[sustran] We have a major problem here, and you can help to set it right.

[eric.britton at ecoplan.org]

Tuesday, August 10, 2004, Paris, France, Europe

 

 Dear Colleagues,

 

We have a major problem here, and you can help to set it right.

 

I have just inspected the listing of the hundreds of us who are sharing
our information and thoughts on these matters of sustainable development
and sustainable mobility more specifically, and I note a dangerous
anomaly.  We are more than 90% male in this forum

 

Is this a trivial fact of 21st century life? Unavoidable?  Neither.  In
fact, it has long been my belief that one of the main reasons why we
have failed over all these years to create better and softer mobility
systems in our cities is that we have de facto turned over the job to
taskforces almost entirely of men, and not only that men who went to
college to learn how to move volumes fast and 'efficiently' in rather
undifferentiated ways.  We have, I have to say, created an almost all
male transportation paradigm.

 

We need help and we're lucky -- it is right at hand.  So let's start
with this forum and let me ask each of you to take the time to send me
the names and emails of at least two capable female colleagues whom we
can bring into our considerations and achieve the kind of balance which
has been needed behind the wise decision making in our field for far too
long. 

 

Incidentally, if we can find ways to tempt in people with backgrounds
that extend beyond the usual limits of the traditionally dominant
fields, and in particular in such areas as cultural anthropology,
behavioral psychology, community relations, and public health, I think
we would be able to make real progress.  (Of course we have to make it
interesting for them, but it's my theory that once we open these doors
they will figure out how to do this for themselves.  And change us all
in the process. 

 

(I wonder how many of you are going to accept this challenge. ;-)

 

Eric Britton

 

The Commons: Increasing the uncomfort zone for hesitant administrators
and politicians; pioneering new concepts for business, entrepreneurs,
activists, community groups, and local government; and through our joint
efforts, energy and personal choices, placing them and ourselves firmly
on the path to a more sustainable and more just society.

 

 

 

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