Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
Think about it this way.
Sponsorships and grants make it easier for teams to compete. That's what they exist for. People try to get them in order to lower their burden of entry.
If the SWE wants to make it easier for a subset of teams to compete, it seems completely reasonable that the subset of teams they want to help are the ones that are demonstrating that they actively engage many women. If it's a bar you can't or won't meet, the grant isn't for you.
Think less as the grant trying to force an 80/20 team to become a 50/50 team and more a reward for those teams that are doing well with gender equality. It's not perfect; I think the terms and conditions have some problems, but we don't need to act like the sky is falling because one grant of thousands isn't for us.
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My complaint was more along the lines of they could modify their terms somewhat, and achieve what I assume to be their goals for more teams. Granted, my assumptions may be incorrect (that their goals is to have a net increase in female involvement).
For those that are complaining that this isn't morally right, or that jobs should be chosen independent of gender (I agree with that point, I'm sure everyone does)... This is a special interest group that is well within their rights to alocate money how they choose. It's not like NASA passing money out along these lines. I think they could modify their rules somewhat to get better results, but I don't think they should move away from rewarding teams for promoting female involvement.
I don't see how anyone can be bothered by an organization called "Society of Women Engineers" choosing to support females... in engineering.