Timeline for Why is "The Loop" survey asking about race, age, and gender?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 6, 2020 at 3:00 | history | edited | Giacomo1968 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Breaking up one large paragraph. Very good answer that should be more easy to read.
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| Dec 6, 2019 at 15:29 | comment | added | Marco13 | I agree to what ColleenV said: Even if there is a "disparity", this does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong that has to be fixed. But more importantly: Iff the survey showed a disparity, and iff there was a reason to assume that this has to be (or should be, or could be...) fixed, then the survey wouldn't say how. The survey asks far to few questions to even speculate about causalities. If they did not ask "Are you male or female?", but only asked "Do you wear glasses or not?", then I'm sure it would show a similar "disparity". What then? | |
| Dec 6, 2019 at 7:56 | comment | added | Emil Jeřábek | The Loop will help squat with any issues on MathOverflow as the Loop is restricted to Stack Overflow users only. | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 17:28 | comment | added | Peter Taylor | It's worth noting as context for those who don't know that MathOverflow isn't run by Stack Overflow Inc but by a separate foundation. Also, when I joined it I understood it to have a real name policy, although I could have been confused. | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 17:11 | comment | added | Sextus Empiricus | @ColleenV "My point...these surveys are starting from the assumption that there’s something definitely broken...for women,...hasn’t actually been determined" you might also consider the survey as a tool to find out whether the assumption actually makes sense or not. But, I like your hammer nail analogy a lot. Still, I believe the approach should be more nuanced. However let me share a Dutch saying paard voor de wagen spannen remaining question:where's the horse, in front or behind? | |
| Nov 28, 2019 at 11:10 | comment | added | Luis Rico | @NeilStrickland I agree that some of them would involve freely made choices that do not need to be fixed. Only some would be freely made choices? Not participating in an online community is always a choice you are free to take. Unless MathOverflow bans women, but I doubt it. | |
| Nov 27, 2019 at 21:36 | comment | added | ColleenV | My point was really that these surveys are starting from the assumption that there’s something definitely broken about SE for women, but that hasn’t actually been determined to be true. The only real data is for SO, which might be uniquely problematic and not representative of the rest of the network. The claim that women are under-represented on SO appears to be based on US labor statistics, which has a number of problems. It seems like folks are walking around with an hammer looking for excuses to treat something like a nail because hammering is an worthy pursuit. | |
| Nov 27, 2019 at 20:25 | comment | added | Neil Strickland | @ColleenV There are indeed a number of possible reasons why women might choose not to engage with MathOverflow, and I agree that some of them would involve freely made choices that do not need to be fixed. But there are other possibilities that would need to be fixed, and we do not currently have good information about which possibilities are correct. | |
| Nov 27, 2019 at 19:09 | comment | added | ColleenV | Why do you think the proportion of professional female mathematicians relative to male mathematicians would be the same proportion as female to male mathematicians that are interested in interacting online? Maybe female mathematicians don’t need as much help as male mathematicians, or they get their help offline. Maybe female mathematicians are less interested in teaching strangers on the Internet, or prefer interacting in person. Not every disparity is an indication that something needs fixed. | |
| Nov 27, 2019 at 16:32 | comment | added | Neil Strickland | I think that the great majority of professional mathematicians are aware of MathOverflow, and that a smaller majority have read questions and answers there even if they have not written any. | |
| Nov 27, 2019 at 16:08 | history | answered | Neil Strickland | CC BY-SA 4.0 |