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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Limes, post: 4746340, member: 101013&quot;]Nobody should care about my opinion on this matter. But I feel the need to give it anyway. I think many of you won&#039;t agree, which is is fine. I mean no harm. But i simply wish to give another perspective. For clarification purposes: im a (relatively) young, male collector from the old-continent. Maybe that&#039;s also why I look at discussions like this from a different perspective? And pardon my English, it&#039;s not the best... </p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;ve tried to really get the point the writer is trying to make, but I&#039;m experiencing some difficulty. So, here are my thoughts: first, the writer lists well-known women active in the field of numismatics. Then, the writer cites three situations, in which women are less present, or not present at all. The conclusion the writer draws is: &quot;Women often just do not want to participate in these events, and the question is <i>why</i>. Clearly things need to change.&quot; And &quot;If numismatics wants to attract a wider audience, our organizations have to try to include more women and minorities, who often feel excluded from events (...)&quot; And &quot;What I have always heard is that there are just too many men.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>So, here&#039;s what I am thinking. There are many women active in the field of numismatics. On high positions, important positions, influential positions, etc. Thats excellent, of course. But I don&#039;t see the real argument given for the fact that these, and other, women, are not present at events. Are they excluded? Are they not being given an opportunity to be present? The only reason given by the writer is the one that she has &#039;heard&#039;: &quot;there are too many men&quot;. </p><p><br /></p><p>So, what are we (am I) to do about this? It seems that there are too many of my kind on events (in theory though, because I won&#039;t fly to the USA for an event...) The writer vaguely states: &quot;... our organizations have to try to include more women and minorities, who often feel excluded from events ...&quot; But she also notes, that for one of the events she mentions, advertisments were done in a broad manner and women could apply. So, how to put the call-up of the writer in practice? A male-quorum? Cancel lectures if not enough, or no at all, women apply as speaker? Should a topic like &#039;women in numismatics&#039; be forbidden if not presented by women? Too often a call for gender-equality seems to mean a strive to reach a point where, in absolute numbers, the amount men and women is the same. Is this really the meaning of gender equality? Is the strive of women&#039;s rights, which I fully support, only achieved, if in all possible fields, the absolute amount of active women and men is the same? Or is it possible to just accept differences in interests and differences in choices, as long as both men and women are given the exact same opportunities to chose those interests? </p><p>I do not know the answer, but I think that at least a proper survey should be held amongst women in the field, with the right questions, as to why they won&#039;t go the events/lectures. Based on those outcomes, policies can be made to take away any possible obstructions which women experience, so as to increase their participation. And make sure to formulate realistic goals: what are we trying to achieve? </p><p>For me, it&#039;s important to not use gender (&#039;all male&#039;) as an argument without knowing whats going on. That will only lead to exclusion, and real inequality.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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