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Path: utzoo!watmath!looking!brad
From: brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Minutes of first meeting, Association for MEN in Computing
Message-ID: <205@looking.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Oct-84 00:00:00 EST
Article-I.D.: looking.205
Posted: Wed Oct 31 00:00:00 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Oct-84 05:58:30 EST
References: <2450@ihuxf.UUCP>
Organization: Looking Glass Software, Waterloo, Ont
Lines: 35

Well, we're glad to report that the first meeting of the Association for
Men in Computing was a great success, attended by many men, and even
some women.   The meeting took place in the municipal auditorium
(which, by the way, was designed by a male architect!) at 7 PM.

After opening remarks, the first item on the program was a talk on
the UNIX(TM) operating system.   We were please to learn that UNIX is
gaining remarkable popularity for an operating system that was written
almost entirely by men.  We were pleased to hear stories of how
"Ken" and "Dennis" had bravely fought the establishment to bring their
male-written OS to the public eye.

After this presentation there was some talk about whether women should
be allowed in the society.   Some members pointed out that women had
an important role in computing, and suggested they be allowed to express
their opinions within the society, so long as they are fully supportive.
Others felt that the presence of women in the society would just distract
male members and make it harder for them to open up about problems, bugs,
and algorithms to other men.   The issue was not resolved.

After the meeting, many went out the the McMichael Galleries to view
paintings by the "Group of Seven" - a group of seven well known
male painters from the early part of the century.  While at the gallery
where were pleased to note the music system was piping in music by
J.S. Bach and other well known male composers.
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Now I'll support equal rights for all people (including women, of course)
any day, but those of you that were hit too close to home by this joke
should remember that your goal is to tear down the artificial divisions
between the sexes in our profession - not to make new ones.
If it isn't biological and you can't talk about men doing the same thing
without laughing, then you've just built up a fresh new division.
-- 
Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473