resigns-wru-chief-executive-toxic-culture-claims">resigned</a> in the days following, saying it was time for someone else to lead the way. And an announcement was made that an investigation would be held into the culture of the Welsh game.</p>
<p>This should be a watershed moment – not only for rugby but, more contentiously, for the people of Wales. Rugby has huge <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/01443330710741084/full/html">historical and social importance</a> for the country, and is a vital part of its <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09523360008714148">national identity</a>. What happens next is critical not only for the sport but for Wales as a whole.</p>
<p>However, knowing what to do next has a lot to do with understanding how we got here in the first place. And in that regard, there had been plenty of warnings to suggest that something seismic was about to happen in Welsh rugby. </p>
<p>In late 2021, businesswoman Amanda Blanc told the WRU it had “deep-rooted” cultural and behavioural problems when she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59335487">resigned from chairing the Professional Rugby Board</a>. In autumn of the same year, a group of 123 former women internationals <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/58547024">launched a petition</a> calling for improvements to the women’s game in Wales.</p>
<p>At that time, the WRU conducted a review into the women’s game, the results of which have yet to be published. But its current acting CEO Nigel Walker has told the Senedd a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-64497272">redacted version</a> will be made available. Walker also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/acting-wru-chief-walker-apologises-handling-sexism-allegations-2023-01-30/">apologised</a> for the WRU’s handling of the sex-discrimination allegations that have emerged.</p>
<p>Such incidents suggest the governing body has long had a patriarchal culture, which is reflected in the uniformity of its leadership. There is only one woman currently sitting on the <a href="https://community.wru.wales/governance/rugby-boards/wru-board/">WRU board</a>, and no people of colour.</p>
<p>The events of the past week reflect a deep-seated challenge to ensure greater diversity in Welsh rugby. This is a goal which could do much to reduce the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-19799-5_18">toxic masculinity</a> that arises within some rugby practices and environments. </p>
<p>The institutional challenges faced by the WRU are aggravated by problems the sport faces as a whole. <a href="https://www.premiershiprugby.com/news/new-research-shines-the-light-on-discrimination-in-womens-rugby">Research</a> found that 55% of women and girls agreed that “many women feel unwelcome to play rugby because of the jokes and negative language some people use about women”. Some 37% had heard homophobic slurs at their club in the last year, while 59% had heard sexist slurs and negative jokes about women.</p>
<p>In the same week as the WRU crisis, transgender women in Scotland were <a href="https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/12505/12794861/scottish-rugby-union-bans-transgender-women-from-contact-rugby">banned from contact rugby</a>. In England, there has been <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-union/rfu-tackle-height-law-change-waist-backlash-b2270623.html">pushback against the Rugby Football Union’s edict on changes to the tackle law</a>. (The governing body had wanted to lower the permitted tackle height to the waist for safety reasons, but this decision was met with opposition from across the game.)</p>
<p>Debates on player welfare, particularly regarding <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/19/amateur-players-launch-lawsuit-against-rugby-authorities-over-brain-injuries">head injuries and concussion</a>, as well as on attitudes towards alcohol and levels of aggression in rugby union are ongoing. Alongside the evident sex discrimination, it suggests rugby, at least in terms of how it might be perceived by outsiders, is in a reactive, out-of-step state. </p>
<p>For a growing part of the population, the sport can no longer be a neutral, innocent space for escaping everyday life. It is a place in which the spotlight of social justice is increasingly relevant. </p>
<p>By perpetuating the status quo for so long, the WRU has been unable to embrace the internal self-reflection and self-critique needed for gradual reform. This moral drift has made it a bigger and easier target for criticism when the revelations finally exploded.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cloudy sky above the Principality Stadium. The river Taf runs alongside it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C0%2C5326%2C3532&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507383/original/file-20230131-9846-kzl91k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Principality Stadium in Cardiff is the home of Welsh rugby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Glitch Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Walker admits <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/30/welsh-rugby-future-danger-nigel-walker-wru">the future of Welsh rugby is in danger</a>. Based on the experiences of other institutions such as the <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/mark-rowley-david-carrick-met-metropolitan-police-suella-braverman-b1055472.html">police</a>, the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35657868">BBC</a> and the <a href="https://hbr.org/2021/05/measuring-the-impact-of-metoo-on-gender-equity-in-hollywood">film industry</a>, significant reform will be needed if the WRU wants to be an ongoing part of the conversation on the dynamics of Welsh society and culture. </p>
<p>A first step towards redemption is for the WRU to achieve greater diversity in its leadership, so as to better reflect the people of Wales. Having different voices will go a long way to preventing cultural and social inertia in the future. </p>
<p>Regarding the women’s game, a rethink of financial resources is needed. This should aim to meet the demands of grassroots players for more opportunities to participate. It should also enable women to play professional rugby in Wales on a par with the game in England, and to implement the principle of equal pay for men and women at international level.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alun Hardman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A BBC Wales investigation reported claims of a ‘toxic culture’ of sexism and misogyny within Welsh rugby’s governing body.Alun Hardman, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Sport Ethics, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1894072022-10-13T07:39:19Z2022-10-13T07:39:19ZEducational pathways drive France’s gender pay gap – what our research shows<p>Even though women hold more qualifications than men, they are still generally paid less than their male counterparts, starting from their entry into the workforce. In 2017, women with university and vocational qualifications earned on average <a href="https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?datasetcode=EAG_EARNINGS">70% of men’s salaries</a> in countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).</p>
<p>Most research in this area understandably concentrates on issues related to career, professional quotas, or parenthood. Recently, a <a href="https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/4514861">study by France’s statistics agency Insee</a> showed that 68% of the gender wage gap in full-time, equivalent jobs can be explained by the fact that women and men rarely occupy the same positions.</p>
<p>But the choice of different professions (we sometimes talk about “occupational segregation”) can largely be explained by <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537199000093">the specialisations pursued in university and vocational education</a>. According to research, the latter appear highly gendered and rarely balanced between men and women. For example, the percentage of women among new bachelor-level admissions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is only 30%, whereas it is 77% for <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/regards-sur-l-education-2019_6bcf6dc9-fr">health and social welfare</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing on a large French public database, <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02136564/">our research</a> shows that what we study goes a long way in determining differences observed on the labour market.</p>
<h2>Limited data</h2>
<p>As early as 1984, American researchers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/145880">Thomas Daymont and Paul Andrisani</a> suggested including educational choices in equations analysing the wage gap between women and men in the United States. However, this was easier said than done. Indeed, students tend to gradually specialise in their discipline, and masters degrees that follow may carry thousands of different names. For example, there are stark contrasts between social law, business law and criminal law. </p>
<p>This lack of data means there has been little research on the relationship between education choices and occupation. However, each year, several tens of thousands of master graduates are surveyed upon their entry into the professional world by France’s Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation. This is the data that we used for our research.</p>
<h2>Seemingly well-balanced</h2>
<p>Gendered educational choices appear to hamper income equality early on. <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02136564/">Three years after graduation</a>, female graduates earned lower wages than men and were more often on temporary, part-time contracts. They were also less likely to hold executive-level positions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481074/original/file-20220825-20-20sr40.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Based on a survey of 2013 masters-degree graduates 30 months after graduation, fields’ degree of female dominance appears to be correlated with salary levels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MENESR-DGESIP-SIES</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>The proportion of women in each sector appears to be related to salary levels. MENESR-DGESIP-SIES; data, survey into career prospects for Master’s graduates in 2013, 30 months after graduating, Provided by the author</em></p>
<p>Moreover, gender wage gaps appear to be correlated to the number of women in each specialisation. The median salary in male-dominated specialisations remains higher than in gender-balanced groups, which is itself higher than in female-dominated groups. Half of women from male specialisations earn over 2,000 euros per month, versus only a quarter from female-dominated specialisations.</p>
<p>We were also surprised by the complicated structure of many academic subjects. Take management science: despite being popular with men and women alike, the subject still conceals significant wage gaps. Nearly 640 euros per month on average separates people who graduate from the human resources pathway (highly female-dominated) and those from the financial one (highly male-dominated).</p>
<h2>Two branches of public policy</h2>
<p>The masters specialisation alone accounts for two thirds of the differences between men and women in securing full-time employment, and over a third of the gap in accessing the most prestigious roles. There is a majority of female students in specialisations leading to areas where employment opportunities are poorer, such as the public sector, NGOs and the social sector. </p>
<p>What are the takeaways for public policy? We could slash income inequality in two ways. First, target the labour market directly by <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-regards-croises-sur-l-economie-2014-2-page-121.htm">revaluing female-dominated jobs</a>. Second, take action in the university and higher education system. </p>
<p>Innovative research on this topic suggests avenues for action based mainly on a <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20140783">quota system</a> or the <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01713068/">role of models</a>. The work that we are undertaking with economist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anne-boring-222052">Anne Boring</a> aims to document how trajectories determining the choice of studies are formed for male and female students. Our objective is now to reconstitute the entire university path to understand the phases that create the gendered distribution for specialisations at the most detailed level.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Region-level data from France indicate that some masters-level specialities dominated by women have low levels of remuneration once in employment.Louis-Alexandre Erb, Doctorant en économie des inégalités, Université Paris-EstYannick L’Horty, Économiste, professeur des universités, Université Gustave EiffelLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1840332022-06-06T12:50:54Z2022-06-06T12:50:54ZWhy are so many big tech whistleblowers women? Here is what the research shows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466967/original/file-20220603-15396-vcpulz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C2624%2C2038&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The vast majority of high-profile big tech whistleblowers in recent years have been women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/girl-blowing-whistle-outdoors-royalty-free-image/129299771">Elke Meitzel/Image Source via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of high-profile whistleblowers in the technology industry have stepped into the spotlight in the past few years. For the most part, they have been revealing corporate practices that thwart the public interest: Frances Haugen exposed <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039">personal data exploitation at Meta</a>, Timnit Gebru and Rebecca Rivers challenged Google on <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/25/20982649/google-fired-rebecca-rivers-employee-questioned-work-customs-and-border-protection">ethics</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/google-timnit-gebru-ai-what-really-happened/">AI issues</a>, and Janneke Parrish raised concerns about <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/03/tech/apple-appletoo-janneke-parrish-nlrb-complaint/index.html">a discriminatory work culture at Apple</a>, among others.</p>
<p>Many of these whistleblowers are women – far more, it appears, than the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/it-could-take-12-years-to-reach-equal-representation-of-women-in-tech.html">proportion of women working in the tech industry</a>. This raises the question of whether women are more likely to be whistleblowers in the tech field. The short answer is: “It’s complicated.”</p>
<p>For many, whistleblowing is a last resort to get society to address problems that can’t be resolved within an organization, or at least by the whistleblower. It speaks to the organizational status, power and resources of the whistleblower; the openness, communication and values of the organization in which they work; and to their passion, frustration and commitment to the issue they want to see addressed. Are whistleblowers more focused on the public interest? More virtuous? Less influential in their organizations? Are these possible explanations for why so many women are blowing the whistle on big tech? </p>
<p>To investigate these questions, we, a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HzqQ2wYAAAAJ&hl=en">computer scientist</a> and a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Uun9IZkAAAAJ&hl=en">sociologist</a>, explored the nature of big tech whistleblowing, the influence of gender, and the implications for technology’s role in society. What we found was both complex and intriguing.</p>
<h2>Narrative of virtue</h2>
<p>Whistleblowing is a difficult phenomenon to study because its public manifestation is only the tip of the iceberg. Most whistleblowing is confidential or anonymous. On the surface, the notion of female whistleblowers fits with the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.82.6.920">prevailing narrative</a> that women are somehow more altruistic, focused on the public interest or morally virtuous than men.</p>
<p>Consider an argument made by the New York State Woman Suffrage Association around <a href="https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizing-america/woman-suffrage/arguments-for-and-against-suffrage">giving U.S. women the right to vote</a> in the 1920s: “Women are, by nature and training, housekeepers. Let them have a hand in the city’s housekeeping, even if they introduce an occasional house-cleaning.” In other words, giving women the power of the vote would help “clean up” the mess that men had made. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a woman with light brown skin and an Afro" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466982/original/file-20220603-14-e7g0vc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Timnit Gebru called out ethical issues in Google’s AI efforts when she was a computer scientist at the company.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/InsiderQATimnitGebruAIEthics/3aa9eaa491ab41348e46ce734ce58463/photo">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, a similar argument was used in the move to all-women traffic enforcement in some Latin American cities under the assumption that <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/fulltextarticle/madame-officer/">female police officers are more impervious to bribes</a>. Indeed, the United Nations has recently identified <a href="https://egypt.un.org/en/165297-addressing-gender-dimensions-corruption">women’s global empowerment as key to reducing corruption and inequality</a> in its world development goals. </p>
<p>There is data showing that women, more so than men, are associated with lower levels of corruption in government and business. For example, studies show that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414019830744">higher the share of female elected officials</a> in governments around the world, <a href="https://sites.bu.edu/fisman/files/2015/11/fairersex.pdf">the lower the corruption</a>. While this trend in part reflects the tendency of less corrupt governments to more often elect women, additional studies show a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414019830744">direct causal effect of electing female leaders</a> and, in turn, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0010414020970218">reducing corruption</a>.</p>
<p>Experimental studies and attitudinal surveys also show that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9129-y">women are more ethical in business dealings</a> <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7287.2009.00188.x">than their male counterparts</a>, and one study using data on actual firm-level dealings confirms that businesses led by women are directly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2016.1234036">associated with a lower incidence of bribery</a>. Much of this likely comes down to the socialization of men and women into different gender roles in society.</p>
<h2>Hints, but no hard data</h2>
<p>Although women may be acculturated to behave more ethically, this leaves open the question of whether they really are more likely to be whistleblowers. The full data on who reports wrongdoing is elusive, but scholars try to address the question by asking people about their whistleblowing orientation in surveys and in vignettes. In these studies, the gender effect is inconclusive. </p>
<p>However, women appear more willing than men to report wrongdoing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9866-1">when they can do so confidentially</a>. This may be related to the fact that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0310">female whistleblowers may face higher rates</a> <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sor.2007.0061">of reprisal than male whistleblowers</a>.</p>
<p>In the technology field, there is an additional factor at play. Women are under-represented both in numbers and in organizational power. The “Big Five” in tech – Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft – are still <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/special-report/diversity-high-tech">largely white</a> and male. </p>
<p>Women currently represent <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/4467/female-employees-at-tech-companies/">about 25% of their technology workforce and about 30% of their executive leadership</a>. Women are prevalent enough now to avoid being tokens but often don’t have the insider status and resources to effect change. They also lack the power that sometimes corrupts, referred to as the <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/corruption/Publications/2020/THE_TIME_IS_NOW_2020_12_08.pdf">corruption opportunity gap</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a woman with light skin and long blonde hair speaks into a microphone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466983/original/file-20220603-16-ngw7no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Frances Haugen testified before Congress about how Meta, then called Facebook, put profits ahead of the public interest. Earlier she had leaked internal company documents to show that Meta was aware of the harm it was causing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BooksFacebookWhistleblower/62bb9e6dae634e23b203850a37a450f9/photo">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span>
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<h2>In the public interest</h2>
<p>Marginalized people often <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/learning-work/202110/what-motivates-whistleblower">lack a sense of belonging and inclusion</a> in organizations. The silver lining to this exclusion is that those people may feel less obligated to toe the line when they see wrongdoing. Given all of this, it is likely that some combination of gender socialization and female outsider status in big tech creates a situation where <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/08/tech-whistleblowers-facebook-frances-haugen-amazon-google-pinterest">women appear to be the prevalent whistleblowers</a>. </p>
<p>It may be that whistleblowing in tech is the result of a perfect storm between the field’s gender and public interest problems. Clear and conclusive data does not exist, and without concrete evidence the jury is out. But the prevalence of female whistleblowers in big tech is emblematic of both of these deficiencies, and the efforts of these whistleblowers are often aimed at boosting diversity and reducing the harm big tech causes society. </p>
<p>More so than any other corporate sector, tech pervades people’s lives. Big tech creates the tools people use every day, defines the information the public consumes, collects data on its users’ thoughts and behavior, and plays a major role in determining whether privacy, safety, security and welfare are supported or undermined.</p>
<p>And yet, the complexity, proprietary intellectual property protections and ubiquity of digital technologies make it hard for the public to gauge the personal risks and societal impact of technology. Today’s corporate cultural firewalls make it difficult to understand the choices that go into developing the products and services that so dominate people’s lives. </p>
<p>Of all areas within society in need of transparency and a greater focus on the public interest, we believe the most urgent priority is big tech. This makes the courage and the commitment of today’s whistleblowers all the more important.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184033/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francine Berman is a Trustee of the Sloan Foundation and a Board member of the Marconi Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Lundquist does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Frances Haugen, Timnit Gebru and Janneke Parrish are at the forefront of a group of high-profile women calling out big tech. Is there a connection between their gender and their role as whistleblowers?Francine Berman, Director of Public Interest Technology and Stuart Rice Research Professor, UMass AmherstJennifer Lundquist, Professor of Sociology, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1752022022-01-18T19:28:53Z2022-01-18T19:28:53ZMicrosoft purchase of Activision Blizzard won’t clean up gamer culture overnight: 5 essential reads about sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech<p>Microsoft announced on Jan. 18, 2022, its <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/">intention to purchase</a> video game giant Activision Blizzard. The company, publisher of top-selling video games Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, has been the subject of a series of sexual discrimination and harassment complaints. A day before Microsoft’s announcement, Activision Blizzard announced that it has <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/activision-says-it-fired-dozens-over-harassment-allegations-3377285">fired “nearly 40 employees”</a> since July following an investigation into hundreds of reports from employees of misconduct.</p>
<p>California <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019293032/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-unequal-pay-sexual-harassment-video-games">sued Activision Blizzard</a> in July 2021, alleging a “pervasive ‘frat boy’ culture” at the company and discrimination against women in pay and promotion. The suit prompted a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/activision-blizzard-workers-walk-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-rcna1525">walkout by company employees</a> who demanded that the company address the problem.</p>
<p>The turmoil is an echo of the infamous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/15/opinion/what-is-gamergate.html">Gamergate</a> episode of 2014 that featured an organized online campaign of harassment against female gamers, game developers and gaming journalists. The allegations are also of a piece with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/19/women-built-tech-industry-then-they-were-pushed-out/">decadeslong history of gender discrimination</a> in the technology field.</p>
<p>It’s unclear whether or how quickly Microsoft will address Activision Blizzard’s discriminatory culture. Regardless of what happens within the company, the problem of sexual harassment in gamer culture involves the industry as a whole, as well as players and fans.</p>
<p>We’ve been covering sexual harassment and gender discrimination in gaming – and technology generally – and picked five articles from our archive to help you understand the news.</p>
<h2>1. Gaming culture is toxic – but community norms can change it</h2>
<p>Things have not been getting steadily better. The shift to online activities caused by the pandemic was accompanied by an increase in online harassment and a decrease in the number of women and girls playing video games.</p>
<p>More than a third of female gamers have experienced harassment, and female players have <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-itll-take-to-clean-up-esports-toxic-culture-143520">developed coping strategies</a> like hiding their gender, playing only with friends and shutting down harassers by outplaying them, according to University of Oregon professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7IEXEiwAAAAJ&hl=en">Amanda Cote</a>. These strategies take time and energy, and they avoid rather than challenge the harassment. Challenging harassment is also fraught, because it typically sparks a backlash and puts the burden on the victim.</p>
<p>Shutting down harassment comes down to creating and supporting community norms that reject rather than allow or encourage harassment. Gaming companies can adopt practices beyond banning harassers that discourage the behavior before it happens, including reducing opportunities for conflict outside of gameplay, adding in-game recognition of good behavior, and responding quickly to complaints.</p>
<p>“If esports continue to expand without game companies addressing the toxic environments in their games, abusive and exclusionary behaviors are likely to become entrenched,” she writes. “To avoid this, players, coaches, teams, leagues, game companies and live-streaming services should invest in better community management efforts.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-itll-take-to-clean-up-esports-toxic-culture-143520">Here's what it'll take to clean up esports' toxic culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. It’s not just players – fans are part of the problem</h2>
<p>Go to any sports stadium and you’ll see that the atmosphere that energizes players and fans alike comes from the fans. For esports the venues are streaming services, where fan reaction comes not from cheers and chants but in the form of online chat.</p>
<p>University of South Florida professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ay9uGpcAAAAJ&hl=en">Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia</a> and colleagues analyzed chats on Twitch, one of the largest streaming services that carries live esports. They found <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14885">a sharp distinction</a> in the language fans use when commenting on players, called streamers, depending on gender.</p>
<p>“When watching a man stream, viewers typically talk about the game and try to engage with the streamer; game jargon (words like ‘points,’ ‘winner’ and ‘star’) and user nicknames are among the most important terms,” he writes. “But when watching a woman stream, <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-online-gaming-ditch-its-sexist-ways-74493">the tone changes</a>: Game jargon drops, and objectification language increases (words like ‘cute,’ ‘fat’ and ‘boobs’). The difference is particularly striking when the streamer is popular, and less so when looking at comments on less-popular streamers’ activity.”</p>
<p>As with the games themselves, combating harassment and discrimination on streaming services comes down to community standards, he writes. The streaming services “need to examine their cultural norms to drive out toxic standards that effectively silence entire groups.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-online-gaming-ditch-its-sexist-ways-74493">Can online gaming ditch its sexist ways?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. Collegiate esports leagues don’t reflect the population of video game players</h2>
<p>Esports is becoming a big business, with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-business-esports-growth-idUSFLM4K2cJ7">over $1 billion in revenues</a>, and collegiate leagues are an important component of the field. Just over 8% of college esports players and 4% of coaches are female. The low rates of participation are not a reflection of interest: <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/gaming-gender-how-inclusive-are-esports/">57% of women ages 18-29</a> play video games that are in the esports category.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman wearing a face mask stares intently at a large computer screen while a man wearing a face mask stands behind her looking over her shoulder" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Boise State esports coach Doc Haskell watches scholarship graduate student Artie ‘N3rdybird’ Rainn compete in a match.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EsportsScholarshipInequality/226671c6c6fb412a985dbad4cfe71eed/photo">AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger</a></span>
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<p>Female players <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-colleges-nationwide-esports-teams-dominated-by-men-154793">face overt hostility and harassment</a>, which discourages participation, according to SUNY Cortland professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dYfhb9sAAAAJ&hl=en">Lindsey Darvin</a>. College teams often engage in tokenism by bringing on a single female player, and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/esports-gender-inequality-scholarships-men-1823321276db40fea37dc8d9e5410643">vast majority of scholarships go to male players</a>. </p>
<p>Professional esports organizations are <a href="https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2021/01/13/aerial-powers-joins-team-liquid-as-streamer-and-diversity-ambassador">beginning to address the gender gap</a>. Colleges and universities need to follow suit.</p>
<p>“Colleges and universities that receive U.S. federal aid have an obligation to improve opportunity and access to participation based on Title IX policy, which prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” she writes.</p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-colleges-nationwide-esports-teams-dominated-by-men-154793">At colleges nationwide, esports teams dominated by men</a>
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<h2>4. Lessons from the tech field: Diversity and equity require women with power</h2>
<p>The roots of esports’ toxic culture lie in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tech-field-failed-a-25-year-challenge-to-achieve-gender-equality-by-2020-culture-change-is-key-to-getting-on-track-144779">decades of gender discrimination</a> in the technology field as a whole. That discrimination has proved stubborn.</p>
<p>“In 1995, pioneering computer scientist Anita Borg challenged the tech community to a moonshot: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nImg8vPUe4">equal representation of women in tech by 2020</a>,” writes Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HzqQ2wYAAAAJ&hl=en">Francine Berman</a>. “Twenty-five years later, we’re still far from that goal. In 2018, fewer than 30% of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17225574/facebook-tech-diversity-women">employees in tech’s biggest companies</a> and 20% of <a href="https://research.swe.org/2016/08/tenure-tenure-track-faculty-levels/">faculty in university computer science departments</a> were women.”</p>
<p>Reversing discrimination is a matter of changing cultures within organizations. “Diverse leadership is a critical part of creating diverse cultures,” she writes. “Women are more likely to thrive in environments where they have not only stature, but responsibility, resources, influence, opportunity and power.”</p>
<p>“Culture change is a marathon, not a sprint, requiring constant vigilance, many small decisions, and often changes in who holds power,” she writes. “My experience as supercomputer center head, and with the Research Data Alliance, the Sloan Foundation and other groups has shown me that organizations can create positive and more diverse environments.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tech-field-failed-a-25-year-challenge-to-achieve-gender-equality-by-2020-culture-change-is-key-to-getting-on-track-144779">The tech field failed a 25-year challenge to achieve gender equality by 2020 – culture change is key to getting on track</a>
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<h2>5. The myth of meritocracy is an impediment to equality</h2>
<p>The myth of meritocracy is a large part of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-tech-suffer-because-of-american-myth-of-meritocracy-94269">longevity of gender discrimination</a> in the tech field. That myth says that success is a result of skill and effort, and that women’s representation is a reflection of their abilities.</p>
<p>In the U.S., <a href="https://www.nawbo.org/resources/women-business-owner-statistics">women own 39%</a> of all privately owned businesses but receive only around 4% of venture capital funding, according to Brown University professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vj4crUIAAAAJ&hl=en">Banu Ozkazanc-Pan</a>. </p>
<p>“Yet the meritocracy myth, which <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2982414">my research shows</a> has a stronghold in the world of entrepreneurship, means that women are constantly told that all they have to do to get more of that <a href="https://nvca.org/pressreleases/total-venture-capital-dollars-invested-2017-track-reach-decade-high/">$22 billion or so in venture capital funding</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258717728028">make better pitches</a> or be more assertive,” she writes.</p>
<p>What the tech field calls meritocracy is in fact gender-biased and results in mostly white men gaining access to resources and funding. “By continuing to believe in meritocracy and maintaining practices associated with it, gender equality will remain a distant goal,” she writes. </p>
<p>Adopting <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/metoo-sexual-harassment-what-experts-say/">gender-aware approaches</a>, including setting concrete goals for gender balance, is key to correcting the imbalances caused by the meritocracy myth.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-tech-suffer-because-of-american-myth-of-meritocracy-94269">Women in tech suffer because of American myth of meritocracy</a>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-activision-blizzard-lawsuit-shows-gamer-culture-still-has-a-long-way-to-go-5-essential-reads-about-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-in-gaming-and-tech-165293">article</a> originally published on July 30, 2021. It has been updated to include Microsoft’s intention to purchase Activision Blizzard.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175202/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech are not inevitable or permanent, write experts in the field. The solutions are positive community standards and women in power.Eric Smalley, Science + Technology EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1652932021-07-30T12:20:53Z2021-07-30T12:20:53ZThe Activision Blizzard lawsuit shows gamer culture still has a long way to go: 5 essential reads about sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413846/original/file-20210729-17-16buhii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5184%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's nothing inherently male about playing video games. Videogame culture, on the other hand, is decidedly anti-female.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gamers-play-the-video-game-call-of-duty-wwii-developed-by-news-photo/868750534">Chesnot/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>An updated version of this article was published on Jan. 18, 2022. <a href="https://theconversation.com/microsoft-purchase-of-activision-blizzard-wont-clean-up-gamer-culture-overnight-5-essential-reads-about-sexual-harassment-and-discrimination-in-gaming-and-tech-175202">Read it here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Sexual harassment in gamer culture burst back into the spotlight on July 21, 2021, with news of California’s <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/22/1019293032/activision-blizzard-lawsuit-unequal-pay-sexual-harassment-video-games">lawsuit against Activision Blizzard</a>, publisher of top-selling video games Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, and a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/activision-blizzard-workers-walk-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-rcna1525">walkout by company employees</a>. The lawsuit alleges a “pervasive ‘frat boy’ culture” at the company and discrimination against women in pay and promotion.</p>
<p>The turmoil is an echo of the infamous <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/15/opinion/what-is-gamergate.html">Gamergate</a> episode of 2014 that featured an organized online campaign of harassment against female gamers, game developers and gaming journalists. The allegations are also of a piece with a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/02/19/women-built-tech-industry-then-they-were-pushed-out/">decadeslong history of gender discrimination</a> in the technology field.</p>
<p>We’ve been covering sexual harassment and gender discrimination in gaming – and technology generally – and picked five articles from our archive to help you understand the news.</p>
<h2>1. Gaming culture is toxic – but community norms can change it</h2>
<p>Things have not been getting steadily better. The shift to online activities caused by the pandemic was accompanied by an increase in online harassment and a decrease in the number of women and girls playing video games.</p>
<p>More than a third of female gamers have experienced harassment, and female players have developed coping strategies like hiding their gender, playing only with friends and shutting down harassers by outplaying them, according to University of Oregon professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7IEXEiwAAAAJ&hl=en">Amanda Cote</a>. These strategies take time and energy, and they avoid rather than challenge the harassment. Challenging harassment is also fraught, because it typically sparks a backlash and puts the burden on the victim.</p>
<p>Shutting down harassment comes down to creating and supporting community norms that reject rather than allow or encourage harassment. Gaming companies can adopt practices beyond banning harassers that discourage the behavior before it happens, including reducing opportunities for conflict outside of gameplay, adding in-game recognition of good behavior, and responding quickly to complaints.</p>
<p>“If esports continue to expand without game companies addressing the toxic environments in their games, abusive and exclusionary behaviors are likely to become entrenched,” she writes. “To avoid this, players, coaches, teams, leagues, game companies and live-streaming services should invest in better community management efforts.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-what-itll-take-to-clean-up-esports-toxic-culture-143520">Here's what it'll take to clean up esports' toxic culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. It’s not just players – fans are part of the problem</h2>
<p>Go to any sports stadium and you’ll see that the atmosphere that energizes players and fans alike comes from the fans. For esports the venues are streaming services, where fan reaction comes not from cheers and chants but in the form of online chat.</p>
<p>University of South Florida professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ay9uGpcAAAAJ&hl=en">Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia</a> and colleagues analyzed chats on Twitch, one of the largest streaming services that carries live esports. They found <a href="https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/ICWSM/article/view/14885">a sharp distinction</a> in the language fans use when commenting on players, called streamers, depending on gender.</p>
<p>“When watching a man stream, viewers typically talk about the game and try to engage with the streamer; game jargon (words like ‘points,’ ‘winner’ and ‘star’) and user nicknames are among the most important terms,” he writes. “But when watching a woman stream, the tone changes: Game jargon drops, and objectification language increases (words like ‘cute,’ ‘fat’ and ‘boobs’). The difference is particularly striking when the streamer is popular, and less so when looking at comments on less-popular streamers’ activity.”</p>
<p>As with the games themselves, combating harassment and discrimination on streaming services comes down to community standards, he writes. The streaming services “need to examine their cultural norms to drive out toxic standards that effectively silence entire groups.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-online-gaming-ditch-its-sexist-ways-74493">Can online gaming ditch its sexist ways?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. Collegiate esports leagues don’t reflect the population of videogame players</h2>
<p>Esports is becoming a big business, with <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/esports-business-esports-growth-idUSFLM4K2cJ7">over $1 billion in revenues</a>, and collegiate leagues are an important component of the field. Just over 8% of college esports players and 4% of coaches are female. The low rates of participation are not a reflection of interest: <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/gaming-gender-how-inclusive-are-esports/">57% of women ages 18-29</a> play video games that are in the esports category.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman wearing a face mask stares intently at a large computer screen while a man wearing a face mask stands behind her looking over her shoulder" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413860/original/file-20210729-25-1kf5al0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boise State esports coach Doc Haskell watches scholarship graduate student Artie ‘N3rdybird’ Rainn compete in a match.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/EsportsScholarshipInequality/226671c6c6fb412a985dbad4cfe71eed/photo">AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Female players face overt hostility and harassment, which discourages participation, according to SUNY Cortland professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dYfhb9sAAAAJ&hl=en">Lindsey Darvin</a>. College teams often engage in tokenism by bringing on a single female player, and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/esports-gender-inequality-scholarships-men-1823321276db40fea37dc8d9e5410643">vast majority of scholarships go to male players</a>. </p>
<p>Professional esports organizations are <a href="https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2021/01/13/aerial-powers-joins-team-liquid-as-streamer-and-diversity-ambassador">beginning to address the gender gap</a>. Colleges and universities need to follow suit.</p>
<p>“Colleges and universities that receive U.S. federal aid have an obligation to improve opportunity and access to participation based on Title IX policy, which prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” she writes.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/at-colleges-nationwide-esports-teams-dominated-by-men-154793">At colleges nationwide, esports teams dominated by men</a>
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<hr>
<h2>4. Lessons from the tech field: Diversity and equity require women with power</h2>
<p>The roots of esports’ toxic culture lie in decades of gender discrimination in the technology field as a whole. That discrimination has proved stubborn.</p>
<p>“In 1995, pioneering computer scientist Anita Borg challenged the tech community to a moonshot: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nImg8vPUe4">equal representation of women in tech by 2020</a>,” writes Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HzqQ2wYAAAAJ&hl=en">Francine Berman</a>. “Twenty-five years later, we’re still far from that goal. In 2018, fewer than 30% of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/4/11/17225574/facebook-tech-diversity-women">employees in tech’s biggest companies</a> and 20% of <a href="https://research.swe.org/2016/08/tenure-tenure-track-faculty-levels/">faculty in university computer science departments</a> were women.”</p>
<p>Reversing discrimination is a matter of changing cultures within organizations. “Diverse leadership is a critical part of creating diverse cultures,” she writes. “Women are more likely to thrive in environments where they have not only stature, but responsibility, resources, influence, opportunity and power.”</p>
<p>“Culture change is a marathon, not a sprint, requiring constant vigilance, many small decisions, and often changes in who holds power,” she writes. “My experience as supercomputer center head, and with the Research Data Alliance, the Sloan Foundation and other groups has shown me that organizations can create positive and more diverse environments.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-tech-field-failed-a-25-year-challenge-to-achieve-gender-equality-by-2020-culture-change-is-key-to-getting-on-track-144779">The tech field failed a 25-year challenge to achieve gender equality by 2020 – culture change is key to getting on track</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. The myth of meritocracy is an impediment to equality</h2>
<p>The myth of meritocracy is a large part of the longevity of gender discrimination in the tech field. That myth says that success is a result of skill and effort, and that women’s representation is a reflection of their abilities.</p>
<p>In the U.S., <a href="https://www.nawbo.org/resources/women-business-owner-statistics">women own 39%</a> of all privately owned businesses but receive only around 4% of venture capital funding, according to Brown University professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Vj4crUIAAAAJ&hl=en">Banu Ozkazanc-Pan</a>. </p>
<p>“Yet the meritocracy myth, which <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2982414">my research shows</a> has a stronghold in the world of entrepreneurship, means that women are constantly told that all they have to do to get more of that <a href="https://nvca.org/pressreleases/total-venture-capital-dollars-invested-2017-track-reach-decade-high/">$22 billion or so in venture capital funding</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258717728028">make better pitches</a> or be more assertive,” she writes.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>What the tech field calls meritocracy is in fact gender-biased and results in mostly white men gaining access to resources and funding. “By continuing to believe in meritocracy and maintaining practices associated with it, gender equality will remain a distant goal,” she writes. </p>
<p>Adopting <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/metoo-sexual-harassment-what-experts-say/">gender-aware approaches</a>, including setting concrete goals for gender balance, is key to correcting the imbalances caused by the meritocracy myth.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-in-tech-suffer-because-of-american-myth-of-meritocracy-94269">Women in tech suffer because of American myth of meritocracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Sexual harassment and discrimination in gaming and tech is not inevitable or permanent, write experts in the field. The solutions are positive community standards and women in power.Eric Smalley, Science + Technology EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1643842021-07-21T12:16:05Z2021-07-21T12:16:05ZWhy women need male allies in the workplace – and why fighting everyday sexism enriches men too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412165/original/file-20210720-25-pimwyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C92%2C4015%2C3284&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women who perceive their male colleagues as allies are more likely to feel included in a workplace. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-in-office-royalty-free-image/641199918">10'000 Hours/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-about-you-how-to-be-a-male-ally-158134">Women</a> and <a href="https://www.heforshe.org/en/movement">groups advocating for gender equality</a> are increasingly urging men to become allies in the fight. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/0018726710377932">Research has shown</a> that in the absence of male support, women have to shoulder the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/vio0000239">burden of battling routine workplace sexism</a> <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Everyday-Sexism/Laura-Bates/9781471149207">such as misogynist humor and microaggressions</a> on their own. This can lead to a sense of isolation, stress and exhaustion. </p>
<p>But what difference can one un-sexist man make? </p>
<p>My colleagues and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=MJOZYWsAAAAJ">I had a hunch</a> that the actions of individual male allies – even <a href="https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article240232761.html">through simple acts</a> such as highlighting the strengths of female colleagues or checking in on their well-being – might serve as a counterweight to the negative effects of everyday sexism. But not only that, we decided to study how that might impact men as well.</p>
<h2>How to behave like an ally</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I tested these hunches in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/men0000355">new study published in the journal Psychology of Men and Masculinities</a>.</p>
<p>We recruited 101 pairs of male and female colleagues employed in male-dominated departments across 64 research universities in the United States and Canada. We asked department heads to distribute our survey to female faculty members, and we then invited the women who responded to nominate a male colleague they work with regularly to take a companion survey. </p>
<p>We asked the women to what extent the male colleague they nominated behaved as an ally, such as by taking public stances on issues facing women and standing up when he sees discrimination. We also asked women if they felt like the colleague appreciated them – <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2011">which is seen as a sign of inclusion</a> – and how enthusiastic they felt working with him. </p>
<p>We asked the men to what extent they thought they behaved as allies, such as by reading up on the unique experiences of women or confronting sexist colleagues. We also wanted to know the extent to which they felt their support for women helped them “do better things” with their lives and acquire new skills that help them become a “better family member.” All answers were reported on a scale.</p>
<h2>More inclusion for women, more growth for men</h2>
<p>Just under half of women rated their male colleague as a strong ally. We found that women who perceived their male colleagues as allies reported higher levels of inclusion than those who didn’t, which is also why they said they experienced greater enthusiasm in working with them. </p>
<p>In other words, having men as allies in male-dominated workplaces seems to help women feel like they belong, and this helps them function enthusiastically with their male colleagues on the job. </p>
<p>This pattern has important long-term implications. If women feel energized and included, they might be more likely to stay with their employer – rather than quit – and strive to change a sexist workplace. </p>
<p>Men who were more likely to act as allies to women reported proportionately higher levels of personal growth and were more likely to say they acquired skills that made them better husbands, fathers, brothers and sons. This tendency suggests the possibility that being a male ally creates positive ripple effects that extend beyond the workplace. </p>
<h2>An important first step</h2>
<p>Despite these promising results, our research has a few caveats.</p>
<p>Our study found men and women often have differing perceptions of who is an ally. For example, 37% of women whose male colleagues saw themselves as strong allies disagreed with that assessment. And just over half of the men who were perceived as strong allies by women didn’t see themselves that way. </p>
<p>Yet, men benefited from seeing themselves as allies whether or not their female colleagues agreed. And importantly, women gained from perceiving their male colleagues as allies, even when the latter didn’t view themselves that way. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Our findings are also limited given the small sample size. And we don’t know what the men who identified themselves as allies have actually done, if anything, to help women. But that may be somewhat beside the point. </p>
<p>Ultimately, even men’s mere signaling that they want to be good allies is an important first step toward a shift in the way <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00300.x">many men have historically treated the women</a> in their lives. We believe it also leads to more workplace equality. </p>
<p>When women perceive men as supportive colleagues, it makes them feel more integral to the workplace. This suggests a good starting point for men who want to be allies: find more ways to express that support at work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meg Warren received funding for this study from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. </span></em></p>While women felt more included when they perceived male colleagues as allies, men who saw themselves that way reported more personal growth as a result.Meg Warren, Associate Professor of Management, Western Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1640542021-07-13T12:28:19Z2021-07-13T12:28:19ZJohn Glenn’s fan mail shows many girls dreamed of the stars – but sexism in the early space program thwarted their ambitions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410471/original/file-20210708-13-wpft69.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C496%2C398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Glenn, in the NASA mailroom, received letters from fans of all ages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/50581">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pioneering spacefarer John Herschel Glenn Jr. would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. </p>
<p>When Glenn died in 2016, the famed astronaut was lauded as “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/opinion/john-glenn-the-last-american-hero.html">the last genuine American hero</a>.” <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/806960800669794305">NASA</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/USMC/status/806962798446211073">U.S. Marine Corps</a>, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/08/statement-president-passing-john-glenn">President Barack Obama</a> and many others <a href="https://www.facebook.com/potus/photos/a.428389484017564.1073741830.424207551102424/573534829503028/?type=3&theater">posted tributes on social media</a>. </p>
<p>Hundreds of nostalgic fans testified to Glenn’s impact on their own senses of youthful possibility. One woman recalled being a fifth grader in February 1962, listening to coverage of Glenn’s orbital flight at school on a transistor radio: “This was the definition of the future … I wanted to do hard math with slide rules and learn hard languages and solve mysteries. I wanted to be like John Glenn.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Word cloud made from readers’ comments on The New York Times obituary, Dec. 8-9, 2016.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Glenn’s <a href="http://johnandannieglennmuseum.org/">life and legacy</a> continue to be widely celebrated. Yet recent <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003243">scholarship</a> on the early Space Age has reawakened questions about the ways <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237391">gender, race, ethnicity and class</a> shaped the human space flight program in the U.S.</p>
<p>Was America’s first starman really everybody’s hero? </p>
<h2>‘Even though I am a girl…’</h2>
<p>As a historian undertaking a major research project called “<a href="https://youtu.be/2bmax47C4fQ?t=2590">A Sky Full of Stars: Girls and Space-Age Cultures in Cold War America and the Soviet Union</a>,” I have analyzed hundreds of fan mail letters written by girls in the U.S. and USSR to the spacefarers Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn and Valentina Tereshkova. I set out to discover how young people experienced the early triumphs of human space flight, and how the dramatic events they witnessed influenced their own senses of what they could aspire to and achieve.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schoolgirls in New York, 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research in the <a href="https://library.osu.edu/oca/glenn-archives">John H. Glenn Archives</a> at The Ohio State University revealed that the majority of American girls’ letters to Glenn conformed to established gender conventions.</p>
<p>Girls frequently congratulated the astronaut on stereotypically masculine characteristics – strength and bravery – while denying that they themselves possessed those qualities. Some were openly flirtatious, offering admiring personal comments on Glenn’s appearance, physique and sex appeal. Some also wrote to request an autograph or glossy photo, embracing a well-established culture of celebrity and fandom that was pervasive among American girls of the era. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High school yearbook picture of one letter writer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ancestry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The letters that interest me most are from girls who were so inspired by Glenn’s accomplishment that they envisioned for themselves a place in the STEM world of science, technology, engineering and math.</p>
<p>Some wrote to Glenn to report about their science fair projects or rocket design clubs and to ask for technical advice. Some expressed the desire to follow their hero into careers in aviation and astronautics, even as they expressed skepticism that such a path would be open to them. </p>
<p>The formulation “even though I am a girl I hope to be just like you” in various manifestations appeared as a steady refrain in girls’ letters.</p>
<p>Diane A. of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, wrote, “I would very much like to become an astronaut, but since I am a 15-year-old girl I guess that would be impossible.”</p>
<p>Suzanne K. from Fairfax, Virginia, was more defiant: “I hope I go to the moon sometime when I’m older. I’m a girl but if men can go in space so can women.”</p>
<p>Carol C. of Glendale, New York, wrote to ask “this one simple question concerning a woman’s place in space. Will she only be needed around Cape Canaveral or will she eventually accompany an astronaut into space? If so I sure wish I were she.”</p>
<p>The news that “the Russians” had sent a woman into space in June 1963 emboldened some girls to ask Glenn more pointed questions.</p>
<p>Ella H., an African American girl from segregated Meridian, Mississippi, wrote on behalf of her junior high school class to inquire, “What were our male astronauts’ reactions when Russia’s female astronaut made more orbits than they? … Do you seven male astronauts think that a woman will go into space within the next two years?” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Patricia A. of Newport News, Virginia, asked Glenn outright, “Do you think that sending women into space is a very good idea?”</p>
<h2>Glenn and the ‘problem’ of ‘lady astronauts’</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Although Jerrie Cobb never flew in space, she and 24 other women (including Wally Funk) underwent physical tests similar to those taken by the Mercury astronauts with the belief that she might become an astronaut trainee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JerrieCobb_MercuryCapsule.jpg">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While few of his replies to letter writers were preserved in the archive, those that exist suggest Glenn avoided encouraging girls’ dreams of flight and space exploration.</p>
<p>Fourteen-year-old Carol S. in Brooklyn wrote to her “idol” to share her “strong desire to be an astronaut” and seek Glenn’s advice on how to overcome the obstacle of being a girl, “a slight problem it seems.” Glenn replied four months later to thank Carol for her letter, but rather than answering her query directly he enclosed “some literature which I hope will answer your questions.”</p>
<p>A girl named “Pudge” from Springfield, Illinois sent a long enthusiastic letter sharing her plans to join the Air Force and her “thrill at the sight or sound of jets, helicopters (especially the H-37A ‘Mojave’) rockets or anything connected with space, the Air Force or flying.” Glenn sent a friendly reply including “some literature about the space program which I hope you will enjoy,” but said nothing about the viability of the girl’s aspirations. </p>
<p>Hard evidence of Glenn’s position on the question of “lady astronauts” came in the form of his congressional testimony in July 1962. A Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics was formed in response to the quashing of the privately funded “<a href="http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html">woman in space</a>” program and related allegations of sex discrimination at NASA.</p>
<p>A March 1962 <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/nasa%E2%80%99s-early-stand-women-astronauts-%E2%80%9Cno-present-plans-include-women-space-flights%E2%80%9D">letter from the director of NASA’s Office of Public Services and Information</a> to a young girl who had written to President John F. Kennedy to ask if she could become an astronaut stated that “we have no present plans to employ women on space flights because of the degree of scientific and flight training, and the physical characteristics, which are required.”</p>
<p>Glenn’s testimony before the subcommittee echoed that position. In his opinion, the best-qualified astronauts were those who had experience as military pilots, a career path that was closed to women. In a <a href="https://scholarlypress.si.edu/store/air-space/spacefarers-images-astronauts-and-cosmonauts/">much-quoted statement</a>, Glenn asserted that “the men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.” The <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Qualifications_for_Astronauts/xGIVAAAAIAAJ?hl=en">subcommittee’s final report</a> concurred, effectively barring female applicants from consideration for the Apollo missions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="smiling girl stands in front of a John Glenn space mural" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photo included in letter to John Glenn, February 2000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Girls in space</h2>
<p>The relationship between Glenn and his young female fans was complicated by the male-dominated cultures of mid-20th-century America. Prevailing gender stereotypes, limited opportunities, sexism and a lack of STEM role models all stood between girls’ dreams and the stars.</p>
<p>Glenn’s position on the “lady astronaut” problem evolved in a more egalitarian direction after he left NASA. As historian <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/integrating-women-astronaut-corps">Amy E. Foster noted</a>, a May 1965 Miami Herald article headlined “Glenn Sees Place for Girls In Space” quoted the astronaut as saying that NASA’s plans to develop a new “scientist-astronaut” program should “offer a serious chance for space women.”</p>
<p>Glenn’s prediction was on the mark. The “social order” that Glenn discussed in July 1962 has shifted dramatically in the intervening decades. NASA’s space shuttle program opened the door for Sally Ride’s voyage in 1983, <a href="https://theconversation.com/astronaut-sally-k-rides-legacy-encouraging-young-women-to-embrace-science-and-engineering-97371">establishing her as a powerful inspiration for girls</a>. While cultural obstacles remain, NASA has <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-giant-leap-for-humankind-future-moon-missions-will-include-diverse-astronauts-and-more-partners-117064">diversified the astronaut corps</a> significantly and has taken conscious <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/final_di_plan_8-15-16_tagged.pdf">steps to make the agency more inclusive overall</a>.</p>
<p>A much wider spectrum of positive STEM role models exists for girls today. The book and film “<a href="http://margotleeshetterly.com/hidden-figures-nasas-african-american-computers">Hidden Figures</a>” celebrated the accomplishments of <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-lessons-from-hidden-figures-nasa-mathematician-katherine-johnsons-life-and-career-132481">Katherine Johnson</a>, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn – three Black women of NASA who helped make Glenn’s success possible. <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/oct/10/makers-season-two-women-space/">Documentaries</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/whm-recent-female-astronauts">websites</a> record the stories of pioneering female spacefarers. Television series including “<a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/for-all-mankind/umc.cmc.6wsi780sz5tdbqcf11k76mkp7">For All Mankind</a>” and “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80214512">Away</a>” imagine a past and future where female astronauts are central to American ambitions in space. </p>
<p>Women’s opportunities in the real world are expanding as well. Two of <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/virgin-galactic-launch-the-age-of-space-tourism-is-here-we-talked-to-the-first-two-women-on-board">Virgin Galactic’s first flown astronauts</a> are women. At 82, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/jeff-bezos-wally-funk-blue-origin/619344/">Mercury 13 alumna Wally Funk</a> is poised to break <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/john-glenns-return-space-discovery">Glenn’s record</a> as the oldest human in space when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014309461/wally-funk-space-bezos-blue-origin">she flies with Blue Origins on July 20, 2021</a>. </p>
<p>As barriers continue to fall, NASA has grand plans for the revival of human spaceflight. Prompted in part by <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-are-less-supportive-of-space-exploration-getting-a-woman-on-the-moon-might-change-that-118986">women’s tepid support</a> for high-stakes missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA is taking unprecedented steps to showcase the talents and ambitions of female astronauts. After an <a href="https://theconversation.com/female-astronauts-how-performance-products-like-space-suits-and-bras-are-designed-to-pave-the-way-for-womens-accomplishments-114346">initial misstep</a>, the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/female-astronauts-how-performance-products-like-space-suits-and-bras-are-designed-to-pave-the-way-for-womens-accomplishments-114346">all-female spacewalk</a> took place in October 2019. More importantly, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-team/">Project Artemis</a> promises to land a woman on the Moon in 2024.</p>
<p>Fan mail letters to John Glenn offer a potent reminder that astronaut heroics can have a powerful <a href="https://rocket-women.com/category/inspirational-women/">impact on young people’s attitudes and aspirations</a>. A woman on the Moon is sure to inspire a new generation of girls to reach for the stars. NASA is banking on just that.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-though-i-am-a-girl-john-glenns-fan-mail-and-sexism-in-the-early-space-program-70252">an article</a> originally published on Dec. 12, 2016.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roshanna P. Sylvester received funding for this research from the American Philosophical Society, the Spencer Foundation, the Kennan Institute, and DePaul University.</span></em></p>John Glenn would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. Today’s space program is a giant leap more inclusive than when he made his pioneering orbit of the Earth in 1962.Roshanna P. Sylvester, Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices and Digital Humanities, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1634922021-06-29T19:58:11Z2021-06-29T19:58:11ZCan the government get its workplace harassment laws right? Its bill is a missed opportunity<p>It’s been over a year since Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ report on sexual harassment in the workplace in Australia, <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/respectwork-sexual-harassment-national-inquiry-report-2020">Respect@Work</a>, was released.</p>
<p>After a long delay, the Morrison government published its <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protections/publications/roadmap-for-respect">response</a> to the report in April, and followed up by quietly <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=s1306">introducing a bill</a> to legislate some of these changes last week. </p>
<p>The bill proposes changes primarily to the Sex Discrimination Act and the Fair Work Act. While some of these changes are welcome and long overdue, the bill doesn’t go nearly far enough to protect women or prevent harassment at work.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-roadmap-for-dealing-with-sexual-harassment-falls-short-what-we-need-is-radical-change-158431">The government's 'roadmap' for dealing with sexual harassment falls short. What we need is radical change</a>
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<h2>Major changes to the Sex Discrimination Act</h2>
<p>There are three major proposed changes to the Sex Discrimination Act that focus on sexual harassment. </p>
<p>First, protection would be expanded to cover harassment based on a person’s sex, such as comments or actions that “seriously demean” women, in addition to sexual harassment. </p>
<p>Second, the time limit to make a claim under the act would be extended from six months to two years. </p>
<p>Third, more workers would be protected from sexual harassment beyond just direct employees and contractors. Subcontractors, labour hire workers, outworkers, trainees, unpaid work experience students and volunteers would also be included. </p>
<p>The sexual harassment and sex-based harassment provisions would also be extended to cover members of parliament, as well as their staff and judges at both state and federal levels for the first time. These groups are not currently subject to the Sex Discrimination Act. </p>
<p>State public servants would be covered under the act (joining federal public servants). Previously, they would have only been subject to state anti-discrimination laws.</p>
<h2>Threshold for demeaning language too high</h2>
<p>There is much to commend in these proposed amendments, but other changes are expressed in a way that is likely to limit their scope or effect. </p>
<p>The extension of protections to cover sex-based harassment, such as misogynist language that demeans or degrades women, is a very important step forward. But it has not been included in the Fair Work Act changes (discussed below). Moreover, it would require a higher standard than the sexual harassment provisions to prove. </p>
<p>To succeed in a case involving sex-based harassment, for instance, it would be necessary to prove not only that the behaviour is offensive, humiliating or intimidating, but also that the conduct is <em>seriously demeaning</em>. </p>
<p>This unfortunately suggests sex-based harassment that is not seriously demeaning is acceptable. </p>
<p>Discrimination and harassment often happen through frequently repeated, small or nuanced transgressions, rather than singular, dramatic actions. A threshold of “seriously demeaning” is too high.</p>
<h2>More workplace protections — but only to a point</h2>
<p>The proposed changes to the Fair Work Act make clear that sexual harassment is a workplace health and safety issue, like bullying. This means sexual harassment will be treated as a form of bullying, which can be addressed through a stop order made by the Fair Work Commission. </p>
<p>In addition, the Fair Work Act would be amended to make clear sexual harassment falls within the definition of serious misconduct and can be a legitimate reason for dismissal from employment. </p>
<p>Importantly, the government rejected Jenkins’s recommendation to include language that expressly prohibits sexual harassment in the Fair Work Act. </p>
<p>This means a person who is subjected to sexual harassment will not be able to seek compensation under the Fair Work Act; that person would still need to bring an claim under anti-discrimination laws at the state or federal level. </p>
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<p>Another problem is the changes to the Fair Work Act would not include the new provision for sex-based harassment. The bill does not see sex-based harassment as a workplace health and safety issue, or as serious misconduct.</p>
<p>Both of these omissions demonstrate an ongoing reluctance to fully integrate anti-discrimination principles into workplace law. </p>
<p>Jenkins’s report recommended that employers should be required to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate both sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination at work, but the government has resisted this, claiming work health and safety laws are sufficient. </p>
<p>With such a requirement under the law, employers could be held liable — including for compensation — if they do not make sufficient efforts to prevent harassment or discrimination in their workplace.</p>
<p>Legal claims under anti-discrimination laws can be riskier than those under the Fair Work Act because different rules apply about paying the other side’s legal costs if you lose the case. As a result, those who are harassed at work are still being denied access to the most effective procedures to bring their claims.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-wake-of-the-dyson-heydon-allegations-heres-how-the-legal-profession-can-reform-sexual-harassment-142560">In the wake of the Dyson Heydon allegations, here's how the legal profession can reform sexual harassment</a>
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<p>Another problem is the Fair Work Act would only protect against sexual harassment while a person is “at work”. </p>
<p>This overlooks the use of social media outside working hours, which is now a major avenue for bullying and harassment. It also might not cover work-related harassment that occurs off-site or out of hours. </p>
<p>The government has introduced some significant changes in the bill, which are to be commended. But in some respects, this is a missed opportunity to fully embrace Jenkins’s report and implement comprehensive change. </p>
<p>The narrow drafting of this bill and, in particular, the failure to fully protect against sex-based harassment should be addressed before it is adopted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Gaze receives research funding from the Gender Equality Commission (Victoria). </span></em></p>The bill put forth last week would bring welcome reforms to the Sex Discrimination Act and Fair Work Act. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough to protect women or prevent harassment at work.Beth Gaze, Professor of Law, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1574272021-03-18T08:55:54Z2021-03-18T08:55:54ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Zali Steggall on Monday’s march and Scott Morrison’s response<p>On Monday, women across the nation marched, demanding justice, safety and equality. But the government’s response was lacklustre, with Scott Morrison and the Minister for Women Marise Payne refusing to go outside to the crowd. </p>
<p>Morrison later chose his words badly when he said: “Not far from here, such marches, even now are being met with bullets, but not here in this country”.</p>
<p>Independent MP Zali Steggall described Morrison’s comments as “incredibly sad” and “just stunning”.</p>
<p>A former lawyer and olympian, Steggall is currently championing two private member’s bills - a proposal for a national climate change framework, and an amendment to the sex discrimination act which would allow judges, MPs, and statutory appointees to be prosecuted for sexual harassment.</p>
<p>Steggall is disappointed in the government’s response to the strong push for women’s rights. “I’ve been quite baffled to understand the Prime Minister’s response to this situation and the [rape] allegations.”</p>
<p>And she doesn’t believe Payne has been much better. “I’ve been absolutely, really disappointed with the minister for women’s response.”</p>
<p>She is somewhat more encouraged by the government’s changing attitude towards climate change, noting Morrison’s language has changed “dramatically” in the last 12 months. But simply saying he wants to get to net zero “as soon as possible” is not good enough, she says.</p>
<p>“That’s not the certainty that business and the private sector are looking for. They are looking for it to be legislated, and with a clear pathway.”</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/politics-with-michelle-grattan/id703425900?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3BvbGl0aWNzLXdpdGgtbWljaGVsbGUtZ3JhdHRhbi5yc3M"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation-4/politics-with-michelle-grattan"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Politics-with-Michelle-Grattan-p227852/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-WRElBZ"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5NkaSQoUERalaLBQAqUOcC"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p><a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score/Lee_Rosevere_-_The_Big_Loop_-_FML_original_podcast_score_-_10_A_List_of_Ways_to_Die">A List of Ways to Die</a>, Lee Rosevere, from Free Music Archive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle discusses the culture of parliament house, and climate change, with independent MP Zali Steggall.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1547932021-03-12T13:44:50Z2021-03-12T13:44:50ZAt colleges nationwide, esports teams dominated by men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384591/original/file-20210216-15-1cuncvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C5734%2C3759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women players are often targets of to gender-based verbal attacks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-photo-taken-on-february-13-a-woman-plays-a-video-news-photo/1135427215?adppopup=true">Matthew Knight/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graphic: 8.2% of college esports players are women" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389262/original/file-20210312-21-yopusv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p><em>Although esports – competitive, organized video gaming – has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/27/us/esports-what-is-video-game-professional-league-madden-trnd">exploded into a billion-dollar industry</a>, women players are hard to find on esports teams at America’s colleges and universities. In the following Q&A, Lindsey Darvin, an assistant professor of sport management, shines light on the reasons.</em></p>
<h2>1. Why are college esports dominated by men?</h2>
<p>Women and girls experience many <a href="https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/jade/vol2/iss1/3/">obstacles</a> throughout esports environments – both in terms of participation and employment. These include the way they are subjected to gender-based harassmment from male esport players, toxic masculinity, stereotyping and prejudices, as I and colleagues wrote in a forthcoming article for the <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/sport-management-review">Sport Management Review</a>.</p>
<p>These circumstances have resulted in lower numbers of women and girls in varsity collegiate esports. </p>
<p><iframe id="zL9rF" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zL9rF/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Prior research has established that there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.25035/jade.02.01.03">disparities in how women players are treated</a>.</p>
<p>Male opponents and spectators contribute to these hostile esports environments <a href="https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/jade/vol2/iss1/3/">more often</a> than women by insulting, swearing at and belittling fellow gamers, male and female alike. Men have stated that they are significantly more likely – 20%, based on my analysis – to engage in hostile actions.</p>
<p>To overcome the hostility, women gamers will often not use their real names or the voice chat features to avoid being identified as women. A woman professional gamer stated in the forthcoming Sport Management Review article, “Toxicity 100% exists. You have women gamers who don’t identify themselves as being female because of the fact that they don’t want to deal with the backlash in chat. You are seeing chat that is very negative for women, and that’s not fair.”</p>
<p>These acts reinforce an unwelcoming environment for women and girls. Women and girls commonly receive <a href="http://www.wsanz.org.nz/journal/docs/WSJNZ291Todd64-67.pdf">death threats and threats of sexual assault</a>. A professional woman gamer explained in my forthcoming article, “Girls are scared, women are scared to even try to compete or get better because … men are telling them they don’t know how to play the game, and they’ll never be at their skill level. They’re so terrified to even get started.” </p>
<p>When women do reach competitive esports levels and win tournaments, they are often <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-016-0678-y">marginalized</a>. An esports player development professional told me, “If a woman is not good at a game, it’s okay, because they’re a ‘girl.’ Not a woman. It’s okay because they’re a ‘girl.’ Like small, meek, young. These are the predatory, belittling language and thought processes that women encounter.”</p>
<p>At the college varsity level of play, a current professional woman gamer explained, “In college I was the token female playing. It was very clear that you can really only have one girl on your team and it was used as a tool.”</p>
<h2>2. Why does it matter?</h2>
<p>Increasingly colleges are giving out scholarships for gamers. However, women and girls are missing out on these scholarship opportunities and the educational benefits that they entail.</p>
<p>Through the National Association of Collegiate Esports, <a href="https://nacesports.org/nace-and-skillshot-strategic-partnership/">$16 million in esports scholarships</a> are awarded annually. About <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-02-27-esports-scholarships-are-growing-do-they-leave-some-students-behind">115 colleges and universities offer these scholarships</a>.</p>
<p>Beyond the participation and monetary losses for women and girls, the detrimental outcome of fewer female role models in esports generates a somewhat cyclical phenomenon. It is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4132808?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">difficult to be what you cannot see</a>. The top-earning man in professional esports – Jordan “N0tail” Sundstein – has brought in roughly <a href="https://www.esportsearnings.com/players">$7 million in career earnings</a>, while the top-earning woman, Sasha “Scarlett” Hostyn, has brought in just over <a href="https://www.lineups.com/esports/top-10-women-esports-players-in-the-world/">$300,000</a>. </p>
<p>Additional benefits are associated with competitive esports participation. Studies have linked it to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/16/esports-and-stem-education-a-2020-perspective/?sh=1711d6c84eae">improved self-esteem, technological proficiency, graduation rates and visual-spatial reasoning</a>, as well as more meaningful social interaction. </p>
<p>Competitive esports participation also aligns well with science, technology, engineering and mathematics – or STEM – both in terms of <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2018-06-12/commentary-game-to-grow-esports-as-a-learning-platform">education</a> and careers. </p>
<h2>3. Can women compete with men?</h2>
<p>Women and girls have proved their ability to compete with and consistently beat male competitors at top-level events. For instance, in 2019, Li “Liooon” Xiaomeng was the first woman to win the Hearthstone Grandmasters Global Finals. <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/fortnite/twitchcon-2019-fortnite-rivals-tournament-final-placements-1075665/">Tina “TINARAES” Perez</a> placed first at 2019 Twitch Rivals: TwitchCon Fortnite Showdown. <a href="https://www.dailyesports.gg/twitch-rivals-won-ez-clap-league/">Janet “xChocoBars” Rose</a> placed first in the 2019 Twitch Rivals: League of Legends tournament as part of team EZ Clap. <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/05/16/overwatch-leagues-geguri-named-as-one-of-times-2019-next-generation-leaders">Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon</a> was named one of Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders in 2019 for being one of the most successful esports players in an otherwise male-dominated sport.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman uses a VR headset an a console while playing a video game." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384586/original/file-20210216-19-198svnn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman plays a virtual-reality game during the E-Sports & Music Festival in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-plays-a-virtual-reality-game-during-the-e-sports-and-news-photo/1164337694?adppopup=true">Ivan Abreu/Getty Images for Hong Kong Tourism Board</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>4. Do colleges need to do something?</h2>
<p>There is high interest in esports among women and girls. Approximately <a href="https://cheddar.com/media/the-study-of-female-gamers-sentiment-towards-esports">48% of women participate in video games that are considered to belong in the esports category</a>. This percentage of women participants jumps to <a href="https://www.sportsintegrityinitiative.com/gaming-gender-how-inclusive-are-esports/">57%</a> for women ages 18-29. Women are engaged in gaming, viewing livestreams and competing on average <a href="https://cheddar.com/media/the-study-of-female-gamers-sentiment-towards-esports">15 hours per week</a>. During 2019, <a href="https://cheddar.com/media/the-study-of-female-gamers-sentiment-towards-esports">11 million women</a> viewed a Twitch livestream.</p>
<p>Colleges and universities that receive U.S. federal aid have an obligation to improve opportunity and access to participation based on <a href="http://www2.edc.org/WomensEquity/resource/title9/t9faq.htm#fact">Title IX policy</a>, which prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Conferences-Events/2017/IAF/Speakers/AJ-Dimick.aspx">A.J. Dimick</a>, the director of esports operations at the University of Utah, told me that “the formative stages of collegiate esports aren’t sufficiently addressing representation and diversity and could benefit from Title IX oversight and scrutiny.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.equityinesports.com/">Initiatives</a> geared toward generating inclusive esports environments for women and girls have already begun. <a href="https://www.teamliquid.com/">Team Liquid</a>, a professional esports organization founded in 2000 with teams across the globe, announced in January the creation of a <a href="https://www.teamliquid.com/news/2021/01/13/aerial-powers-joins-team-liquid-as-streamer-and-diversity-ambassador">diversity task force</a> and hired Women’s National Basketball Association star and esports gamer Aerial Powers as their first diversity ambassador. In September 2020, PNC Bank and the Pittsburgh Knights created a <a href="https://knights.gg/article/pnc-bank-pittsburgh-knights-launch-women-in-esports-initiative/">Women in Esports Steering Committee</a> to develop solutions for gender equity disparities in the esports industry. </p>
<p>These initiatives provide evidence of a changing esports landscape and an effort to bring women and girls into this space. As collegiate varsity esports continue to grow, institutions must consider their own role in generating opportunities for all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154793/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lindsey Darvin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Women are a rarity in college esports. A scholar explores the reasons.Lindsey Darvin, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, State University of New York CortlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1409032020-06-16T19:15:39Z2020-06-16T19:15:39ZSupreme Court expands workplace equality to LGBTQ employees, but questions remain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342266/original/file-20200616-23231-17gklex.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather near the Stonewall Inn in New York City to celebrate the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on LGBTQ workers' rights.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-at-the-historic-stonewall-inn-to-celebrate-news-photo/1220372240">John Lamparski/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even before the Supreme Court’s June 15 decision, many Americans <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-stonewall-equality/americans-perception-of-lgbtq-rights-under-federal-law-largely-incorrect-reuters-ipsos-idUSKCN1TC120">already – and incorrectly – believed</a> that federal law protected lesbians, gay men and transgender people from being fired or otherwise discriminated against at work.</p>
<p>The road to the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/06/opinion-analysis-federal-employment-discrimination-law-protects-gay-and-transgender-employees/">ruling confirming that belief</a> involved years of advocacy and many losses – and while this <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf">decision</a> is a landmark in that effort, more legal work remains to be done to determine the full scope of LGBTQ workers’ rights.</p>
<h2>Concerns about sex discrimination</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3038&context=bclr">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a> was a historic law that banned U.S. employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of their race, color, religion, national origin and sex. </p>
<p>During the bill’s debate, members of the House and Senate had lengthy discussions about discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion and national origin – but <a href="https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1377&context=lawineq">the “sex” category sparked little serious debate</a>. </p>
<p>Early legal and advocacy efforts from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/lasr.12155">the National Organization for Women and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission</a> helped lead the Supreme Court to begin to acknowledge, in the early 1970s, that some forms of discrimination against women were illegal. The first major ruling on this issue was in 1971, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/400/542/">striking down an employer policy of not hiring mothers</a> of preschool-age children, though fathers of children in that age group were welcomed. Sex stereotyping, the court explained, violated the law.</p>
<p>In 1978, the court followed up, ruling that an <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/435/702/">employer could not require women to contribute more</a> to pension funds than men, even though women tend to live longer than men.</p>
<h2>The struggle for LGBTQ rights</h2>
<p>Protecting gay, lesbian, and transgender rights was still a ways off. In 1979, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/608/327/249197/">discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation</a> was not sex discrimination, and therefore was not illegal. That same year, the Fifth Circuit <a href="https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case/reporter/F2/597/597.F2d.936.78-3536.html">dismissed a similar suit</a>. In 1984, the Seventh Circuit likewise found that a person who had been fired after fully transitioning to a woman <a href="http://www.transgenderlaw.org/cases/ulane.htm">could not sue for discrimination</a>.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until 1998 that the Supreme Court acknowledged the existence of LGBTQ issues in the workplace. In <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-568.ZO.html">Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services</a>, a male plaintiff claimed that he had faced sexual harassment from his male co-workers. Their employer responded that the law did not prohibit same-sex harassment. A unanimous court, led by Justice Antonin Scalia, disagreed and allowed the suit to proceed.</p>
<p>But that ruling did not make clear whether workers could be fired, demoted or disciplined on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Congress tried to address the question, and the Senate and the House of Representatives have <a href="https://time.com/5554531/equality-act-lgbt-rights-trump/">separately passed bills recognizing this form of discrimination</a> – but never in the same legislative session, which means it couldn’t become law. And different appeals courts have issued rulings that disagree with each other, producing inconsistent national standards.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342269/original/file-20200616-23266-98zinj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man holds a pride flag in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after a ruling protecting LGBTQ workers’ rights.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/joseph-fons-holding-a-pride-flag-in-front-of-the-u-s-news-photo/1249824201">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Three cases come to Washington, D.C.</h2>
<p>In fall 2019, the Supreme Court agreed to review three cases about employment discrimination against LGBTQ workers. </p>
<p>Two of the cases, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/17-1618-opinion-below.pdf">Bostock v. Clayton County</a> and <a href="https://casetext.com/case/zarda-v-altitude-express-inc-1">Altitude Express v. Zarda</a>, involved gay men who claimed they were illegally fired for being gay. The plaintiff in the third case was Aimee Stephens, who <a href="https://casetext.com/case/equal-empt-opportunity-commn-v-rg-gr-harris-funeral-homes-inc-5">lost her job</a> shortly after informing her employer that she intended to transition and would begin representing herself at work as a woman.</p>
<p>The core question in each was how to understand the law’s ban on sex discrimination.</p>
<p>Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, appointed to the court by President Donald Trump in 2017, wrote the majority opinion in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf">the 6-3 ruling</a> that resolved all three cases. Joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan, he declared that discrimination against homosexual, bisexual, and transgender people is inherently sex discrimination, and therefore illegal. </p>
<p>Gorsuch’s reasoning was straightforward: “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.” He imagines two model employees, one man and one woman, arriving at the boss’s holiday party with their wives: If the woman would be fired but not the man, Gorsuch wrote, that is sex discrimination.</p>
<h2>A changing understanding</h2>
<p>Gorsuch is best known as a conservative jurist, concerned about the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/01/neil-gorsuch-antonin-scalia-and-originalism-explained/">specific texts of laws and the original intentions</a> behind them. He rested his interpretation of the Civil Rights Act on the evolution of the law over the years. Since the law’s passage, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal courts have come to understand a broader definition of sex discrimination, covering motherhood, differential pension programs, pregnancy and sexual harassment. </p>
<p>This history, Gorsuch wrote, signals that the law was meant to be read, and used, in inclusive ways: “refus[ing] enforcement … because the parties before us happened to be unpopular at the time of the law’s passage … would tilt the scales of justice in favor of the strong … and neglect the promise that all persons are entitled to the benefit of the law’s terms.”</p>
<p>He summarized the court’s finding: “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law.”</p>
<h2>Concerns, and questions, remain</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=994&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342267/original/file-20200616-23217-1dkfvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1249&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman whose firing from her job was at the center of the Supreme Court case, died in May, before the ruling in her case was delivered.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Aimee-Stephens-Has-Passed-Away-at-59/7a9a0f359b254479a771de1f6c3597a8/3/0">Patsy Lynch/MediaPunch /IPX</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dissents came from Associate Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Clarence Thomas, and from Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. </p>
<p>Alito expressed concern that the new ruling “will threaten freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and personal privacy and safety.” He offered specific example concerns, including allowing people with penises to use women’s bathrooms, stacking women’s athletic competitions with athletes with “the strength and size of a male … and students who are taking male hormones,” assigning college roommates based on gender identity rather than sex, requiring religious organizations to hire LGBTQ people, and limiting free speech disapproving of LGBTQ individuals or their relationships.</p>
<p>Alito also feared that the court’s opinion might lay broader groundwork for a constitutional ruling protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity as strictly as it protects them from sex discrimination. </p>
<p>Many of these concerns may come before federal courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court, in years to come. Gorsuch’s ruling specifically did not decide on whether the results might, in some cases, tread inappropriately on religious liberty. </p>
<p>LGBTQ advocates are celebrating a major acknowledgment of their human rights, though with some sadness: <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/donald-zarda-man-center-major-gay-rights-case-never-got-n852846">Donald Zarda</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/aimee-stephens-supreme-court-dead.html">Aimee Stephens</a>, two of the three people at the center of the cases, died before learning of their cases’ resolution. And advocates know many more disputes – and court cases – are yet to come.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140903/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Novkov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Federal law now protects lesbians, gay men and transgender people from being fired or otherwise discriminated against at work. But there are more questions and court cases to come about their rights.Julie Novkov, Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University at Albany, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1371532020-05-19T12:13:44Z2020-05-19T12:13:44ZNew tool to measure gender bias in the workplace may help finally eliminate it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/334455/original/file-20200512-82375-18bhzvl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=334%2C127%2C4128%2C2843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A male-dominated culture is a common gender barrier for women.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">fizkes/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21389">new way to measure</a> the causes and magnitude of gender bias against women leaders in the workplace should make it easier to identify the sources of this kind of sexism and even help eliminate it, according to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hAchnpgAAAAJ&hl=e">just-published research I co-authored</a> with <a href="https://amy-diehl.com/">Amy Diehl</a>, <a href="https://www.biola.edu/directory/people/leanne-dzubinski">Leanne Dzubinski</a> and <a href="https://www.biola.edu/directory/people/david-wang">David Wang</a>. We surveyed more than 1,600 women in four industries – higher education, faith-based community organizations, health care and the legal profession – to better understand how women experience 15 common gender barriers, such as working in a <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/sgsm19610.doc.htm">male-dominated culture</a>, the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/glass-cliff.asp">glass cliff</a> and <a href="https://www.hrzone.com/hr-glossary/what-is-queen-bee-syndrome">queen bee syndrome</a>. We then used the findings to create a 47-item gender bias scale, which companies and other organizations can use to survey their women employees to more accurately and reliably measure their experiences with and perceptions of gender bias.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048984315001034?via%3Dihub">Research clearly shows</a> that gender biases are both real and costly to organizations. In our survey, 97% of respondents said they worry about how they come off to others when exercising authority, 87% downplay their accomplishments to others and 66% make less money than their male counterparts. And studies have found that companies without women in top leadership roles <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316628643">can hurt their sales</a> and <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/02/study-firms-with-more-women-in-the-c-suite-are-more-profitable">profitability</a>.</p>
<p>The problem is researchers have not been able to determine just how harmful or costly these biases are because it has been very challenging to measure. The few tools that previously existed tend to measure overt gender bias like harassment, rather than the subtle ones that are <a href="https://www.ablinlaw.com/blog-1/2018/2/27/are-these-subtle-forms-of-gender-discrimination-occurring-in-your-workplace">so pervasive</a>. With our scale, we can now better measure how women experience bias barriers like the glass cliff – when <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/17960156/what-is-the-glass-cliff-women-ceos">women are put in positions of power</a> when things are going poorly – and when women are held to higher performance standards than men. This should allow organizations to diagnose the level and specific types of bias women experience and to understand how their organizational culture affects women leaders. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Gender bias manifests itself differently in every industry. While we used four in our study, and the lessons learned from these four are applicable elsewhere, we still don’t know how these industries compare with others or those outside the U.S. </p>
<p>Additionally, we know that gender bias <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21248">occurs differently</a> at societal, organizational and individual levels. However, while our research measured bias that exists within each level, we still don’t know how bias interacts across them. </p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Our future work will explore these issues further. Much can be learned by determining how women leaders experience bias differently across organizations, industries and sectors. With a more nuanced understanding of bias and a tool that allows us to capture it, we hope to also explore how these 15 bias barriers interact with other identities, such as being a woman and a person of color. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amber Stephenson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The gender bias scale could help companies and other organizations better measure how women experience and perceive gender bias.Amber Stephenson, Assistant Professor of Management, Clarkson UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1279792019-12-05T12:39:47Z2019-12-05T12:39:47ZWhat’s in a title? When it comes to ‘Doctor,’ more than you might think<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304957/original/file-20191203-66986-im7o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a recent study, women doctors were more likely to be introduced by their first names rather than by their titles. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/image-enthusiastic-intern-looking-camera-129391076">Pressmaster/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you work in medicine, does it matter if you are called by your title? Is it all right if patients, colleagues, and others call you by your first name?</p>
<p>The answer of course depends on whom you ask. However, for many doctors who are women, that is not necessarily the central concern. It is more worrying that they and their male counterparts receive different forms of address. Women are more often referred to by first name, even when the situation of communication is formal. The same does not happen to doctors who are men. </p>
<p>Women in medicine may wonder whether or not those variations in how they are addressed might have far-reaching consequences for their careers. Do they reflect a systematic difference in attitude? </p>
<p>As a linguist, writer, and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ku5sJ34AAAAJ">professor</a> who teaches mostly sociolinguistics content, I have always been fascinated by the ways in which we use language. Linguistic categories and beliefs can affect different areas of our lives. </p>
<p>When my colleagues and I became curious about the use of titles, we conducted a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2016.6044">study</a>. It is part of a number of efforts by researchers interested in the social aspects of gender in medical fields. Our study shows that women are indeed less often called “doctor” than their male equivalent, and by a large margin. </p>
<p>Informal feedback by online readers reveals that the practice leads to concerns about everything from career advancement to professional respect. </p>
<h2>Not quite ‘little lady,’ but not quite right</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304961/original/file-20191203-67002-1fcpnfd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female doctors in grand rounds lectures were more likely to be introduced by their first names than ‘Dr.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-medicne-lecturer-doctor-standing-pride-1024480243">Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our study, we looked at forms of address in more than 300 instances of introductions during grand rounds – formal meetings in hospitals during which clinical cases get discussed for educational purposes.</p>
<p>We discovered that women introduced speakers by formal titles 96.2% of the time.</p>
<p>When the introducer was a male addressing a female speaker, the use of titles went down to 49.2% of the time.</p>
<p>If the male introducer addressed a male speaker, the use of title was up to 72% of the time. </p>
<p>Therefore, while men were in general less formal than women in their introductions, the wide gender gap led us to wonder about the role of attitudes and their resulting implications. We suggested that this seemingly trivial, possibly unintentional, double standard ended up undermining female physicians in a context where women already face greater barriers for career advancement and job satisfaction. </p>
<h2>How language and society work together</h2>
<p>In the case of doctors and forms of address, a person unaware of this connection between language and social relationships might wonder what the big deal is. Is it really that important that women be called “doctor” while performing the duties of their profession?</p>
<p>My answer is a very certain “yes,” especially if their male counterparts are being treated that way. Although I am not a medical doctor, as someone with a doctorate, I can relate to the experience. I have many times witnessed a male colleague being called “Dr. Last Name,” while I am simply called “Patty” in the same breath. When within the same interaction, participants are systematically treated differently, a linguist must ask why. </p>
<p>It is also the job of a linguist to ask what else is happening in those contexts of communication that can signal inequalities, for which the language element might be symbolic. In the case of doctors and different forms of address, the points of intersection are not very difficult to find. </p>
<p>Women in medicine are less often referred to by professional titles. Without claiming causality, we can also observe that women in medicine (mirroring what happens in other areas) are still <a href="https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2019-compensation-overview-6011286?faf=1#4">paid less</a> than men in equivalent positions. Women are also <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/in-medicine-women-face-more-harassment-have-fewer-opportunities-receive-lower-wages-300911265.html">promoted less often</a>, face the biased belief that family responsibilities might keep them from dedication to their careers, and are more likely to be subjected to harassment than men. </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M17-3438">position paper</a> in the Annals of Internal Medicine that cites our work argues that the challenges experienced by doctors who are women include “a lack of mentors, discrimination, gender bias, cultural environment of the workplace, impostor syndrome, and the need for better work–life integration.”</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.wiareport.com/2019/11/addresssing-the-lack-of-women-in-leadership-positions-in-academic-pediatrics/">study</a> which also makes reference to our article, this time on women in pediatrics, shows that even though women doctors are a majority in that area of specialization, they are not advancing to positions of leadership as often and as much as men. </p>
<h2>How to change this</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304962/original/file-20191203-67028-4xb661.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gender bias in medicine goes beyond male/female issues, the author suggests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stethoscope-lgbt-rainbow-ribbon-pride-symbol-1508723111">ADragan/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One of the rewards of being a linguist is to see the possible applications of the research in the real world. Work on forms of address, for example, has changed institutional policy. </p>
<p>It is vital that we accept as valid the point of view of women who are concerned about these behaviors and are affected by them. Opportunity exists for those who might not be directed impacted to be allies and to model behavior themselves. </p>
<p>One area that lacks research and inclusion is gender bias beyond the male-female binary. That is, we urgently need to find out how gender bias, in language and elsewhere, affects medical professionals who identify as nonbinary, genderqueer, and transgender. Additionally, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intersectionality">intersectionality</a> requires further consideration as it influences advancement and opportunity. </p>
<p>Intersectionality refers to overlapping systems of discrimination that affect a person in complicated ways. For example, being all at once a woman, a member of an ethnic minority and a participant of a given religious practice might mean facing discrimination that is compounded by these multiple memberships. It should not happen, but it does.</p>
<p>There are many ramifications and possible actions linked to this kind of research. We need to do more. </p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Friedrich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A recent study looked at how female doctors were introduced at a lecture series compared to how male doctors were introduced. The title ‘Dr.’ was used much more often for men.Patricia Friedrich, Associate Dean and Professor of English, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275632019-11-25T13:25:48Z2019-11-25T13:25:48Z2020 campaign shows the more women run, the more they are treated like candidates – not tokens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303290/original/file-20191123-74572-1bqp65u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's power in numbers. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mad Dog/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872, she was depicted as <a href="https://www.harpweek.com/09cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon-Large.asp?Month=February&Date=17/">“Mrs. Satan”</a> in a political cartoon. </p>
<p>When Sen. Margaret Chase Smith sought the Republican nomination in 1964, one columnist labeled her too old – at 66 – while others insisted she was attractive <a href="http://origins.osu.edu/article/madame-president-history-women-who-ran-hillary">“for her age.”</a></p>
<p>When Hillary Clinton sought the Democratic nomination in 2008 and the presidency in 2016, she was unable to escape gender-based tropes characterizing her as <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1177/2378023117732441">“calculating” and “power hungry.”</a></p>
<p>But in observing the 2020 Democratic presidential primary – which <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2019/06/234860/women-running-for-president-2020-candidates">has featured as many six women</a> – it seems possible that this time might be different. Not because sexism has left the building, but because the critical mass of women candidates may have changed the dynamic.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303213/original/file-20191122-74562-1tay10j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sen. Margaret Chase Smith ran for president in 1964.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A lone woman in a crowd</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://law.uoregon.edu/explore/elizabeth-tippett">researcher who studies the workplace</a>, I was reminded during the debate of an influential study of female representation in the office. </p>
<p>In the 1970s, business professor Rosabeth Kanter <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1086/226425">studied</a> the group dynamics in a corporate sales division where women represented a tiny part of the sales force. When women found themselves “alone or nearly alone” in a sea of men, they came to be seen as “tokens” – a constantly scrutinized stand-in for all women, viewed by others in terms of their gender and gender stereotypes. </p>
<p>Every action these saleswomen took had “symbolic consequences,” Kanter wrote. “In short, every act tended to be evaluated beyond its meaning for the organization and taken as a sign of ‘how women do in sales.’” </p>
<p>The women were subject to exaggerated scrutiny of their physical appearance and became “larger-than-life caricatures.” Their presence also affected the men, who behaved in a hyper-masculine way to “reclaim group solidarity” and emphasize the women’s outsider status.</p>
<p>This was, essentially, the predicament that Clinton faced as the lone female contender in her unsuccessful 2008 primary bid and as the first woman within striking distance of the White House in 2016. She never had the chance to be one of many female candidates whose qualifications, benefits and flaws could be evaluated in a measured way. </p>
<p>Even before Donald Trump arrived on the scene, she was a lightning rod and a caricature. <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1392469">During the 2008 primaries</a>, a poster depicted her as a witch. Others used various gender-based epithets. A T-shirt said “<a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/06/the-history-of-sexist-anti-hillary-clinton-merchandise-t-shirts-buttons-and-more-from-the-90s-to-2016.html">bros before hoes</a>” – a hyper-masculine expression of in-group solidarity. Fox News <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-nation/fox-news-graphic-rudov-clintons-nagging-voice-reason-she-lost-male-vote">compared</a> Clinton with a “nagging” wife, while a host on CNN apparently thought <a href="http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/26/best-debate-strategy-for-clinton/">“scolding mother”</a> was the better analogy. </p>
<p>In the 2016 election, Trump gleefully piled on, interrupting her in the final debate to call her a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2016/oct/20/donald-trump-calls-hillary-clinton-a-nasty-woman-during-final-debate-video">“nasty woman.”</a></p>
<p>As the wife of a former president, Clinton was portrayed as the ultimate undeserving “token.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303222/original/file-20191122-74580-s1vahk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Trump at one point called Clinton a ‘nasty woman’ during a debate in 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Critical mass theory</h2>
<p>Kanter believed that the group dynamics would change if women were better represented in the office.</p>
<p>She hypothesized that once women made up 35% or 40% of the group, they would be liberated from their token status and others would start to see them as “individuals differentiated from each other” as well as differentiated from men.<br>
This idea would later be <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-gender/article/story-of-the-theory-of-critical-mass/592171C05B9B828DBBDCC121B05780D4">popularized</a> as the theory of the “critical mass.” It inspired, among other things, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-gender/article/story-of-the-theory-of-critical-mass/592171C05B9B828DBBDCC121B05780D4">gender quotas</a> in legislatures. Universities <a href="https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/2460/">would also</a> use the idea as a legal <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5183084208914209139">justification for affirmative action</a> policies on the basis of race.</p>
<p>I was reminded of the critical mass theory in watching the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/11/20/winners-losers-november-democratic-debate">Nov. 20 debate</a> in Atlanta, which was moderated entirely by women. Among the candidates, it featured the same female to male ratio – 40% – that Kanter predicted would make a difference. </p>
<p>And it did. </p>
<p>The four women on stage freed each from being the perfect woman, the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/barack-obama-tells-hillary-clinton-shes-likeable-34428886">“you’re likable enough”</a> trap that left Clinton in a bind. It meant Sen. Elizabeth Warren isn’t a nasty woman – she is a <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/what-kind-of-populist-is-elizabeth-warren">populist</a>, as some have described her, <a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/photos/the-new-populism">like Bernie Sanders</a>.</p>
<p>It meant Sen. Kamala Harris can attack colleague Rep. Tulsi Gabbard’s record without it being portrayed as a “catfight.”</p>
<h2>Freed to be funny</h2>
<p>But what I noticed most from the female candidates were the sly jokes and subtle digs. Humor is difficult when you’re alone in a crowd. Garnering a laugh can be as much about solidarity as wit. </p>
<p>During the Atlanta debate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar was in particularly fine form. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/read-democratic-debate-transcript-november-20-2019-n1088186">She bragged</a> about having “raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends” in her first Senate race. She also doubled down on a past comment that a female version of Mayor Pete Buttigieg would never have made it this far with his meager political experience. “Women are held to a higher standard,” she said, “otherwise, we could play a game called Name Your Favorite Woman President.” </p>
<p>Harris even used humor to good effect when former Vice President Joe Biden claimed he had the endorsement of the “only African American woman … elected to the United States Senate” – apparently <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/471434-crowd-erupts-after-harris-points-out-biden-mistaken-claim-to-have-support">referring to</a> Carol Moseley Braun. </p>
<p>“The other one is here,” Harris quipped. The audience guffawed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303221/original/file-20191122-74580-4lapwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Telling a joke on stage can be as much about solidarity as wit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/David J. Phillip</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Power in numbers</h2>
<p>Kanter <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/226425">observed</a> that women’s isolation in these settings not only affected how they were perceived by others. It also affected their own behavior. </p>
<p>Aware of their symbolic status, women felt extra pressure to perform and “prove their competence” while simultaneously trying not to make the men “look bad” and “blend noticeably into the predominant male culture.”</p>
<p>I wondered how Hillary Clinton would have looked up there alongside the others in Atlanta. It’s possible she would have come across as wooden or boring. Even so, the stakes would have been lower – an inference that this particular person is boring, not that women can’t cut it. </p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127563/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth C. Tippett made a small donation to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016.</span></em></p>Scholars say a ‘critical mass’ of representation is necessary to overcome ‘token’ status. That’s exactly what we saw at the Democratic debate in Atlanta.Elizabeth C. Tippett, Associate Professor, School of Law, University of OregonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1268912019-11-22T18:13:14Z2019-11-22T18:13:14ZProtections against sexual misconduct on campus may end up stifling free speech<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303036/original/file-20191121-112971-2tqcy8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C0%2C5358%2C3553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Victims of sexual violence and their supporters gather to protest outside a speech from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at George Mason University Arlington, Virginia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Campus-Sexual-Assault/54bd19f9b0de42d7bdb8d059159fcda6/12/0">AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The student journalists we and other university faculty work with tackle difficult issues in our classrooms and for student publications. They write about faculty unionization, racial tensions on campus and university development that encroaches on surrounding communities. </p>
<p>These young reporters, talented and tenacious as they are, often need the guidance of journalism professors. </p>
<p>But because of recent changes in the interpretation of the federal law called <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">Title IX</a>, there is one area where we can’t help: stories about campus sexual misconduct.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303027/original/file-20191121-547-idmyn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Title IX has significantly boosted opportunities for girls and women in athletics, Nancy Hogshead-Makar, three-time Olympic swimming gold medalist, said at a Title IX meeting in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Women-in-Sports-Day/ca89d0eda1db4ca7b7701ab71fbcbc6a/22/0">AP Photo/Alex Brandon</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reporting requirements</h2>
<p>Title IX, passed in 1972, prohibits educational institutions from receiving federal funds if they <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html">discriminate on the basis of sex</a>. It applies to roughly 7,000 post-secondary schools across the U.S.</p>
<p>During almost five decades of existence, Title IX has <a href="https://www.aauw.org/files/2013/02/outlook-summer-2012.pdf">improved conditions for women in academic and athletic programs</a>. Yet recent changes in how schools interpret the law are having unintended consequences <a href="https://splc.org/2017/09/what-title-ix-changes-could-mean-for-student-journalists/">that stifle press freedoms</a> and put journalism professors’ <a href="https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/college-media-labs-may-increasingly-clash-with-their-universities/">jobs at risk</a>.</p>
<p>At issue are increasingly common policies that <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Many-Professors-Have-to-Report/244294">require virtually every university employee</a> to alert school officials if they hear even the slightest rumor of sexual misconduct – on or off campus – involving students or employees. </p>
<p>On most campuses, clergy members, mental health counselors and health care providers are exempt from such mandatory reporting requirements.
University-affiliated journalists are not despite the fact that they also often need confidentiality to do their jobs effectively. </p>
<p>Yet, journalism professors routinely learn of possible sexual misconduct in their roles as advisors to student newspapers, or in critiquing students’ classroom work. (It’s also increasingly common for journalism educators to serve as editors in charge of <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/1845/816">school-sponsored news organizations designed to fill gaps in the local media ecosystem</a>).</p>
<p>For instance, a student reporter working on a story about a faculty member accused of sexual misconduct might seek advice on how to protect confidential sources or request public documents. </p>
<p>Students are seldom mandatory reporters under Title IX. But most faculty members are, which forces them to choose between two undesirable options: Tell their students not to share anything about possible sexual misconduct, thus depriving students of guidance on the most sensitive stories they encounter. Or compromise their students’ journalistic independence by telling school officials that such a story is being pursued.</p>
<p>University officials should, of course, be able to comment on any stories involving the institution. But alerting them too early in the reporting process could scare off potential whistleblowers.</p>
<h2>Possible penalties</h2>
<p>This choice forced on journalism advisers hampers more than journalism students and faculty. It also hurts educational institutions and the cause of protecting victims. </p>
<p>Institutions, from the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/opinion/civil-wars/articles/2017-10-06/our-military-hierarchy-fails-women-and-victims-of-sexual-assault">military</a> to <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/08/how-hr-and-judges-made-it-almost-impossible-for-victims-of-sexual-harassment-to-win-in-court">corporations</a> to <a href="https://www.aaup.org/report/history-uses-and-abuses-title-ix">universities</a>, fail survivors of sexual assault and harassment all the time. They ignore, minimize and even cover up incidents of sexual misconduct. </p>
<p>It often takes journalists, relying on confidential tips from vulnerable parties, to uncover the truth. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303024/original/file-20191121-554-g2rujt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Journalist Ronan Farrow won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his work uncovering sexual misconduct by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pulitzer2018-ronan-farrow-20180530-wp.jpg">Fuzheado/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’ve seen this play out in recent years as many of the best-known sexual misconduct stories relied on sources that demanded anonymity. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/us/harvey-weinstein-harassment-allegations.html">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/from-aggressive-overtures-to-sexual-assault-harvey-weinsteins-accusers-tell-their-stories">New Yorker</a> investigations into serial sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, the <a href="https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2016/09/12/former-usa-gymnastics-doctor-accused-abuse/89995734/">Indianapolis Star’s revelations</a> about Michigan State University team physician <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/sports/larry-nassar-sentencing.html">Larry Nassar’s child sexual abuse</a> and many similar stories helped fuel the #MeToo movement. </p>
<p>The current interpretation of Title IX makes this already difficult journalistic work even harder, and the consequences aren’t just hypothetical. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303025/original/file-20191121-496-1ar8vo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Journalism professor Dan Malone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tarleton.edu/communications/people.html">Tarleton State University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last year administrators at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, <a href="https://texasmonitor.org/college-journalists-and-advisors-need-to-protect-sources-on-sexual-harassment-cases-is-getting-them-in-hot-water-with-title-ix-rules/">reprimanded</a> journalism professor Dan Malone for failing to comply with a Title IX mandatory reporting policy. </p>
<p>Malone’s troubles started after the student-staffed <a href="http://texannews.net/staff/">Texan News Service</a>, which he advises, published a story about a professor’s alleged sexual misconduct that relied partly on anonymous sources. </p>
<p>The school <a href="https://texasmonitor.org/college-journalists-and-advisors-need-to-protect-sources-on-sexual-harassment-cases-is-getting-them-in-hot-water-with-title-ix-rules/">threatened to fire Malone</a>, a Pulitzer Prize winner who used to work at the Dallas Morning News, for not disclosing the confidential tips to administrators before the article was published. </p>
<p>Malone kept his job, but could face termination if the university feels he violates its policies again.</p>
<h2>Reining in local NPR</h2>
<p>Title IX’s reporting requirements have also impinged upon professional news organizations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178640915/npr-stations-and-public-media">Roughly two-thirds</a> of NPR’s member newsrooms have some kind of university affiliation and thus may be subject to Title IX. </p>
<p>NPR Illinois reporters discovered this when they probed sexual harassment allegations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne. </p>
<p>A reporter for the Springfield-based station joined with ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism organization, to publish stories documenting that the university had gone easy on several professors found to have <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign-professors-sexual-harassment-accusations">violated university sexual misconduct policies</a>.</p>
<p>A few days after the stories appeared, the University of Illinois-Springfield <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-told-our-partners-they-must-share-sexual-misconduct-tips-with-campus-authorities-heres-how-were-protecting-our-sources">informed the station’s general manager</a> that because the state university system held the station’s broadcast license, NPR staffers were university employees who had to follow university policies. </p>
<p>That included the policy requiring them to “report in detail all incidents of sexual violence, sexual harassment, or other sexual misconduct.” </p>
<p>In other words, any tips NPR Illinois and ProPublica received about harassment in the University of Illinois System (not at other Illinois colleges) had to be turned over to the university. ProPublica handled these tips but not every NPR station has such a partner. </p>
<p>NPR Illinois asked the university to reconsider its policy. The university refused, saying the station’s journalists “remain free to pursue information about the topic at issue but should avoid promising confidentiality to anyone about <a href="https://www.nprillinois.org/post/open-letter-university-illinois-must-protect-first-amendment-rights">allegations of sexual misconduct.”</a></p>
<p>A number of organizations, including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the ACLU of Illinois, <a href="https://www.rcfp.org/npr-illinois-titleix-exemption/">have written letters and issued statements</a> in support of NPR Illinois. </p>
<p>The station <a href="https://current.org/2019/11/npr-illinois-appeals-to-university-trustees-for-exemption-from-confidentiality-policy/">took its case</a> to the university’s board of trustees. They asked that journalists be exempted from Title IX mandatory reporting requirements. </p>
<p>The board has yet to take action on the request but issued <a href="https://news.uillinois.edu/view/7815/804438">a written statement</a>. Exempting journalists, they wrote, would jeopardize “the safety of our campuses, our students, and our faculty and staff.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=178&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=178&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=178&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303029/original/file-20191121-483-16xb9nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=224&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The University of Illinois System Board of Trustees has been asked to consider a Title IX exemption for journalists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bot.uillinois.edu/">University of Illinois System</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exempting journalists</h2>
<p>The situation in Illinois is a stark example of <a href="https://splc.org/2016/12/college-media-threats-report-2016/">how overly broad interpretations of Title IX are stifling press freedoms</a>. </p>
<p>It also points to the need for institutional policies or state laws exempting university-affiliated journalists and journalism educators from mandatory reporting requirements when they are advising student journalists. Journalism faculty who learn of misconduct outside their roles as advisers or editors should report it under Title IX. But if student journalists can’t count on confidentiality as they develop these stories, sources might not come forward at all and serious misconduct may never be revealed.</p>
<p>These kinds of protections are even more critical in the many media markets where <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/us/news-desert-ann-arbor-michigan.html">student-staffed news organization</a> or public radio stations affiliated with universities are the only media holding local institutions, including universities, accountable. </p>
<p>Title IX was designed to make higher education more inclusive and equitable. But, as the University of Illinois expose suggests, it can be hard to tell if universities are using the law to protect the powerful or to help their victims. </p>
<p>Independent, watchdog journalism is one tool that can point out the difference.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126891/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurel Leff is on the advisory board for the Huntington News, Northeastern University's independent student newspaper.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meg Heckman advises the Scope, an experimental digital magazine housed in Northeastern University's School of Journalism and focused on telling neighborhood stories of justice, hope and resilience in Greater Boston. </span></em></p>Changes to how the landmark federal law to protect women on campuses from sexual discrimination and misconduct is interpreted are having an unintended effect: scaring off potential whistleblowers.Laurel Leff, Associate Professor of Journalism, Northeastern UniversityMeg Heckman, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1252902019-11-05T12:16:51Z2019-11-05T12:16:51ZDoes the Civil Rights Act protect LGBT workers? The Supreme Court is about to decide<p>The complicated history of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-act">the Civil Rights Act</a> in the U.S. is about to get even more so.</p>
<p>In 1964, the act – specifically, <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm">Title VII</a> of the act – made it illegal for employers to discriminate based on race, religion and sex, among other things. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/us/politics/supreme-court-gay-transgender.html">In October 2019</a>, the U.S. Supreme Court <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/altitude-express-inc-v-zarda/">heard three cases</a> that raise the question whether <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/bostock-v-clayton-county-georgia/">the act prevents discrimination</a> toward <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/r-g-g-r-harris-funeral-homes-inc-v-equal-opportunity-employment-commission/">LGBT workers</a> on the basis of sex.</p>
<p>Two of the cases were brought by men who allegedly lost their jobs because they are gay. The third case addresses transgender discrimination in the workplace.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.cshtml?id=JMAGID">professor of business law</a> and I’ve done extensive research in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ablj.12082">Title VII policy and practice</a>. I believe these cases could be some of the most important in the Civil Rights Act’s history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299047/original/file-20191028-114005-1kglyum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lyndon B. Johnson presents Martin Luther King Jr. with one of the pens used to sign the Civil Rights Act.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Dist-of-Columbi-/4cb26dee64e5da11af9f0014c2589dfb/30/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief history of sex discrimination</h2>
<p>Title VII’s protected class of sex was <a href="https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/legal-resources/know-your-rights-at-work/title-vii/">complicated from the start</a>.</p>
<p>The original bill didn’t include protections for sex discrimination. U.S. Rep. Howard W. Smith of Virginia added those protections with a one-word change to the bill during the <a href="https://www.jofreeman.com/lawandpolicy/titlevii.htm">debate on the House floor</a>. </p>
<p>Later, in 1978, Congress added the <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/pregnancy.cfm">Pregnancy Discrimination Act</a> to the Civil Right Act. The change came after the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1744-1714.2001.tb00908.x">pregnancy discrimination was not “because of sex”</a> and couldn’t be found illegal under the original Title VII language. </p>
<p>This history is important given <a href="https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/spotlight-textualism-originalism/">the rise of “statutory originalism” and “textualism”</a> in judicial interpretation.</p>
<p>Originalism means courts should interpret laws based on their original intent or purpose. </p>
<p>Relatedly, judges who subscribe to textualism believe they should evaluate the words of a statute enacted by Congress only and not consider evidence outside the statutory language.</p>
<p>One of the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx">two new justices</a> sitting on the Supreme Court hearing the cases of LGBT workplace rights, Justice <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Neil-Gorsuch">Neil Gorsuch</a>, employs <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/15/lgbt-discrimination-supreme-court-gorsuch-textualism-229850">textualism</a> and <a href="https://time.com/5670400/justice-neil-gorsuch-why-originalism-is-the-best-approach-to-the-constitution/">originalism</a> in judicial interpretation.</p>
<h2>A path to LGBT rights</h2>
<p>LGBT rights weren’t debated as part of the original Title VII, suggesting that Gorsuch and other judges inclined to originalism would not consider them protected by the act.</p>
<p>If the Supreme Court could find pregnancy discrimination was not “because of sex” and required an amendment to Title VII to prohibit pregnancy discrimination, it suggests that the Court could interpret the <a href="https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/understanding-the-role-of-textualism-and-originalism-in-the-lgbt-title-vii-cases/">protected class of sex very narrowly</a>.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3244473">critics reject</a> this “original meaning” approach to Title VII interpretation related to LGBT rights.</p>
<p>And it is true that the court’s interpretation of the meaning of sex discrimination within Title VII – case law that has developed over more than 50 years – includes Supreme Court decisions that offer broader meaning to its language, specifically with regard to sex-stereotyping.</p>
<p>In 1989, the court held that Title VII prohibited an employer from denying opportunities to a woman based on “<a href="https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2019/04/30/does-the-civil-rights-act-protect-gay-and-transgender-workers">stereotypical notions about women’s proper deportment</a>” in <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/228.html">Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins</a>.</p>
<p>In that case, Ann Hopkins received advice from her employer that, if she wanted to make partner at the firm, <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/228.html">she should act more feminine</a>. The Court’s ruling meant that negative employment actions by an employer based on employee’s gender non-conformity are prohibited under Title VII.</p>
<p>Title VII protections expanded further with <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/523/75.html">Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore</a> in 1998 when a unanimous Supreme Court held that same-sex harassment is sex discrimination under Title VII. The case involved a man working on an oil rig being bullied by other men because he was considered effeminate.</p>
<p>The majority opinion was written by Justice <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographyScalia.aspx">Antonin Scalia</a>, then the <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/news/2010_spr/scalia.htm">avowed originalist</a> on the Court. </p>
<p>These precedents in sex-stereotyping and same-sex harassment offer an avenue for the Court to hold that Title VII prohibits discrimination against LGBT individuals in employment.</p>
<h2>Same-sex marriage and the Cakeshop case</h2>
<p>Despite this, some <a href="https://onlabor.org/looking-back-at-justice-scalias-decision-in-oncale-because-of-sex/">lower courts</a> have routinely held that Title VII does not bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.</p>
<p>Lower courts’ inconsistent interpretations of Title VII have resulted in varying rights for employees depending on the location of their workplace. A Supreme Court decision on this question would create the same set of rights for employees across the country.</p>
<p>Just four years ago, the Supreme Court required all states to grant and recognize same-sex marriages in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2014/14-556">Obergefell v. Hodges</a>. Justice <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/justices/kennedy.bio.html">Anthony Kennedy</a>, who wrote the majority opinion in that narrow decision, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/justice-kennedy-the-pivotal-swing-vote-on-the-supreme-court-announces-retirement/2018/06/27/a40a8c64-5932-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html">has since retired</a> and has been <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/11/17555974/brett-kavanaugh-anthony-kennedy-supreme-court-transform">replaced by Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh</a>.</p>
<p>Also since the same-sex marriage decision, many states have passed religious liberty statutes and the Court has considered the religious liberty claim on a national level. In <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-ongoing-challenge-to-define-free-speech/not-a-masterpiece/">Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission</a>, the Court found that <a href="https://harvardcrcl.org/masterpiece-cakeshop-a-hostile-interpretation-of-the-colorado-civil-rights-commission/">a Colorado Civil Rights Commission</a> was hostile toward the religious objections of a cake shop owner who refused services to a couple entering a same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>In that case, the Court was able to issue a narrow ruling that sidestepped the broader First Amendment issues of free exercise of religion and free speech.</p>
<p>Could that happen here? I think the Court is unlikely to sidestep the central question of Title VII’s application to LGBT employees presently under consideration, both because the circuit courts have issued inconsistent rulings and because the justices’ questions during oral arguments squarely addressed the claims.</p>
<p>If I’m right, these cases will be among the most important workplace discrimination cases in decades and will redefine the rights of LGBT employees across the country. The decision is expected in mid-2020.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Manning Magid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on how the Civil Rights Act applies to LGBT people. A business law scholar explains why it could be one of the most consequential discrimination cases in decades.Julie Manning Magid, Professor of Business Law, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1205612019-10-08T19:15:07Z2019-10-08T19:15:07ZWorkplace sex discrimination claims are common – but they’re not making it into court<p>Several cases addressing whether it’s legal to fire a worker because of their sexual orientation and gender identity were taken up by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-to-decide-if-anti-discrimination-employment-laws-protect-on-basis-of-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity/2019/04/22/175fca02-6503-11e9-a1b6-b29b90efa879_story.html">the Supreme Court this week</a>.</p>
<p>While these legal questions deserve significant attention, those concerned about equality on the job should not lose sight of the broader, yet equally important issue – the continued prevalence of sex discrimination in the workplace as a whole. </p>
<p>And while workplace sexual harassment has taken center stage in the past couple of years, women are still facing these other longstanding problems of discrimination.</p>
<p>Even if workers successfully convince the Supreme Court that sexual orientation should be protected by federal law, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=m-jBTzAAAAAJ&hl=en">my work shows</a> that their fellow employees will still be faced with the daunting task of trying to litigate such claims.</p>
<p>In the vast majority of cases, these claims of discrimination don’t even make it to a court.</p>
<h2>Voices not heard</h2>
<p>Only about 6% of civil rights lawsuits in the U.S. find their way to trial, according to <a href="http://www.americanbarfoundation.org/uploads/cms/documents/jels_final.pdf">a recent study</a> that examined about 1,800 lawsuits filed in federal courts between 1988 and 2003. </p>
<p>The study, discussed in a <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/myths_show_the_harsh_realities_of_civil_rights_litigation/P1">2017 article published in the American Bar Journal</a>, included not just cases of sex discrimination, but also those filed alleging discrimination based on race, age and disability. </p>
<p>Of those that actually did go to trial, only about a third of the plaintiffs won their cases, the researchers found. </p>
<p>That’s at least in part because <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/supreme-courts-new-workplace/83109F79F885301B81C127B3B693667A">rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court over the past decade have made it harder</a> to file complaints, and have restricted the ability of multiple plaintiffs to bring claims and share costs through a class action lawsuit.</p>
<p>In the most widely publicized example, in 2011 <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/06/20/137296721/supreme-court-limits-wal-mart-discrimination-case">the Supreme Court overturned</a> a lower court’s decision against Walmart and prohibited more than a million women from making the case that the company engaged in unfair pay and promotion practices.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-277.pdf">In the 5-4 decision</a>, the majority said that the women did not have sufficient “commonality” under the law to proceed as a class, arguing that the alleged victims “have little in common but their sex and this lawsuit.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/10-277.ZX.html">Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a> criticized that approach in her dissent, writing that “the ‘dissimilarities’ approach” of the majority led it “to train its attention on what distinguishes individual class members, rather than on what unites them.”</p>
<p>While the courts have been slow to recognize and punish sex discrimination, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3269469">my research has shown</a> that illegal workplace bias against women is pervasive. </p>
<p>Here are three areas where it is a problem, though this list is not exhaustive.</p>
<h2>1. Pay inequity</h2>
<p>Women make less money than men, as the U.S. women’s soccer team <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/19/us-womens-soccer-games-now-generate-more-revenue-than-mens.html">dramatically highlighted</a>. In their lawsuit, they estimate that they are paid <a href="http://money.com/money/5646612/world-cup-2019-womens-soccer-salary-prize-money/">about 38% of what male players earn</a>.</p>
<p>Pay gaps between men and women have existed for a long time. </p>
<p>In 1960, <a href="https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/45/item/8131/toc/270056">surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor</a> showed that women working full-time made 60.8% of the median pay that men did. </p>
<p>A male bank teller, for example, “received US$5.50 to $31 per week more than their female counterparts,” while a male machine tool operator “averaged $2.05 per hour compared with $1.71 for women,” according to <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bc53/859f1312c80dce8a94cd1ceb752859882f01.pdf">a 1974 issue of the Boston College Industrial and Commercial Law Review</a>, which examined the previous decade’s enforcement of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. </p>
<p>Today, women <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2018/demo/p60-263.html">make 80 cents for every dollar a man is paid</a>, according to the most recent data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/09/06/news/women-pay-gap-ask/index.html">research</a> by the University of Wisconsin, the Cass Business School and the University of Warwick shows that men are 25% more likely to receive an increase in pay when they ask for it. </p>
<p>By making access to justice much harder for victims of workplace discrimination, the federal courts have created an additional barrier for women seeking equal pay. And my research has outlined the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3269469">ongoing nature of this pay discrimination</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296057/original/file-20191008-128668-19o3nve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Today, women make 80 cents for every dollar a man is paid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTU3MDU3ODIzNiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMTAxMjcyODI0NyIsImsiOiJwaG90by8xMDEyNzI4MjQ3L2h1Z2UuanBnIiwibSI6MSwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCIyT1VuaFZETXd3QWk1cCtnOHNZUlpIZURsck0iXQ%2Fshutterstock_1012728247.jpg&pi=33421636&m=1012728247&src=6tA7-zS7MTeetkU6C4RD5w-1-8">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Hiring practices</h2>
<p>Even getting a job that is likely to pay them less is harder for women. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0361684314543265">as a study published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly showed,</a> men tend to be perceived more favorably by employers — even when men and women who are trained actors respond to interview questions in the same way. </p>
<p>In perhaps <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3269469">the most famous study in this area</a>, performed by researchers Claudia Goldin and Cecilia Rouse, an orchestra used screens to hide the gender of those auditioning for a position. Women were 50% more likely to advance in the process than they had been when evaluators could see their gender. </p>
<p>Other research has shown that women struggle to get jobs that <a href="https://review.chicagobooth.edu/magazine/summer-2014/why-women-find-it-harder-to-get-math-based-jobs">require high levels of math skills</a>. In those experiments, researchers from the University of Chicago, Columbia University and Northwestern University found that “male and female employers were twice as likely to hire a man than a woman when the only factor they observed was physical appearance.”</p>
<p>These stereotypes persist even in academic settings. </p>
<p>A study by Columbia University researchers <a href="http://ndlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/3-Seiner.pdf">concluded that</a> “prospective doctoral student emails with minority- or female-sounding names received fewer responses from faculty than those with male-sounding names.” </p>
<p>Given the subjective nature of the hiring process, these claims are difficult to prove. </p>
<p>In my research, I trace how <a href="http://ndlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/3-Seiner.pdf">this kind of discrimination persists</a>, and how the subjective nature of the hiring process has caused some of these problems.</p>
<h2>3. Career advancement</h2>
<p>Women also struggle to get promoted after they’re hired.</p>
<p>Even when just as qualified as men, <a href="https://review.chicagobooth.edu/strategy/2016/article/women-are-equally-qualified-rarely-hired">women are 28% less likely to be hired for the job of a corporate CEO</a>.</p>
<p>Childbirth may be a factor in the lack of advancement. </p>
<p><a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/08/23/news/economy/gender-pay-gap-mothers/index.html">In one study</a> performed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, researchers found that “Twelve years after giving birth for the first time, women are [still] making 33% less per hour than men.”</p>
<p>Pinning down the exact reason for this is difficult. It may be related to the disproportionate amount of time women spend raising a child compared to men, as well as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/05/upshot/even-in-family-friendly-scandinavia-mothers-are-paid-less.html">unfounded negative perceptions some employers may have of working mothers</a>.</p>
<p>Yet establishing discrimination claims in the context of the glass ceiling is as difficult as doing so in the hiring process, as these effects often occur over the course of a long period of time. </p>
<p>And as employment discrimination claims are now <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/supreme-courts-new-workplace/83109F79F885301B81C127B3B693667A">even more difficult to litigate</a>, finding sufficient evidence to bring these cases is harder.</p>
<h2>One prominent – but not unusual – case</h2>
<p>As the U.S. women’s national soccer team competed in the final World Cup match against the Netherlands this summer, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/sports/soccer/world-cup-final-uswnt.html">the crowd cheered</a>, “Equal pay! Equal pay!” in the stadium. </p>
<p>This overwhelming support for the players was in response to <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/653-us-womens-soccer-complaint/f9367608e2eaf10873f4/optimized/full.pdf#page=1">a lawsuit more than two dozen members of the team filed in March</a>, arguing that they are unfairly paid less than the men’s team. </p>
<p>In challenging the pay practices of the U.S. Soccer Federation, <a href="https://qz.com/work/1654504/us-womens-soccer-team-spotlights-pay-inequality-at-the-world-cup/">the women became the latest example</a> of just how pervasive sex discrimination is in the workplace. These teammates were able to draw attention to their cause. </p>
<p>But many other cases of sex discrimination in the workplace languish or are prevented from getting their day in court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120561/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph A. Seiner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Supreme Court has taken up several cases of sex discrimination against LGBT workers who were fired from their jobs. But the majority of other cases of sex discrimination rarely make it to court.Joseph A. Seiner, Oliver Ellsworth Professor of Federal Practice & Professor of Law, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1239062019-10-03T11:32:25Z2019-10-03T11:32:25ZThis year at the Supreme Court: Gay rights, gun rights and Native rights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295106/original/file-20191001-173369-1312ex7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Supreme Court begins its newest session on the first Monday in October.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Supreme-Court-Excluding-Black-Jurors/41ba41a9ea8c495abb7e66f16ec322db/27/0">AP/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Supreme Court begins its annual session on Oct. 7 and will take up a series of cases likely to have political reverberations in the 2020 elections.</p>
<p>Major cases this year address the immigration program for young people (“Dreamers”) known as <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/09/symposium-the-daca-cases-may-be-the-next-big-test-for-the-roberts-court/">DACA</a>, the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/moda-health-plan-inc-v-united-states/">Affordable Care Act</a> (again), and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/espinoza-v-montana-department-of-revenue/">public money for religious schools</a>. </p>
<p>Justices will also consider cases that involve several aspects of <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/09/overview-of-the-courts-criminal-docket-for-ot-19-sizeable-and-significant/">defendants’ rights</a>: whether criminal convictions require a <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/ramos-v-louisiana/">unanimous jury</a>, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/mathena-v-malvo/">minors can be given a life sentence</a> and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/kahler-v-kansas/">a state can abolish</a> the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inconvenient-facts/201909/the-insanity-defense-the-supreme-court">insanity defense</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the most important rulings will address the recognition of rights by the conservative court: gay rights, gun rights and Native rights.</p>
<p>These cases focus on perhaps the deepest divide on the court: Should the justices base their rulings on the contemporary meaning of words in our laws (or in the Constitution itself) as the public understanding of those concepts changes over time? </p>
<p>Or should they insist that our laws can only be changed from their original meaning by the country’s democratic representatives, who are directly accountable to the people?</p>
<h2>Gay rights</h2>
<p>The justices will consider three cases on LGBT employment rights.</p>
<p>Gerald Bostock <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/bostock-v-clayton-county-georgia/">was fired</a> by Clayton County, Georgia, because he is gay. Donald Zarda was <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/altitude-express-inc-v-zarda/">fired from his job</a> as a tandem sky-dive instructor for being gay (before his <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/donald-zarda-man-center-major-gay-rights-case-never-got-n852846">death in a BASE-jumping accident</a>). Aimee Stephens transitioned from male to female identity and <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/r-g-g-r-harris-funeral-homes-inc-v-equal-opportunity-employment-commission/">was fired</a> from her job as a funeral director.</p>
<p>These cases turn on one word’s meaning: the word “sex” in <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm">Title VII</a> of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. </p>
<p>Does “sex” mean what legislators thought it meant when the law was passed, barring discrimination against women? Or should it be interpreted more broadly now to mean discrimination against any aspect of sexuality? </p>
<h2>Gun rights</h2>
<p>It has been almost a decade since the court recognized a fundamental right for individual citizens to bear arms. That case was <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/mcdonald-v-city-of-chicago/">MacDonald v. Chicago</a>, from the city with the <a href="https://www.thetrace.org/2017/01/chicago-murder-rate-fatal-shootings/">highest total number of gun deaths in the nation</a>. </p>
<p>Since that time, the looming question has been what sort of restrictions would be considered constitutional.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/new-york-state-rifle-pistol-association-inc-v-city-of-new-york-new-york/">New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. New York City</a> puts this question to the test. Licensed gun owners were prevented from transporting firearms outside of their homes, even to a second home or to a shooting competition outside the city. The court must decide if this is a reasonable regulation that leaves the essential right to bear arms intact.</p>
<p>In the midst of growing concern over mass shootings, the ruling may have ramifications for future attempts at gun regulations.</p>
<p>To raise the political stakes even further, five U.S. senators in their now infamous “<a href="https://theconversation.com/democrats-turn-a-venerable-legal-tool-into-a-declaration-of-war-122175">enemy-of-the-Court</a>” brief threaten that if the court does not dismiss the case, the Senate will have to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/warning-or-threat-democrats-ignite-controversy-with-supreme-court-brief-in-gun-case/2019/08/16/2ec96ef0-c039-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html">consider adding more justices to the court in an attempt to shift its partisan balance, known as “packing the Court.”</a></p>
<h2>Native rights</h2>
<p>The least-known but potentially most important case of the year is not about widely-discussed gay rights or gun rights, but about Native rights. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/sharp-v-murphy/">Sharp v. Murphy</a> began as a dispute over jurisdiction in a murder prosecution. But it has become a potentially influential case about who represents the rightful government of Eastern Oklahoma.</p>
<p>The historic reservations of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole Nations comprise <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/147472/grisly-murder-case-turn-half-oklahoma-back-tribal-lands">40% of Oklahoma land</a>. These tribes were forcibly removed from the eastern U.S. to the Oklahoma Territory in the 1830s, some making the journey along the infamous <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/trail-of-tears">Trail of Tears</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, parts of their reservation land have been seized by the state government or <a href="https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AL011">sold to private citizens</a>, so they are no longer part of the reservation. This includes the city of Tulsa.</p>
<p>The argument in the case is that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/28/half-land-oklahoma-could-be-returned-native-americans-it-should-be/">according to the original treaties</a> the petitioners are asking the court to uphold, <a href="https://crooked.com/podcast-series/this-land/">those lands</a> are rightfully still under the <a href="https://upfront.scholastic.com/issues/2018-19/012819/who-owns-oklahoma.html#1280L">government of the tribes</a>. What exactly this means in terms of ownership and governance is unclear.</p>
<p>This may at first appear to be a small case about a piece of the American West. But if the Native rights claim is recognized by the court, it may also apply in later cases to a surprisingly large proportion of the United States that was once “<a href="http://tribaljurisdiction.tripod.com/id7.html">Indian country</a>” under official treaties. That is why <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-1107/55899/20180730151022618_2018.07.30%20-%20Carpenter%20-%20States%20Amicus%20Brief%20FINAL.pdf">10 states filed a friend-of-the-court brief</a> arguing against the Native rights claim.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295130/original/file-20191001-173393-1qj8jza.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=443&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map submitted as an exhibit in the Supreme Court case about the boundaries of tribal reservations in Oklahoma.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/17/17-1107/55211/20180723232609947_17-1107%20J.A.%20Volume%202.pdf">Supreme Court</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bigger implications</h2>
<p>The Native rights claims at issue are not individual rights of the type the U.S. Constitution generally contemplates. They are rights held by an ethnic group. The question of who belongs to the group – and hence <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2018/02/09/583987261/so-what-exactly-is-blood-quantum">has access to the group right</a> – is a divisive one because any answer includes some members while excluding others who claim the same identity. </p>
<p>It also is reminiscent of another proposed group right that is being debated in American politics: reparations. This summer the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/19/us/politics/slavery-reparations-hearing.html">U.S. Congress held contentious hearings</a> to discuss possible payments as reparations for slavery.</p>
<p>But payments to whom? Both Native Americans and African Americans share a distinct problem yet to be solved: how to determine who is a member of the group.</p>
<p>So in the case of reparations: Would they be paid only to direct descendants of slaves? To all African American descendants no matter when their progenitors arrived in the U.S.? To all people who have any black ancestors regardless of their current status or wealth? </p>
<p>Many Native tribes use what’s called the “<a href="https://www.pascuayaqui-nsn.gov/index.php/blood-quantum-calculator">blood quantum</a>” <a href="https://www.bia.gov/bia/ois/tgs/genealogy">approach</a>, which forces individuals to document their lineage and proportional ancestry to prove membership. But <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/which-americans-should-get-reparations/2019/09/18/271cf744-cab1-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html">scholars in this area</a> argue that this approach is fraught with complications in many contexts. </p>
<h2>Election 2020</h2>
<p>Democratic presidential hopefuls have already grappled with questions around tribal membership and the country’s history of racism. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-apologizes-for-calling-herself-native-american/2019/02/05/1627df76-2962-11e9-984d-9b8fba003e81_story.html">Sen. Elizabeth Warren</a> has dealt with a damaging controversy over her claims to Native American ancestry. Former <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bidens-tough-talk-on-1970s-school-desegregation-plan-could-get-new-scrutiny-in-todays-democratic-party/2019/03/07/9115583e-3eb2-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html">Vice President Joe Biden</a> has come under fire for his earlier opposition to reparations.</p>
<p>In terms of both legal and political influence, Sharp v. Murphy is a case with potentially major ramifications. And with the combined focus on politically divisive issues like gay rights, gun rights and Native rights, this year’s docket is likely to have an unusually strong presence in the 2020 campaigns.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Morgan Marietta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The upcoming Supreme Court session will address notable cases about the rights of different groups. The cases go to the heart of how U.S. laws protect both individual and group rights.Morgan Marietta, Associate Professor of Political Science, UMass LowellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230142019-09-11T00:26:09Z2019-09-11T00:26:09ZVictoria’s new anti-vilification bill strikes the right balance in targeting online abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291670/original/file-20190910-109927-jtv38t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Victorian MP Fiona Patten has introduced a new anti-vilification bill to parliament that would extend protections to women, the disabled and the LGBT community.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Two weeks ago, Victorian Reason Party MP Fiona Patten <a href="https://fionapatten.com.au/news/media-release-patten-launches-anti-trolling-bill/">introduced a new anti-vilification bill</a> to the state parliament.</p>
<p>In the midst of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-has-released-its-draft-religious-discrimination-bill-how-will-it-work-122618">heated public debate</a> over the federal government’s draft Religious Discrimination Bill, Patten’s bill has been given far less attention.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/LDMS/PubPDocs.nsf/ee665e366dcb6cb0ca256da400837f6b/5427bc7c551a2a6aca258463001eb278/$FILE/591PM60bi1.pdf">Racial and Religious Tolerance Amendment Bill</a> is <a href="https://10daily.com.au/news/crime/a190828lihky/new-anti-trolling-laws-to-stop-online-abuse-and-harassment-20190828">described by Patten</a> as an “Australia-first” attempt to target hate speech and trolling on social media, particularly against women.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australias-anti-vilification-laws-matter-106615">Why Australia's anti-vilification laws matter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Others have <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/fiona-patten-defends-antivilification-bill/news-story/590cca0772e2f411d596b3421f3f7f29">warned of unintended consequences</a> that may arise related to free speech, likening the bill to <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18c.html">section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act</a>.</p>
<p>But in reality, Patten’s bill provides a common sense approach to protecting Victorians from harmful verbal abuse at a time when such protections are being <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-discrimination-bill-is-a-mess-that-risks-privileging-people-of-faith-above-all-others-122631">eroded at the federal level</a>. </p>
<p>Parliamentary debate on the bill continues this week.</p>
<h2>What is the current Victorian law?</h2>
<p>Victoria currently prohibits vilification through the <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265">Racial and Religious Tolerance Act</a>.</p>
<p>This prohibits a person from engaging in conduct against another person or group <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/download.cgi/cgi-bin/download.cgi/download/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265.pdf">in public</a> that incites:</p>
<ul>
<li>hatred</li>
<li>serious contempt</li>
<li>revulsion, or</li>
<li>severe ridicule</li>
</ul>
<p>Any of these four standards can be used to meet the threshold test for vilification. If this is met, a claimant can lodge a complaint through the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) or the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).</p>
<p>However, this conduct is only prohibited when it is on the basis of another person or group’s <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/s7.html">race</a> or <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/s8.html">religion</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-must-also-tackle-online-abuse-93000">#MeToo must also tackle online abuse</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>There are some <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/s11.html">exceptions</a> where reasonable statements made in good faith are rendered lawful. This includes artistic works, academic and scientific works, fair media reporting, and statements made “in the public interest”.</p>
<p>These exceptions ensure that the right to freedom from discrimination and vilification is balanced with the right to free speech. If anything, the exceptions err on the side of protecting free speech.</p>
<p>It is also considered a <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/vic/consol_act/rarta2001265/s24.html">more serious criminal offence</a> when a person “intentionally” engages in conduct that the person “knows” is likely to vilify.</p>
<h2>What does the Patten bill do?</h2>
<p>The Patten bill seeks to extend vilification protections to other attributes, namely gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics and disability.</p>
<p>The bill also grants new powers to the VEOHRC to be able to request information from any relevant person or business to identify online “trolls” after a vilification complaint has been made. </p>
<p>Such requests could require, for instance, social media companies to hand over information on individuals who engage in online abuse through “anonymous” accounts. This request only applies to existing complaints, though. It does not provide a <em>carte blanche</em> right for authorities to search through social media to identify offenders, and is subject to VCAT approval.</p>
<p>The bill also contains appropriate confidentiality and privacy controls to prevent unreasonable disclosure of this information. </p>
<p>The bill also does not change the threshold test for vilification, except that “incitement” is replaced with “likely to incite”. As such, conduct would be prohibited if it was “likely to” incite hatred, serious contempt, revulsion, or severe ridicule on the basis of the above attributes (including race or religion). </p>
<p>Further, consistent with other Australian jurisdictions, the bill would deem “reckless” vilification a criminal offence. This would cover dangerous acts of vilification in which an offender has wilfully disregarded the harm caused to other people, even if they may not have “intended” the outcome.</p>
<p>It would also change the subjective test for criminal vilification – that an offender “knows” their conduct is vilification – to an objective test. </p>
<p>This ensures judges do not have to subjectively “go inside” the heads of offenders to ascertain their knowledge at the time of an offence, which can lead to unpredictable results.</p>
<h2>Why are the changes needed?</h2>
<p>The Patten bill would ensure that women, the LGBTI+ community and people with disabilities are afforded the same protections from harmful abuse as those granted for race and religion.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.twenty10.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Robinson-et-al.-2014-Growing-up-Queer.pdf">Over 64% of LGBTI+ people</a> between the ages of 16 and 27 have been subject to verbal abuse on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status. Thoughts of self-harm are <a href="https://www.acon.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Writing-Themselves-In-3-2010.pdf">almost twice as likely to occur</a> for LGBTI+ young people after they have been subject to such abuse.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marriage-equality-was-momentous-but-there-is-still-much-to-do-to-progress-lgbti-rights-in-australia-110786">Marriage equality was momentous, but there is still much to do to progress LGBTI+ rights in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/australia-poll-reveals-alarming-impact-online-abuse-women/">Thirty percent of all women</a> have experienced online abuse or harassment, with a third of these reporting fears for their physical safety as a result.</p>
<p>Further, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/29/religious-discrimination-bill-coalition-accused-of-weakening-state-human-rights-law">a significant proportion</a> of complaints under Tasmania’s strong anti-vilification laws are from people with disabilities. </p>
<p>All of these groups deserve protection.</p>
<p>The Patten bill would also modernise a nearly 20-year-old law that is largely ill-equipped to deal with online abuse. </p>
<p>The bill would particularly help the VEOHRC in responding to complaints over online gendered hate speech and bullying, such as that <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-20/tayla-harris-felt-sexually-abused-aflw-photo-trolls-seven/10919008">directed at AFLW player Tayla Harris</a> earlier this year.</p>
<h2>What about concerns about the bill’s reach?</h2>
<p>Despite <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/new-victorian-antidiscrimination-law-section-18c-on-steroids/news-story/e5d2b72877102ce19f36eed6c7491e88">reports to the contrary</a>, the bill is <em>not</em> “section 18C on steroids”.</p>
<p><a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/rda1975202/s18c.html">Section 18C</a> of the Racial Discrimination Act prohibits acts that are “reasonably likely” to “offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate” a person or group. These standards are lower than the threshold test for racial and religious vilification under Victorian law. </p>
<p>The Victorian test would be largely unchanged by the Patten bill. As such, even with the Patten bill changes, it would be <em>harder</em> to prove vilification under Victorian law than under section 18C.</p>
<p>Indeed, complaints under the current Victorian law are hardly voluminous; <a href="https://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/home/our-resources-and-publications/annual-reports/item/1745-victorian-equal-opportunity-and-human-rights-commission-annual-report-2017-18-dec-2018">only 26 were lodged</a> in the past two years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/section-18c-is-an-important-part-of-a-civilised-society-and-no-threat-to-free-speech-64801">Section 18C is an important part of a civilised society and no threat to free speech</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Suggestions that the <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/fiona-patten-defends-antivilification-bill/news-story/590cca0772e2f411d596b3421f3f7f29">bill reaches far beyond</a> other Australian anti-vilification laws and uniquely restricts free speech are also blatantly incorrect.</p>
<p><a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/tas/consol_act/aa1998204/s17.html">Tasmania</a> provides far stronger protection for vilification, prohibiting conduct that a reasonable person would anticipate would offend, insult, ridicule, humiliate or intimidate another person. It also protects a more expansive range of attributes that include age, relationship status and pregnancy.</p>
<p>Existing laws in <a href="http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/aa1991204/s124a.html">Queensland</a>, <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/aa1977204/s49zt.html">NSW</a> and <a href="http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/act/consol_act/da1991164/s67a.html">ACT</a> contain almost identical provisions to the Patten bill. </p>
<p>The main difference is that those three jurisdictions do not protect gender, while the Patten bill (and Tasmania) does. </p>
<p>Considering the prevalence of online gendered abuse, the protection of women in anti-vilification laws is entirely appropriate. Indeed, the unique aspect of Patten’s bill is its granting of important additional powers to address largely gendered online abuse and trolling.</p>
<p>The Patten bill is not a radical attack on free speech. Rather, it represents a sound, appropriate and balanced approach to protecting vulnerable groups from harmful abuse, particularly in our social media age.</p>
<p>In a period where the federal government is undermining and overriding existing discrimination and vilification protections, this bill provides some much-needed hope and reason.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123014/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liam Elphick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The proposed amendments would provide much-needed updates to Victoria’s vilification laws and bring the state in line with NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT.Liam Elphick, Adjunct Research Fellow, Law School, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230822019-09-09T05:31:35Z2019-09-09T05:31:35ZWomen have made many inroads in policing, but barriers remain to achieving gender equity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291436/original/file-20190909-175700-58dauu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1320%2C29%2C3600%2C2264&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A third of all police personnel in Australia are women, but in some localities, the rates of women officers are trending in the wrong direction.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the <a href="https://acwap.com.au/2019-australasian-council-of-women-and-policing-conference/">Australasian Council of Women and Policing held its 2019 conference</a>, with a focus on how law enforcement responds to women in the communities they serve and how police services can expand opportunities for women in leadership positions.</p>
<p>Although opportunities for women in policing have expanded over time, their overall numbers remain relatively low. Nationwide, about <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2019/justice/police-services">a third of all police personnel</a> were women in 2017-18, but barriers remain to states achieving their goals of reaching 50-50 gender parity on police forces. Women are vastly underrepresented in senior roles, as well.</p>
<h2>The changing role of women in policing</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bawp.org/women-policing-history/">Women began to play a role in policing in the United Kingdom</a> in the early 1900s, though this was initially limited to focusing on women and children impacted by war. By 1915, there were Women Police Service volunteer constables and officers patrolling streets across the country, though they were prevented from becoming a permanent part of the police force.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291369/original/file-20190908-175705-e5y6jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1016&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A female police patrol in London in 1918.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">UK Parliament</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the United States, <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/03-2017/history_of_women_in_LE.asp">Lola Baldwin became the country’s first sworn female police officer</a> in the city of Portland, Oregon, in 1908. <a href="https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/series/historical-photo/oregon-historical-photo-lola-g-baldwin-portland-policewoman/">Baldwin focused on crime prevention</a> in areas where women could be subject to predatory behaviours by men, such as dance halls and saloons.</p>
<p>As societal attitudes changed over time, the opportunities and roles for women in policing expanded. For example, in 1975, the <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/the-ether-man-how-police-caught-a-serial-brisbane-rapist-50-years-ago-20161128-gsza7b.html">Queensland Police Force established a specialised rape squad</a> to handle crimes involving sexual assaults against women, creating an <a href="https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/museum/2014/08/05/vault-assaults/">all-female team of investigators</a>. </p>
<p>Women are still breaking into new areas of policing today. Queensland finally got its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-25/qld-first-female-motorbike-cops-to-hit-the-road/6806542">first female motorcycle officers</a> in 2017, for instance, when two women passed the arduous three-week qualifying course.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291370/original/file-20190908-175705-11q49dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queensland rape squad course participants, 1977.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image PM3641 Courtesy of the Queensland Police Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Participation of women in policing</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-74">United States</a>, women comprised just 12% of sworn police officers (police officers with general arrest powers) in 2014 – an increase of just four percentage points from 1987. It is worth noting, however, that women were better represented on police forces in bigger population centres. </p>
<p>Gender equity is slightly better in the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817740/hosb1119-police-workforce.pdf">United Kingdom</a>, where women accounted for 30% of police officers in 2019, up from 26% in 2010.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-is-not-enough-it-has-yet-to-shift-the-power-imbalances-that-would-bring-about-gender-equality-92108">#MeToo is not enough: it has yet to shift the power imbalances that would bring about gender equality</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And in Australia, 33.6% of sworn and unsworn police personnel were women in 2017-18, up marginally from 32.2% in 2012-13, according to <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/report-on-government-services/2019/justice/police-services">the Report on Government Services 2019</a>. While most states have increased the number of women in their ranks in recent years, New South Wales and the Northern Territory have been trending in the opposite direction over the past 12 months.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291364/original/file-20190908-175691-xeubo0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian women in policing 2012-18, including sworn and unsworn personnel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Report on Government Services 2019</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many police services across the country have now enacted strategies to achieve <a href="https://www.aipm.gov.au/sites/default/files/pictures/J2805%20-%20AIPM%20Research%20Focus%20Vol5%20Iss2_v1.pdf">50-50 gender equity for police staff</a>. And several services, including the Australian Federal Police, have initiated independent reviews of their organisational culture and the prevalence of sex discrimination.</p>
<h2>Breaking the glass ceiling and senior representation</h2>
<p>The United Kingdom appointed its first female chief constable (Pauline Clare) in 1995. In 2017, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/22/cressida-dick-appointed-first-female-met-police-commissioner">Cressida Dick was then appointed the first female head of the Metropolitan Police</a> – the UK’s largest police service.</p>
<p>In 2001, Christine Nixon was appointed Victoria’s chief commissioner, the first woman to be named head of an Australian police force. And the appointment of Katarina Carroll as the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-23/new-qld-police-commissioner-katarina-carroll/11038446">Queensland police commissioner</a> this July marked the final breaking of the glass ceiling for that police service. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-sexual-harassment-in-the-afp-systemic-and-can-the-culture-be-changed-64306">Why is sexual harassment in the AFP systemic? And can the culture be changed?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, despite these high-level appointments, problems still exist in terms of the representation of women in senior ranks. A <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/qps-executive-bloats-why-women-miss-out-terry-goldsworthy/">2018 analysis of Queensland police data</a> showed that women were proportionally underrepresented at every rank above inspector in that state. When questioned about this imbalance of female leadership, <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/queensland-police-service-struggling-to-attract-female-officers/news-story/e7512408295b70fbc9cfc72390336645">Queensland Police Commissioner</a> Ian Stewart said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our promotions are based on people who can show merit. We will again not be changing our systems to promote people who don’t have the merit to do the job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In <a href="https://www.police.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/518134/Hi-Res-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Strategy-2018-2020.pdf">South Australia</a>, women made up 28.5% of sworn police in 2017, but only 18.5% of commissioned officers. The same disparity exists in <a href="https://content.police.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-08/VICPOL%20Gender%20Equality%20Strategy%20%26%20Action%20Plan%202017-2020.pdf#_ga=2.12762743.1599970006.1567986364-2103021130.1567986364">Victoria</a>, where women accounted for 28% of sworn police officers in 2017, but only 16% of the leadership roles.</p>
<p>A 2019 <a href="http://elizabethbroderick.com.au/wp-content/uploads/Final-Report-into-the-NSW-Police-Promotions-System.pdf">review of the NSW police promotion system</a> found that women were also underrepresented in leadership roles in that state, but it did not find any overt discrimination. </p>
<h2>Barriers to participation</h2>
<p>Despite having gender-equity targets in place, many states struggle with the recruitment of women for police forces. Although the Queensland Police Force <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/queensland-police-service-struggling-to-attract-female-officers/news-story/e7512408295b70fbc9cfc72390336645">did reach 50-50 parity</a> for its recruitment program in 2016-17, Stewart said it’s getting more difficult to attract female applicants. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we don’t have enough we won’t change the standard, and we’ll have more male applicants than women in a recruit program. I think that will happen at times.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u8Kyzi2tMu4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Channel 7 News investigation found that Queensland police are struggling to find women recruits.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzsjOV8lu98">Victoria Police Force</a> last month announced it would provide targeted assistance for potential recruits to meet entry fitness standards in an effort to boost female participation. </p>
<p>In essence, there are two main barriers to increasing the numbers of women in policing: elements of sexism and discrimination that result from the male-dominated culture in police forces and the nature of the job itself. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/report-reveals-entrenched-nature-of-sexual-harassment-in-victoria-police-51810">Report reveals entrenched nature of sexual harassment in Victoria Police</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A number of police services, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/02/nsw-police-vow-to-end-boys-club-culture-after-report-reveals-extent-of-discrimination">NSW</a>, <a href="https://eoc.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/inline-files/SAPOL_Review_2016_Final.pdf">South Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/more-to-do-on-vic-police-gender-issues/news-story/06741c1f2e4422641654e5e4e6d2812f">Victoria</a> and the <a href="https://www.afp.gov.au/sites/default/files/PDF/Reports/Cultural-Change-Report-2016.pdf">Australian Federal Police</a>, have conducted inquiries into the culture of their forces and made commitments to stamp out discrimination based on gender. </p>
<p>What these changes cannot do, however, is make some aspects of the job more attractive to women. Operational policing involves shift work, long hours, exposure to physical harm and mental trauma. As <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/crime-and-justice/queensland-police-service-struggling-to-attract-female-officers/news-story/e7512408295b70fbc9cfc72390336645">Stewart</a> noted,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Twenty-four-hour shifts and 365-days-a-year work all take a toll on people, and particularly for women who are the primary raiser[s] of families</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One potential solution is a bigger focus on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/02/nsw-police-vow-to-end-boys-club-culture-after-report-reveals-extent-of-discrimination">flexible working arrangements</a> and part-time policing arrangements to help improve the work-life balance for officers.</p>
<p>But it remains to be seen if these steps will make a difference. While the number of women in policing is on the rise, only time will tell if <a href="https://www.aipm.gov.au/sites/default/files/pictures/J2805%20-%20AIPM%20Research%20Focus%20Vol5%20Iss2_v1.pdf">the goal of reaching 50-50 gender parity</a> will someday become reality.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Goldsworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Although opportunities have expanded for women in policing, the numbers of women on most forces remain well below 50% and women are very underrepresented in senior roles.Terry Goldsworthy, Associate Professor in Criminology, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1156072019-04-29T13:26:25Z2019-04-29T13:26:25ZSex discrimination in British immigration law is likely to get worse after Brexit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271438/original/file-20190429-194630-l9vk7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yakobchuk Viacheslave/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The British government’s plans for migration control after Brexit may, if implemented, exacerbate existing sex discrimination in immigration law. My own <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0964663919839187">recent research</a> shows that men are significantly more likely than women to benefit from key migration opportunities – including the ability to work in the UK as skilled labour migrants. Not only do the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules">immigration rules</a> that distribute these opportunities disadvantage women, they may also unlawfully discriminate against them. It is these rules that the government plans to extend and build upon after Brexit. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-future-skills-based-immigration-system/future-skills-based-immigration-system-executive-summary">white paper on immigration</a>, published in December 2018, the government promised to “reset the conversation on migration” after Brexit. It plans to achieve this by ending freedom of movement for EU citizens and replacing the current labour migration rules which apply to everyone else with a single, skills-based system. </p>
<p>This system would allow skilled and highly skilled migrants from EU and non-EU countries alike to work in the UK. Those considered low-skilled may be able to work in the UK for 12 months in a route for “temporary short-term workers”. Unlike the skilled workers whose migration the government seeks to encourage, the proposals seek to substantially limit the rights of short-term workers. These workers will not be able to extend their stay or remain here on a different basis. Nor will they be able to bring family members with them or make the UK their home.</p>
<p>Much <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/commentaries/where-is-uk-labour-migration-policy-heading-after-brexit/">is still unknown</a> about how the system will work. But one question raised by the proposals is just how much of a “reset” of immigration law they represent.</p>
<h2>Migration hierarchies</h2>
<p>Non-EU migrants currently need permission to live and work in the UK. Yet, someone who seeks such permission does not receive a straightforward “yes” or “no” answer to their application. Instead, if they are successful, the Home Office will grant them one of a range of migration statuses which determines the length of time they may remain in the UK and for what purpose. It also determines what rights they have while in the country to be accompanied by their family, access welfare benefits and even open a bank account. </p>
<p>Different migration statuses bestow different bundles of rights – and obligations. Some are considerably more advantageous than others. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general">Skilled labour migrants</a>, for example, may work in the UK for up to five years, change employers, bring their families with them and potentially settle here. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/domestic-workers-in-a-private-household-visa">Domestic workers</a> have no such rights. They cannot change their employer – unless they have been trafficked – and they must leave the UK after just six months. So immigration law creates a status-based labour migration hierarchy which differentiates between labour migrants, advantaging some and disadvantaging others.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271443/original/file-20190429-194630-1qgbzz8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migration law establishes as status-based hierarchy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">By Kseniya Lanzarote/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0964663919839187">research</a>, I reviewed information on the distribution of different migration statuses taken from over a ten year period to see how these hierarchies affect women. I supplemented public Home Office <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release%22%22">statistics</a> with data obtained by freedom of information request. </p>
<p>I found that certain key family and labour migration statuses are distributed differently to women and men – to the disadvantage of women. While three-quarters of those granted the advantageous status of “skilled” labour migrant are men, three-quarters of those granted the highly disadvantageous status of “domestic worker” are women. Nearly <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-statistics-year-ending-september-2018/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-4-for-family-reasons">three-quarters</a> of those granted the relatively disadvantageous status of “partner” are women. </p>
<p>In contrast to family migration, labour migration is <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/non-european-labour-migration-to-the-uk/">predominantly male</a> and men are more likely to be at the top of the labour migration hierarchy, as skilled migrants, than women. </p>
<h2>Stereotypes about ‘skills’</h2>
<p>The rules which distribute these migration statuses indirectly discriminate against women <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0964663919839187">because they are premised</a> on stereotypes. </p>
<p>Labour migration statuses are distributed on the basis of skill. Feminist analyses of the labour market have highlighted the sexed and gendered stereotypes that underlie the categorisations of certain types of work and worker as either <a href="http://compasanthology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/McDowell_COMPASMigrationAnthology.pdf">low- or high-skilled</a>. Such analyses have also questioned the idea that a person’s “skill” can itself be determined objectively. </p>
<p>Such stereotypes, that women are particularly suited to undertake caring work for example, or that such work is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1394973?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">almost by definition</a>, low-skilled, affect almost every aspect of women’s participation in the job market. They are implicated in the <a href="https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/">gender pay gap</a>, and the <a href="http://sf.oxfordjournals.org/content/88/2/865.abstract">devaluation</a> in terms of pay and status of the work that women do, particularly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/000271629956100103">caring work</a>.</p>
<p>As Eleonore Kofman, professor of social policy at Middlesex University, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.80/1369183X.2013.745234">argues</a> the immigration rules that rank “skills” appear to be gender-neutral, but they actually privilege certain types of knowledge, and discount others, in a highly gendered way. I argue that they do so because because the rules that determine who is “skilled”, or not, or who is a “partner” – and what type of relationship this involves – are rooted in stereotypical understandings of women’s and men’s roles and abilities. </p>
<h2>Another kind of reset required</h2>
<p>Debates about labour migration post-Brexit <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nhs-chiefs-warn-theresa-mays-14472112">are beginning</a> to consider the ability of the NHS and others to employ the staff they need if the proposals in the white paper are implemented. My research indicates that the consequences of these proposals could be more significant than is currently appreciated. The establishment of an even more segmented and hierarchical labour migration system which relies on stereotypes to differentiate between workers and which significantly disadvantages those it considers unskilled, is likely to have particularly negative consequences for women. </p>
<p>The ending of free movement will profoundly change the nature of migration to and from the UK. Just one of the potential consequences of this change, the replacement of EU law and the existing rules that enable non-EU labour migrants to work in the UK with a system which may reproduce and amplify those parts of the current system that disadvantage and discriminate against women, has yet to be fully explored. This is concerning not only for those whose right to remain in the UK is currently determined by British immigration law, but all those EU citizens who face being made subject to it following Britian’s departure from the EU.</p>
<p>A reset of British immigration law is required, but it’s not the one that the government is proposing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work was supported by an AHRC Doctoral Award (grant reference number AH/L503885/1). Catherine Briddick is a trustee of Asylum Welcome. </span></em></p>Why the government’s post-Brexit immigration proposals are particularly bad for women.Catherine Briddick, Martin James Departmental Lecturer in Gender and Forced Migration, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.