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

[Sujit Patwardhan]

10 August 2004




Eric,
Couldn't agree more with you. Let's make a special effort and get more 
female members (interested in Transportation Issues) on board.
--
Sujit







At 09:37 PM 8/10/2004, you wrote:

>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.
>
>
>

Sujit Patwardhan
sujit at vsnl.com 
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