Diversity Fail: It's Angry (in the British sense) Letter O'Clock!

[nanila]

It's 2011. I'm seriously annoyed that I even felt compelled to write this letter. When I was a child, I'm pretty sure I was promised a world free from gender and race inequality by the time I was an adult. Why is it not here? Dammit, why am I still trapped in a world run by a bunch of white dudes who can't see what the problem is because they have everything they want?

No wonder escapist media is so popular.

To whom it may concern:

Recently, my partner brought home The Little Big Book of Metrology, an accessible and appealing piece of outreach material produced by the National Physical Laboratory about the history and development of measuring units, from a conference. I was delighted, until I had finished reading it and realised that something was bothering me.

I went through it again and carefully counted up the number of scientist and engineers portrayed in The Little Big Book. Of the 15 photos containing humans in the book, three contained identifiably female humans. Of those three, one showed a woman in the background at a tea party, one was of the women’s hockey team and only the last showed a female scientist or engineer at work - helping a male colleague.

I then counted up the cartoon portrayals of humans in The Little Big Book. Here, I think, there is no rationale for not portraying a balance between the sexes. Here again, however, I found that of the 18 cartoons showing humans, 17 contained male humans and three contained female humans. Of those three, one was actually measuring something (the length of a queue of male humans), one was of a mixed group looking at a candle and one was of a woman shopping.*

It also concerned me that the photographs did not seem to contain any persons of colour. Amongst the cartoons, there was only one portrayal, in the group looking at the candle.

I do not feel that this is a balance of images that will engender inspiration among women to work in the field of metrology, or indeed in science and engineering generally. I realise that historical photographic material cannot be edited to contain women or persons of colour when it does not. However, I can’t help feeling that more of an effort could have been made to portray an equal gender balance and more diversity in modern science and engineering. If the ratio is indeed still so skewed at NPL, it risks projecting an image that is unlikely to appeal to any persons who are not both male and white.

I hope that future published materials from NPL will endeavour to portray a more diverse working culture, for the sake of female scientists and engineers everywhere.

Sincerely,

Dr nanila (a female person of colour and a scientist working as an engineer)
[real name and work address will be supplied, of course.]

* I was seriously pissed off when I saw this, but I’m not sure how to express this without being dismissed as strident...?

I plan to send this to the NPL Communications and PR office. Does anyone have other suggestions? I have a complete list of the page numbers for the statistics on photographs & cartoons - should I append that?

Comments

[liseuse]

That is sickening. Sometimes it is all too easy to hate the world.

I don't think that comes off as strident. You're just stating a fact.

[nanila]

Yes, I've been brooding over it for a while. When I brought it up to the bloke, he suggested I write the letter instead of brooding further. Which has turned out to be a very good idea.

I think I'll leave that part as it is. Thank you.

[becala]

Score one for the bloke- I'd probably still be brooding and railing along with you rather than suggesting something so practical as addressing the issue with the folks responsible in such a level-headed manner.

I think this is great, and you don't come off as strident at all. Yes, it is stupid that you would have to write the letter in the first place, but of all possible responses, this is probably the best combination of likely to be effective and getting the point across. Though it'd be much more emotionally satisfying to write them a much nastier letter.

Also agreed on the adding page numbers. :)

[nanila]

I'm really tempted to attach a photo of a pair of crumpled panties, captioned with, "These are my knickers. In a twist. It's your fault. >:E"

[rmc28]

I'd leave the "woman shopping" bit as it is, but append the full list of page numbers.

[nanila]

*nods* Yes, I think I will. As anthrokeight pointed out, "The scrupulous accuracy is good, and the implied comment about Women in Measuring makes the accuracy read as if it is delivered with a cocked Eyebrow of Disapproval."

[dandelion_salad]

People just don't get it. The programming starts so early, it is everywhere, and it certainly has an effect. On a blog I read there's a photo of pink diamond-ring-shaped-rattles for girls sold in packages marked "for a beautiful baby girl", next to the corresponding red and blue hammer-shaped rattles "for a busy baby boy." By the age of 3 my niece had already seen enough of this kind of thing to announce, "Pink and purple are the only girl colors. All the other colors are for boys." Nobody said that to her, she inferred it from what she sees around her everyday. Already at 3 years old her world has been limited to a very narrow idea of what it means to be a girl.

I hope someone reads and considers your letter.

[nanila]

Yes. My Little Niece thinks pink is just for girls as well. I would despair, except that because her parents make vigorous efforts to indoctrinate her well in other things, she wants me to tell her about space and all our play is about building flying machines and rescuing people and taming polar bears and the like.

[rmc28]

I nearly throttled my brother who cheerily told my son that "Jessie is a girl's toy" so Charles came down to me sadly and said "I can't play with Jessie because she's a girl's toy".

[quinara]

I'm utterly shocked they actually published something so undiverse! To me, your letter is very restrained; I think the situation could easily merit the 'It also concerned me' after the comment about the shopping woman being upgraded to 'I was quite appalled by this, and also by the fact that none of the photos... etc.'. Your argument is perfectly reasoned, so it seems like it's important to let them know how angry you are as well.

Otherwise, I would only offer the advice my mum always gives me when writing any sort of letter or email - try to track down someone's name and address it specifically to them (in this case it seems to be this person?). Apparently it makes things much more likely to be read, rather than shunted around offices as 'someone else's problem'.

[nanila]

I'll find a way to work "appalled" into the text.

I did notice on the web site that that person was the PR office contact. I'll send it to her. Thank you!

[ajnabieh]

British Angry is a sight to behold.

Also, *punch punch punch*. I thought we'd moved on to "over-representing marginalized groups in imagery while not actually doing anything to correct the root injustice."

[nanila]

I thought we'd moved on to "over-representing marginalized groups in imagery while not actually doing anything to correct the root injustice."

HA. Yes, me too. I remember one of the institutes I used to be at was particularly good at this. "Look! We have a black female engineer! We're going to interview her and put her photo on the front page of the project she's working on. Pls to ignore the fact that the rest of us are white males."

[ironed_orchid]

Your anger is well channelled and perfectly legitimate.

[nanila]

I'm glad it comes across that way. Thank you.

[telegramsam]

Sounds like a very reasonable letter and the list is a good idea, so they can see exactly what you are speaking of.

Other than that, I just hope they read it and take it seriously, because I *still* have unpleasant memories of the Geology department at UGA... the mostly male, mostly white department would occasionally mention that they couldn't figure out why so few female students were interested in the major, and didn't seem to realize they might as well have put up a giant sign with "boy's club" written on it at the entrance for all they really gave a damn.

I wish I had spoken up more at the time, but I was having a hard time dealing with them and maybe just too chicken to take them head-on...

[nanila]

Ohhh, me too. There are quite a few small but painful incidents that I can remember that I didn't flag up when I was younger. All I can do is try to forgive myself for trying to keep my head down and get on with things.

[lark_ascends]

*applauds your letter*

I just can't believe it. Really can't. It's disgraceful.

[nanila]

I honestly don't understand how this escaped their PR people. Surely everyone is aware that published images affect perception.

[trendyprof]

Send it to a national newspaper... they usually like discrimination stories like that..

[nanila]

I think I'd rather take it up with the source first. If I don't get a response, or if I get a dismissive response, then I'll consider escalating.

[trendyprof]

Fair call :)

[happydork]

A little late, but I still wanted to drop a comment cheering you on! There's something especially galling about it when even the cartoons are so biased -- I remember a graduate open day I went to many moons ago which had the same issue: not only did the presentations not mention (let alone include) any of the ACTUAL top flight women mathematicians I knew were at the university in question, but even the fucking clip art was all white men, all the time.

[nanila]

Thank you! I've sent it now, with the stats attached. We shall see.

Did they give you the chance to give feedback about the open day? I can't picture you letting that slide.

[happydork]

Good luck!

:) There was no chance to give feedback on the day itself, but that just meant that I had longer to think over my email...

[sunflowerinrain]

It's restrained rather than strident!

You might copy it to WES (Women's Engineering Society, working to rectify this kind of thing since 1919) and Women in Physics.
http://www.wes.org.uk
http://www.iop.org/activity/groups/subject/wip/index.html

[nanila]

I'm glad you think so.

Those are fantastic suggestions, thank you. I think I'm going to join WES - it's only £40 and it looks like exactly my cup of tea. I'll send them (and WiP) a copy of my letter.

[shirou]

I think you've written an excellent letter. You manage to describe the problems with the publication while maintaining a professional tone and avoiding ranting. Importantly, even though you are appalled by the bias shown in the book, you managed to avoid making the letter about your personal reaction. Instead, you kept the focus of the letter on the importance of projecting an image of diversity both for NPL and for potential female scientists

Since you asked for suggestions, here's mine. If you make any changes, I would be careful to preserve this focus. Don't say that you are disgusted. Explain, without using strong language, what is wrong with the image presented in the book and what the negative consequences could be. To that end, I think I would advise against appending a list of the offending images. They have the book, they can look for themselves. Brevity will help you keep a professional tone.

[nanila]

Thank you. It went out pretty much as it is here, with just an additional two sentences just before the last:

Positive depictions of minority groups in traditionally under-represented fields of work are essential to their aspirations, even if they are fictional. For example, US astronaut Mae Jemison cites the role of Uhura, the black female commander in the TV series Star Trek, as a strong influence on her decision to pursue a career in science.

I sent it off on Tuesday and have had no response. Am somewhat disappointed. If I don't hear from them by next week, I'll write again asking for acknowledgement. If that doesn't work, I may start poking people at the WES, WiP and the Athena committee here at Imperial to see what they say.