Women and SensationalAdelaide

[Queen Anne]

Hi all,

I've been wondering why there is this consistent lack of women on SensAd.

Plenty of women seem to make comments on Adelaidenow regarding the kinds of issues we discuss here. So why don't they post here? Is it simply that women don't know about SensAd, or is there more to it than that?

Between all you blokes you must know hundreds of women, and I'm guessing that SensAd comes up in conversation sometimes. It puzzles me why none of these women who (I'm assuming) know about this site, ever join us. Where are you girls?

[Howie]

Thanks for bringing this issue up. It would be great to get a better mix of male/females on the site, and would love to hear ideas on how we could make that happen.

[Queen Anne]

I just realised I haven't even spoken to my own female friends about SensAd! I'm bright, me

I guess that would be a start to getting more women on board - simply getting word out there.

[Wayno]

Advertise - i mean free adverts. We might attract more females by placing comments on women/female related news stories (think online news sites like The Independent Weekly, ABC Online). Something like "don't just post a comment here, make a difference by joining "www.sensational-adelaide.com".

Also, we could personally invite some prominent SA women to the forum! we already have many prominent South Aussie males in our member base. Have a think - who would you like to invite? Laura Lee?

[Hooligan]

we already have many prominent South Aussie males in our member base.

yeah, like me.

[Will]

I think the reason is the same one as to why there are predominantly blokes on construction sites or engineering degrees. Construction, buildings, towers, cranes....are essentially blokey things.

Likewise, if you went to a forum regarding shoes, fashion, and skin-care, I would assume that the majority of the members would be female.

This is essentially an outcome of the socialisation of our society and the gender roles that are assigned to us.

[Queen Anne]

I think the reason is the same one as to why there are predominantly blokes on construction sites or engineering degrees. Construction, buildings, towers, cranes....are essentially blokey things.

Likewise, if you went to a forum regarding shoes, fashion, and skin-care, I would assume that the majority of the members would be female.

This is essentially an outcome of the socialisation of our society and the gender roles that are assigned to us.

Yes, that does make sense. I'm sure there would be at least some women out there who would be interested in this site, though.

And maybe the site would develop additional characteristics to the "blokey" stuff if more women were present? I'm not suggesting that the site is lacking but that the input of women could enhance it, and maybe make SensAd stronger. At the moment the site feels a bit "special interest", where the future of the city/state is actually of very broad interest..just thinking aloud..

[Queen Anne]

Advertise - i mean free adverts. We might attract more females by placing comments on women/female related news stories (think online news sites like The Independent Weekly, ABC Online). Something like "don't just post a comment here, make a difference by joining "www.sensational-adelaide.com".

Also, we could personally invite some prominent SA women to the forum! we already have many prominent South Aussie males in our member base. Have a think - who would you like to invite? Laura Lee?

These are good ideas Wayno, thank you. I'm going to try posting on these sites when an opportunity arises.

I think I've been away from home too long, I can't think of any prominent women to invite, right now Unless maybe Hooligan's mum, since she has such an eminent son

[Prince George]

Also, we could personally invite some prominent SA women to the forum! we already have many prominent South Aussie males in our member base. Have a think - who would you like to invite? Laura Lee?

On that subject, a little while back I took a look at how we might get in contact with Prof Lee. There didn't seem to be an easy way to do so through the "thinker-in-residence" program, but I did find her email address at Carnegie-Mellon. I suspect that address is getting a fairly high level of traffic, so I wonder if sending something there would risk getting lost in the noise.

I know that this site's history goes back to being an offshoot from Sky Scraper City and it shares some of its construction engineering focus. But crane-counts and core-lifts certainly aren't all that gets talked about here; in fact, it might not even be most of the talk that goes on. And the name of the site doesn't look like it would be a deterrent (which, say, "The Adelaide Rebar Report" would have done). So the men's club atmosphere is still kinda surprising. Of course, I'm in a peculiar situation, having learned about the site via my wife.

[Vee]

Hi all,
I've been wondering why there is this consistent lack of women on SensAd.
It puzzles me why none of these women who (I'm assuming) know about this site, ever join us. Where are you girls?

Well, Queen Anne, I love SensAd and contribute from time to time.
I don't think it's too blokey. I'm not a fan of women's mags, fashion and celebrity gossip.
SensAd is a great vehicle to keep up to date with what's happening in SA, to share and debate ideas and visions, photos, videos, plans/maps and relevant documents/links. It's very refreshing to have such a well organised, largely self regulated and well respected forum with a diversity of views, some humour and contributions from SA, interstate and overseas.

I see SensAd as a forum with some authority, discussing issues of substance, harvesting the collective wisdom of the group, seeding ideas, responding to plans/projects and contributing to a positive image and psyche for our state.

I've recommended SensAd to my husband and he has been impressed too.
Some good ideas from Wayno to broaden the membership base!

[Queen Anne]

Well, Queen Anne, I love SensAd and contribute from time to time.
I don't think it's too blokey. I'm not a fan of women's mags, fashion and celebrity gossip.
SensAd is a great vehicle to keep up to date with what's happening in SA, to share and debate ideas and visions, photos, videos, plans/maps and relevant documents/links. It's very refreshing to have such a well organised, largely self regulated and well respected forum with a diversity of views, some humour and contributions from SA, interstate and overseas.

I see SensAd as a forum with some authority, discussing issues of substance, harvesting the collective wisdom of the group, seeding ideas, responding to plans/projects and contributing to a positive image and psyche for our state.

I've recommended SensAd to my husband and he has been impressed too.
Some good ideas from Wayno to broaden the membership base!

Oh jeez, I wish I hadn't chosen the username I did, sometimes Call me Anne

It's great to hear from you. I confess, I didn't know you were female. Maybe there are more female members out there too?

I hope I didn't give the impression that I think SensAd is too blokey, I'd just like to see the site have benefit of all the women like you that are out there. I think there might be more of us than the current gender balance of the site suggests. I think my main concern is that the collective wisdom of the group SensAD harvests is largely missing out on the female part of the group, right now. That is skewed and not representative of the real world.

May I ask if you have mentioned the site to your female friends/relatives who you think might be interested? It's not something I have thought to do up to now.

[Shuz]

Not necessarily concerning women in general, but nonetheless contributing respectively in tune with the context of topic;

As an upcoming 20-something year old in a matter of weeks, I too have some hesitation in bringing up the topic of SensationalAdelaide to my friends, because well - their mindset doesn't exactly tune into poltics, development and other issues of concern, ie: climate change, Anne Moran and the lack of Krispy Kremes avail.

Whilst my weekends do also consist of shamelessly picking up at the bar, going through a packet of Marlboro's in a night and a dozen Toohey's Extra Dry's later, like my youth-minded counterparts, I fear their intelligence quotients are consequently affected by that consumption of, and more during the week, enough so that such issues fail to register a level of importance.

The closest discussion I have remotely encountered to step on the toes of what may be brought up here was the issue of immigration, whereby I educated them on the White Australia Policy, and the incoming en masse of migrants each year. It was very much a one-man stand, 20:1, as I was barrelled down with criticsm over my views to reduce immigration numbers, which I feel was strongly supported on the basis of impact to natural resources and concern of cultural conflict as opposed to "More! More! More! When shit hits the fan, we'll deal with it then."

If I cannot discuss an issue like above to people of subjectively narrow-minded views and little cause for concern, then I will continue to refrain from increasing SensationalAdelaide's exposure - and dare I say, to those of you whom trawl SSC, I don't think we need 50 BSD's or CKF's posting mind-numbingly stupid diahorrea on every post that is made.

However, having said that, by chance, I have encountered other friends who happen to have heard of SensationalAdelaide - one's studying Urban Planning, so it's just kinda his niche' anyways. The other's probably the smartest 25 year old I've ever met - he's got a good grip of most issues, including those within our platform. My brother's got a university friend studying Property who rarely posts, but nonetheless contributes.

They're all men, which, again is adding fuel to the fire over lack of diversity and perspective which could be sought from a female's perspective. I'll see what I can do. Methinks a Facebook-related advertisement shall occur in upocoming minutes.

[Shuz]

Actually, I just had a most splendid thought!

Adelaide's a big country town as you would very well all know -Everyone knows everyone. Your next door neighbor grew up with your grandma, James from univeristy is the ex-boyfriend of Susan, your current girlfriend. 1.1 million people live in this town, yet somehow we are all interconnected and brought together, uniquely in a way, which other million-plus cities don't share the novelty of experiencing.

Facebook again brings us that tiny bit closer, and I just thought. For those of you who are open to it; if you'd like to share each other's pages, and add as friends, we could learn a little more of each other and our backgrounds, but also, opens up the possibility of encountering 'mutual friends', which in turn creates a starting point of discussion! - "How do you know John?" "We forum together on Sensational-Adelaide." "What's that?"

There's your entry! It's a conversational point, but also a way to 'sell the site' so to say. We can adversely broaden our membership base that way if those 'mutual friends' happen to venture and discover more for themselves and join aboard the Sensational-Adelaide bandwagon!

I'll pratice what I preach; www.facebook.com/shuz7

Add me as a friend, as please, if you do, just leave a message saying your from Sen-Adel and your alias, so I don't go "Uhhh, delete!".

[SRW]

I wonder if there is actually a fair number of women perusing the site, but few actively participating because of perceived blokey-ness in the forums. I don't mean to denigrate the site, because on the whole, it's a very civil, considered-discussion kind of place. Let me stress that: this is a very useful and productive site that is not by and large sexist. At the same time, I don't wish to perpetrate a soft or 'bleeding hearts' view of femininity. That said, it would be both complacent and false to deny a certain element of 'boys' club' here. There have been instances where even I, as a man, have felt put off by the tone of discussion. I guess a 'boys' club' kind of atmosphere (anecdotally, mostly in The Pub, but sometimes in Development forums) is bound to develop when the majority of posters are in fact male. But just as much as women need to speak up for that to change, male posters ought to bear in mind how the tone and/or topic of discussion will foster such participation -- not only for the sake of female participation, but the credibility of the forum.

[Queen Anne]

Interesting posts Shuz. Regarding the first, it is interesting how a website seems to become a place that one feels slightly protective of. It's like a friend that you want the best for

Regarding the second post. Are you suggesting a SensAd Facebook group? George reads a development blog here in the US that has one. It's an interesting idea, I wonder what others think?