A letter to Patrick Deane, President, McMaster University

I disagree with the positions stated here. Regarding the presence of women on the agenda, it's worth remembering that who gets invited to speak and who makes themselves available are often two different things. This is not a weeklong conference where there is a large pool of talks where one would rightfully expect a more demographically accurate roster. It's a one-day symposium, with a handful of slots dedicated to one speaker. Those objecting to the lack of women also fail to note that the opening session that frames the entire day will be presented by two women and one man. But quibbling over the gender mix is pointless. As a feminist, I am acutely aware of the need to address gender inequities, but choosing battles wisely is important. In a profession with an overwhelming female majority, with leadership positions reflecting that mix, rattling the cage over a one-day symposium seems disingenuous. Were the agenda reversed in terms of gender distributionâsomething that occurs, incidentally, at other library conferencesâno one would care. As a male librarian who has worked in five academic libraries with a sum total of four male senior administrators between them (of a total pool of perhaps 20), I know whereof I speak. Were one to turn Mita's arguments on their head and complain about a preponderance of women at an event, one would be pilloried.

Also, stating that âI have nothing against senior administrators per seâ means that one does, in fact, object to senior administrators, else there would be no point to raise. Reading the agenda, the event focuses clearly on a high level view of the future of academic libraries. Is this one-sided? Yes, but I donât see the problem there. There are myriad events in the library world, and I see no reason why all must present a broad perspective. This one happens to aim high on org charts, another might present the early career perspective. So be it. One can choose to attend or not. From my point of view, listening to people such as Jim Neal, Michael Stephens, and David Lewisâwhether they are men, women, or unsure about their genderâis an opportunity to tap into their way of thinking. For better or worse, such leaders drive and shape opinions. I may disagree with them, but I need to know their thinking, and how better to learn it than to attend and engage via questions and discussion? If one rejects the perspective of senior administrators, as the disclaimer âI have nothing againstâ suggests, then where better to challenge them than on neutral and public ground?

Disclaimer: although now an AUL at McMaster, these comments are personal, not institutional.

"But quibbling over the gender mix is pointless. As a feminist, I am acutely aware of the need to address gender inequities, but choosing battles wisely is important. In a profession with an overwhelming female majority, with leadership positions reflecting that mix, rattling the cage over a one-day symposium seems disingenuous. Were the agenda reversed in terms of gender distributionâsomething that occurs, incidentally, at other library conferencesâno one would care."

Yeah, you're basically creating a picture of libraries as a "female-dominated" workplace where "reverse sexism" is the more pressing problem and women still seeing inequality should just shut up. I'm paraphrasing, obviously, but this is the "gist" of your post as I read it.

And that is B.S.

According to 08-09 DOL Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers (the most recent that I could quickly find), while men accounted for only 16.5% of librarians in 2008, they accounted for 47% of library directors in academic settings and 35% in public libraries in 2006. In fact, pretty much across the board, as we move "up" the library ladder (from technicians to librarians to directors, or from public to private to research), the percentage of men's representation increases.

Nor is this merely a case of women "self-selecting" lower pay/prestige jobs- according to the Association of Research Libraries' Annual Salary Survey (2008â09), even when years of experience in a particular job category were equal, men still outpaced women in salary by nearly 4%: $69,610 for women and $72,344 for men. On average, women have more years of experience than men, but still menâs salaries are higher in all ten experience cohorts.

In fact, several studies have verified the "glass escalator" effect for men in library workplaces.

As a librarian, you do not live in a world where gender equity has been achieved (or reversed).

While your comments about whether a one-day conference is a legitimate analysis point and whether this is a generally anti-administrative issue may well be valid, your tone that suggests that this is "hoopla" is BS.

Dale, thanks for your comment. And thanks for being upfront about your affiliation.

This is one of those cases where I fear my low level of eloquence will hinder the message I want to convey so Iâll first of all refer you to some resources suggested by some colleagues on Twitter:

• Gendered Conference Campaign
• smart men on the lack of women at conferences: a retrospective
• Silencing tactics

That being said, itâs really all about choices for me. When you plan an event, you make choices about what itâs going to be about, what the focus is, whoâs going to be given pride of place in the program, what direction the conversation is going to be. When you do that, you own what you create. And others may disagree. The organizers of the symposium made choices; I, and others, disagree. Sure, when you organize an event, things donât always fall out exactly the way you hope. Some things end up sub-optimal. I understand that.

But when three very important aspects end up being sub-optimal â lack of women, lack of Mac librarians, lack of early-career and front-line librarians â well, then I think itâs back to choices.

Sure thereâs an infinite possible number of events that could exist, some of which have women, some of which have Mac librarians and some of which have early-career and front-line librarians. However, I havenât seen too many events where the speakers are invitation-only about the future of academic libraries that are that far-reaching. Iâd like to be wrong, Iâd like you to be able to show me the long list of such invitation-only events but I havenât really seen them. Iâd like to direct you to the Peter Brantley post I refer to above, Get in the goddamn wagon for more of an exploration of that.

As for participation of Mac librarians, I think the idea that the conversation should be one-way â from the outsiders to the Mac people â is rather unfortunate. Knowing the caliber of Macâs librarians, I believe thereâs a lot to be learned in both directions. And to say that thatâs going to happen with one side being the eventâs âexpertsâ and the other side being the âaudienceâ seems unlikely, especially given how crowded the conference schedule is.

And, âIf one rejects the perspective of senior administrators, as the disclaimer âI have nothing againstâ suggests, then where better to challenge them than on neutral and public ground?â Neutral and public ground, seems to me, to be best established by being equals, not one side set up as the experts and the other as the audience.
Anyways, Iâve gone on long enough. âSage on the stageâ events like this one are indicative of a mindset thatâs hard to change. Come to Science Online one of these days to see a different way of envisaging such an event

The gender balance is perplexing, as I'm hosting a program next month and the speaker breakdown is about 50/50. I did find in planning an earlier meeting it was difficult to find female faculty members to participate in panel discussions about scholarship issues - they were almost exclusively male. I'm not sure why but partly this was because the sciences were more heavily represented and fewer female faculty were active as editors or had web-based publishing projects, which was the focus of discussion. I agree with the post - something just seems off about the whole program. The perspective, schedule, speakers, lack of time for discussion - I don't think the planners were aware of the overall impression and concept.

Dale, I find your comment somewhat difficult to respond to. I think this might be because youâve ratcheted up the emotional language of the discussion (ârattling the cageâ, âpointlessâ, âquibblingâ, âchoosing battlesâ, âdisingenuousâ, âbeing pilloriedâ) far above my simple post with one simple question, (âDo think this is acceptable?â) You make it sound like Iâm some angry feminist mob. [1]

Your argument - that concerns over the gross gender imbalance for the symposium should be discounted because the conference is just for one day and that somehow the imbalance would right itself if the conference lasted for a week â is unsound. Maybe this would be the case if speakers were selected at random, but thatâs not the case here.

Yes, it is only a one-day conference. But it is a one-day conference designed to be a prestigious event, bringing together âthe leading thinkers in our professionâ to âgenerate solutions to the key challenges we faceâ and promoted by the flagship publication of librarianship. The Future of Academic Librarianship is at stake.

âAt McMaster University, an inclusive community is one in which there is real, visible and meaningful representation of the diversity evident in the wider community at all levels and in all constituencies on campus (faculty, staff, students, administration).â

Thatâs the first line of the McMaster University Statement on Building an Inclusive Community with a Shared Purpose [2]. As an AUL at McMaster, you have a responsibility is uphold this commitment.

[1] http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Angry_feminist_mob
[2] http://www.mcmaster.ca/hres/Inclusive%20Community%20with%20a%20Shared%2…

It's been interesting to see the gradual noise about this symposium and I hope it continues to be discussed, but I wish there was more attention placed on McMaster's Jeff Trzeciak, the organizer of this conference, who has engaged in a protracted war of attrition against his own librarian staff to the degree that they had to break from their faculty association and form a union. I think he didn't include them, despite including stakeholders from nearly every other level at McMaster, because his vision of the future of academic libraries does not include librarians.

Mita, I just read your response to Dale's comments. Thanks for saying exactly what I wanted to, only so much more pointedly. It seems to me that it has been clearly established by you and others that this event will not take place on "neutral ground" and there will be little opportunity during the day to "engage via questions and discussion". That's why I won't be attending.

One of the first things one learns in discussions concerning interacting with members of minority groups is that it is a grave mistake to assume that the person you are talking to speaks for the entire group.

In that light I am absolutely flabbergasted to hear multiple people in this discussion complaining about a gender-hegemonic message being promulgated at this conference.

But that's just my opinion. I speak for myself as a person, not as a member of the Male persuasion.