Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site watcgl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!watcgl!dmmartindale
From: dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Sexual Equality is a Two-Way Street
Message-ID: <2345@watcgl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Mar-84 22:40:58 EST
Article-I.D.: watcgl.2345
Posted: Fri Mar 30 22:40:58 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Mar-84 08:42:32 EST
References: <6595@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 30

	From: dyer@vaxuum.DEC (Official Mail of the 1984 Olympics)
	Subject: Sexual Equality is a Two-Way Street
	Message-ID: <6595@decwrl.UUCP>

	| Sexual Equality is a Two-Way Street |

		I'm pretty ambivalent about the issue of net.women.only.  If
	some women want a women-only forum, I'm not about to suggest its can-
	cellation.  On the other hand, I can't help but find sexist overtones
	in the suggestion that every man is going to hurl criticisms and no
	woman is going to.  I realize the likelihood of that occurring in gen-
	eral, but I feel that exclusion of participants on basis of gender
	does little to discourage sexism.

The real problem, I think, was one of finding a forum where (some) women can
feel free to post things without getting comments which are unconstructive or
just downright stupid thrown at them, inhibiting them from posting further.

It may be true that only a small minority of men made net.women unpleasant
for these women, but these few were enough.  Someone suggested creating a
newsgroup which excluded men in order to provide this forum, and it was
created.  Now this does not mean that anyone felt that "all men are going
to hurl criticisms", but that restricting input from all men was the only
PRACTICAL way to draw a dividing line.

Someone has now set up a mailing list as another attempt to provide a
women's forum.  It seems to be working much better than net.women.only
did.  There are many women contributing to it who never did to
net.women.only, and discussion is much more open.  And there are some
men who contribute, though they are a definite minority.