I think adopting a policy and points of contact is a good idea. However, I don't think one needs to reinvent the wheel. There are several sexual harassment policy templates available on the Internet that we can tailor: https://www.google.co.in/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=a_taVaiqJoKu8wefu4DACg&gws_rd=ssl#q=+sexual+harassment+policy+template+
What's more, one important component of such a policy is very clear paths of escalation. Who would the points of contact be? Will a female volunteer from Chennaipy be willing to step up and act as one of these points of contact so it's not just Vijay and Shrayas, an all male group of POC's? Also, most of our meetups involve listening to presentations and only brief mingling. What is the boundary of this policy? Will it extend to protect members from abuse outside of IMSc? What's more, will this be a "three strikes and your out" policy, as a reference to baseball, or will this be a zero-tolerance policy? Are we prepared to remove someone from the meetups if they are a high value participant, such as someone with great standing in the Python community? Stack Exchange drove off a Mathematics SE user, a well-respected professor with many awards in the mathematics community, because he couldn't behave himself and act like an adult on the SE network. Are we willing to commit to doing the same if needed? Hope this helps! James Phone: * 866-707-4590* On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 7:25 AM, Abhishek <bigbelie...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hey Shreyas, > Good you brought this up. > > I have been active in the Ruby community here, and we too have a diversity > problem. Overtime I have blamed several factors - patriarchy in our > culture, apathy for technology in IT industry, and the latest - tech > culture of geek glorification. After repeated discussions, my wife and I > have arrived at a few conclusions. > > The benefits of participating in such a technical community are not > obvious. Not to a normal, moderately passionate technologist. It is seen as > more suited for the so called *enthusiast*. Younger men have more chance to > experiment and find out, women not so much. They (and even men over a > certain age) have more compulsions and lesser margin to explore and figure > out. People agree that this is a noble endeavour, but to prioritise it > above other compulsions we have to measure the personal benefits. And > since the whole phenomenon is new, we have no examples from past tradition. > > So the enthusiasts have the additional onus of advertising the community. > To educate everyone about what's in it for them. It also helps to have a > clear policy against sexism, harassment and bad-behaviour (We learned this > the hard way). > > Regards, > Abhishek > > > > > On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 11:25 AM, James Mortensen < > james.morten...@synclio.com> wrote: > >> While I have mixed feelings about a separate group, there already is a >> group in Chennai that caters to women, via LeanIn Circles, inspired by >> Sheryl Sandberg's book, Lean In. >> >> Many of my colleagues are in this list, including the only two women who >> attended the Python workshop in February. I have reached out to their >> group founder to invite them to participate in our group at the end of the >> month. >> >> http://leanincircles.org/circle/thesherylnetwork >> >> >> James >> >> Phone: * 866-707-4590 <866-707-4590>* >> >> On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 9:10 AM, Kiran Gangadharan <m...@kirang.in> wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, May 13, 2015, at 09:34 PM, Shrayas rajagopal wrote: >>> > On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 1:56 PM, James Mortensen >>> > <james.morten...@synclio.com> wrote: >>> > >>> > [...] >>> > >>> > > I have a theory that encouragement can go a long way. If you're a >>> student, >>> > > invite the women in your classes to attend Chennaipy. If you work, >>> invite >>> > > women in your office. If you have a sister or daughter, encourage >>> her to go >>> > > out into the world and make it her own. Don't try to "protect" her >>> with >>> > > different rules or ideologies. It's not protecting, it's >>> restricting. >>> > >>> > well said. +1 >>> > >>> > > With that said, I don't think a separate group would help; it would >>> just >>> > > make this problem worse. This just perpetuates the idea that women >>> need to >>> > > be "protected". For this to work, we need to create an environment >>> of >>> > > respect for everyone, tolerance, and the idea of personal >>> responsibility for >>> > > all of our actions. >>> > >>> > While I very much agree with you James, I think that an org like >>> > PyLadies helps with the initial hurdle of getting women into >>> > technology. Usually, it is this part that is very important as it can >>> > make or break an impression. PyLadies IMO is a great way to foster >>> > that impression and help bring focus to the technology where it should >>> > rightfully be. >>> >>> While PyLadies could be a good initiative, something like that makes >>> sense if we >>> can identify key people who can help develop such a community and take >>> it from there. >>> With the kind of audience that we presently have, I don't think it's >>> feasible to think >>> about a seperate group for now. >>> >>> > >>> > The fact is that we *dont* have / aren't trying hard enough to create >>> > the environment that you talk about. In an idealistic scenario that is >>> > how it should be. But in reality it really isn't that way (as you have >>> > remarked yourself). Reality expects, as Jacob said, you to be a >>> > "great" programmer or it expects you to be "cut out for" technology. >>> > PyLadies helps in that exact area. The focus on technology would give >>> > confidence (or clarity) to face what reality holds. >>> > >>> > I very much look up to all the women in tech. For them to have braced >>> > all that the community throws at them and stand their ground is worth >>> > much praise. >>> > _______________________________________________ >>> > Chennaipy mailing list >>> > Chennaipy@python.org >>> > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chennaipy >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Kiran Gangadharan >>> http://kirang.in >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Chennaipy mailing list >>> Chennaipy@python.org >>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chennaipy >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Chennaipy mailing list >> Chennaipy@python.org >> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chennaipy >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Chennaipy mailing list > Chennaipy@python.org > https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/chennaipy > >
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