Follow-up to the Diversity Fail e-mail.

[nanila]

So I sent off this e-mail a week ago, to the Communications and PR office at NPL.

Today, I finally got a response.

Thank you for your email.
We take diversity very seriously and have taken not [sic] of your comments.

Kind regards,
[Redacted]

Is that it?! Really?

I think I feel slightly insulted that it is a two-sentence e-mail and it still contains a misspelling.

If anyone needs me, I'll be in my corner, sulking.

Comments

[happydork]

Spoiler alert! I think they may not actually take diversity very seriously.

[nanila]

Yeah. They responded, but it's not like they said, "We will look into this and revise future editions of the material in question", or "We will endeavour to include representations of women and people of colour in future published material", which is what I was kind of hoping for.

The question is, what do I do about it now?

[happydork]

*ponders* My first instinct is to reply and ask them what concrete steps they are going to take as a result of your email, but then I tend to try to avoid escalation where possible. Or try to get in touch with other people in NPL, rather than communications and PR -- maybe their outreach office directly? I'm hoping they do have someone whose remit explicitly includes caring about race and gender issues. If not, WISE might be a good ally?

[rmc28]

I favour escalation, if you have the energy for it, but only if. No criticism implied of those who don't.

(e.g. I complained last year about the cover of our bimonthly staff magazine being a large crowd of people almost entirely pale, male and over 50, and got an unimpressive response. I "should" have escalated it, but had too much else going on and eventually decided so much time had passed I would just leave it. At least there hasn't been another cover to wind me up since, so maybe it did some good ...)

[nanila]

Oof. I definitely don't have the energy right now, but I've got some time this weekend to sit down and think about what to do. I like happydork's suggestion below about contacting the person who got the WISE award for her outreach work and asking for some assurance that someone is doing Positive Things for diversity at NPL.

Also, it annoys me that after putting in lots of effort and then being blown off, in order to get the attention we think the matter deserves, we have to put in even more effort. How unfair is that?!

[happydork]

Susan Evans' bio on the People at NPL page says, "Susan Evans accepted the Women into Science, Engineering and Construction (WISE) ‘Investor in WISE’ award on behalf of NPL. The WISE award gives public recognition to companies who have actively addressed the issue of encouraging girls and young women into science, engineering and construction. NPL’s submission cited the excellent work done through our educational outreach and diversity programmes." Might be a point of contact?

[nanila]

Ooh. I think that's a really good idea. Maybe I'll forward the reply (which contains my original message) to her, and say, "Hello, I sent this letter to the Communications and PR office but I didn't find their response very reassuring. Would you mind, please, letting me know about some of the work you do to try to increase diversity awareness at NPL?" What do you think?

[happydork]

That sounds great -- it gives her a lot of scope to respond as she thinks is appropriate, both to you personally and in terms of following this problem up within the organisation. I really hope she's responsive.

I totally agree with your comment to rmc28 about the amount of effort this takes. It's not "second shift work" in the traditional unequal-divide-of-housework sense, but, yes, that's what I think of it as being.

[telegramsam]

I am astounded. *sound of crickets*

Yea, that's just bloody typical.

[nanila]

Yes, I can really feel the appreciation for the effort I put into that message.

[sfred]

Wow; that's pretty dismissive.

[nanila]

Yeah, that's exactly how it made me feel. I think I'm going to have to do something about it.

[becala]

My instant response was to think that I should write them a letter myself, but then I'd need to see the publication in order to have a leg to stand on. Also I'm not a scientist.

But maybe letters from more than one person might be helpful, so that you're not just one dissident voice. One woman is always easy to dismiss. A group of them can be downright scary, especially if they're pissed.

[nanila]

Letter bombardment could be quite a good idea. If I get dismissed again, I'll send you the book and you can write your own letter. I think it doesn't matter that you're not a scientist - the book is directed at a lay audience.

[becala]

Also I am indignant but not astonished by the insincere reply.

[nanila]

I'm willing to believe that it was sincere. I just felt it was terribly inadequate and not at all reassuring. If you can only be bothered to spend half a minute to type out a reply to an issue that should be a major part of your job, you're doing it wrong.

[alwayswondered]

I think that 'not' might be a Freudian slip. :/ That's quite dramatically rubbish.

[nanila]

Yes. I think...I think I'm really not willing to let that go. It's inadequate and not at all reassuring, and I'm going to poke at it some more until I feel satisfied that someone has actually listened.

[quinara]

*blinks* That is terrible. I say escalate hassle more people if you have the time? :/

[nanila]

I will. I have a plan for getting in touch with the lady who won the WISE award asking for reassurance, when I have my spoons back this weekend.

[purplecthulhu]

There's an MoU between our department and the NPL:

http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_8-10-2008-14-54-11

I note that Lesley Cohen was one of the signatories on our side, and she's quite well known for not putting up with this kind of nonsense. You might want to have a word with her.

[nanila]

Yes. I'm going to try someone else at NPL and if I don't get a satisfactory answer this time, I'm going to show the whole thread to the Athena Committee.

[lark_ascends]

Grrrr!

[nanila]

Yes. Grr compounded with frustration at my rapidly diminishing supply of spoons to deal with this.