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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;DonnaML, post: 4749092, member: 110350&quot;]I don&#039;t feel marginalized or excluded by the fact that I&#039;m one of only a small number of women who participate here.&nbsp; Nobody seems to have assumed that I don&#039;t know what I&#039;m talking about, and nobody has treated me with any lack of respect.&nbsp; And I&#039;m not someone who is hesitant to speak her mind! However, at least for me, it&#039;s a great deal easier to be in the tiny minority in an online group than it would be in person, where I&#039;m much more likely to feel shy, intimidated, and/or somewhat overwhelmed. (Part of that is the fact that I&#039;m quite small, only 5&#039; 2&quot;, and don&#039;t enjoy being in a group of men who generally tower over me -- whether it&#039;s in a crowded elevator or on a crowded convention floor.)</p><p><br /></p><p>An example is how I&#039;ve felt every time I&#039;ve attended the NYINC -- perhaps a half-dozen times in the last 20+ years? (It must be that long, because I remember going when it was held at the World Trade Center.)&nbsp; Most recently, when I went to the NYINC this past January (it seems a lifetime ago!) -- the first time I&#039;d been there in a few years -- there were only a handful of women, including me, out of hundreds of patrons. And yes, even though nobody did anything to make me uncomfortable, and nobody ignored me when I asked to see, e.g., a dealer&#039;s Roman Republican coin stock, I felt a bit uncomfortable and overwhelmed nonetheless.&nbsp; It seemed very noticeable to me -- and I doubt that many male patrons noticed this -- that there were more women behind the dealers&#039; tables than in front of them, but that not many seemed to be the actual persons in charge, as opposed to being assistants.&nbsp; In fact, several dealers, who shall remain nameless. seem to have decided to have very young, thin, fashionably-dressed, conventionally attractive women standing there to look pretty, and to say &quot;I have to wait until ____ is free to give you a price on that.&quot; Or perhaps I&#039;m just being cynical, and they were all devoted numismatic scholars rather than interns being used to attract male customers. But as I interpreted it, right or wrong, it simply increased my discomfort.</p><p><br /></p><p>As the column says, &quot;I know how difficult it is to bring women to numismatic events. What I have always heard is that there are just too many men.&quot;&nbsp; A few people commenting in this thread have expressed disbelief or lack of understanding about that statement, but please don&#039;t underestimate what it feels like.&nbsp; Unfortunately, it can be a vicious circle, and can, by itself, inhibit the further involvement of women in numismatics.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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