Dangerous Ideas

Anita Borg had a dream: by the year 2020, half the graduates of computers science programs would be women. That’s a lot easier than having half the people in high tech be women, but it’s still a tall order. Anita passed away in 2003, but she still inspires people to work for the equality. She started a group called Systers that was one of the first online communities for women. Systers is a women-only group that provides an important network for women in science and technology. The Anita Borg Institute carries on some of Anita’s work. Recently, the Anita Borg Institute was given an anonymous challenge grant – every donation will be matched up to $15,000 through December 6. Here’s the message posted by Robin Jeffries of ABI to the Systers mailing list:

Systers,

The systers list is sponsored and supported by the Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit devoted to improving the lives of women technologies and helping technology improve the lives of women everywhere.

Like every other non-profit, they exist on the donations of others. Those donations provide systers with technical support (thanks, Kathy, for all you do), computing power, spam protection, support for pass-it-on grant reviewing, and may other things. In addition to systers, ABI runs the Grace Hopper celebration, administers several awards for women in computing – so that the male dominated industry will know who the brilliant women are, provides leadership training for women at various stages of their career, and a host of other things.

ABI has just been offered an anonymous challenge grant. From now until December 6, your individual donations will be matched dollar for dollar (up to $15,000), thanks to a generous grant from an anonymous donor. If they meet this goal, it will result in $30,000 in funding toward their many programs.

Please, consider giving to the Anita Borg Institute NOW (before December 6), while this challenge grant is active. I already have. Your donation makes a difference to our field, to many of the women working in it, and to women all over the world who want to better themselves through technology. Please pledge whatever you can (even $5 or $10) to help meet this $15,000 goal.

To learn how you can donate, go to http://anitaborg.org/get-involved/donate/

Thanks,

Robin Jeffries Her Systers’ Keeper

One of my first personal close experiences with injustice in our society was the murder of Vincent Chin. My mom worked for General Motors at the time (she never met him in person) and was involved early in the fight for justice for him. Until activists made an issue of it, the murder of Chin by two white laid-off auto workers didn’t make waves.

Bigotry-motivated murders are still happening regularly, and still being underreported. Although the brutal murders of Brandon Teena and Gwen Araujo are well known, the Transgender Day of Remembrance Web site notes that more than one person a month has died because of their gender expression:

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

Given the recent news about stripping gender identity protection from ENDA and that the stories of Brandon Teena and Gwen Araujo it’s almost surprising that the Day of Remembrance isn’t more widely covered. The Day of Remembrance has been going on for nine years. I’m on several LGBT mailing lists but only only one of them – Equality North Carolina – sent out a mailing mentioning the event. Of course, the HRC is one of the other organizations whose mailing list I’m on. They’re the organization I think of first when people talk about how same sex marriage is a rich gay white person’s issue. I don’t think that’s true, of course – marriage equality affects everyone – but I can see how people might come to think so if they see the HRC as a leading LGBT org.

Ironically, as Lambda Legal notes, removing protection for gender identity from ENDA cripples the act not just for transfolk, but for many others:

Lambda Legal’s preliminary assessment of the revised version of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act shows the bill to be riddled with loopholes in addition to failing altogether to protect transgender people against discrimination.

“Leaving out protections for transgender people is unacceptable, and passing a bill riddled with loopholes will make it harder to achieve equality on the job,” said Kevin Cathcart, Executive Director at Lambda Legal. “You can’t be fired for being lesbian, gay or bisexual but you can be fired if your boss thinks you fit their stereotype of one.”

FYI, one creative way some artists have marked the day is the Transgender Day of Remembrance Web Comics Project.

From CPA:

Dear Allies,

Tomorrow, Thurs. Nov. 15! Please join us in supporting the Parc Hong Kong workers in their first public protest. We will start promptly at 11 am and end by 11:45 am, so please try to arrive by 10:30 or 10:45.

thank you for your support!

Shaw San Liu Worker Organizing Center Chinese Progressive Association

“Parc Hong Kong” Immigrant Restaurant Workers Protest Wage Theft,

Seek up to 3 Months Backwages

Rally and Press Conference

11:00 am, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007

San Francisco City Hall Steps

On Thurs., Nov. 15, “Parc Hong Kong” restaurant workers are standing up to protest wage theft and demand justice.

Join Chinese immigrant restaurant workers, community supporters and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at a rally on Thurs. Nov. 15, from 11 am to 12 pm.

They will protest wage theft of up to 3 months backwages owed, demand that the employer pay all back wages and penalties, and call upon the city government to enforce labor laws in San Francisco.

The Parc Hong Kong Story

Over 40 Chinese immigrant workers are owed up to 3 months of wages (estimated total over $100,00) from the Parc Hong Kong restaurant, a dim sum and seafood restaurant in the Richmond district. Many are new immigrants who did not get a penny for their work.

Time and time again, the employer has offered workers bounced checks instead of paying their wages. In August they shut their doors and have resisted efforts by federal, state and city labor departments to reclaim workers wages.

At the press event, Parc Hong Kong workers will deliver wage claims forms totaling over $100,000 to OLSE and give testimony to the injustice they have experienced. Join us to tell Parc Hong Kong and other irresponsible restaurant owners that the elected leadership and community will not tolerate further wage theft in San Francisco!

For more information, please contact Shaw San Liu at (415) 391-6986 ext. 313 or reply to shawsan at_ cpasf _dot org.

There are a lot of sexist jokes that go around, either verbally or digitally. Women in male-dominated fields, like computing, experience this regularly. When we complain, we’re often told that it’s “just a joke” or to “have a sense of humor about it”, or “it’s bad, but it’s not a really big deal”. Now there’s research that shows that sexist jokes encourage more tangible discrimination:

“We found that men with a high level of sexism were less likely to donate to the women’s organization after reading sexist jokes, but not after reading either sexist statements or neutral jokes,” Ford said.

In the second experiment, men were shown video clips of sexist or non-sexist comedy skits and were then asked to participate in a project designed to determine how funding cuts should be allocated amongst select student organizations.

“We found that, upon exposure to sexist humor, men higher in sexism discriminated against women by allocating larger funding cuts to a women’s organization than they did to other organizations,” Ford said.

“We also found that, in the presence of sexist humor, participants believed the other participants would approve of the funding cuts to women’s organizations,” he said. “We believe this shows that humorous disparagement creates the perception of a shared standard of tolerance of discrimination that may guide behavior when people believe others feel the same way.”

I like that the lead researcher, Thomas Ford, is a man. It’s good to have allies! Sometimes men ask how they can help women in computing, and being good allies is a great start. Not just by doing studies like this, but also by speaking out when someone says something stupid.

I just heard from an organizer at SEIU Local 1877 (whom I do work with) that some of their members were pepper sprayed at a union rally. I can understand when two sides have a difference of opinion, but it’s really bad when a company resorts to physical violence when confronted with protests. Here’s a newspaper article on it:

Kevin O’Donnell, a spokesman for the union, said the demonstrators at the mall were there to voice grievances regarding alleged civil rights abuses committed by General Growth Properties againstemployees. “In the course of forming their union, they’ve been met with interrogation, intimidation, discrimination, censorship. You’ve had mall janitors who have been prohibited from talking to union organizers.” O’Donnell said that as a result of the scuffle with the security guards, janitors Maricela Flores and Sonia Sharwood and union organizer Raul Cardenas were taken to Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hayward to be treated for impaired vision, pain in the limbs and difficulty breathing.