Discussion on All-Girl events

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Pauline Tasci

I am who does not agree with special treatment of female members and would rather teach them to strive for being the best, interested what other people think.

Please keep your replies respectful.

It's hard to draw a line on special treatment for female members when, from my experience, female members typically come to a team with less experience than their male counterparts due to general societal differences in how we raise each gender and what toys we buy for them. Those differences are changing, but it seems to be slow going.

So, to some degree you do have to treat people differently based on their experiences, when they first come to a team - you need to have increased training opportunities for those who need it, you need to promote an atmosphere of acceptance and learning that supports individual growth and achievement within the team regardless of what experiences someone shows up with. And, unfortunately, I think you'll see that separate largely across gender lines even when it's not promoted as such.

All of that brings up an interesting question... where is the line between treating genders differently, and the appearance of treating genders differently within a team, and how important is that distinction? Opening the question a little broader, how do we provide appropriate support for any subgroup (for example, hotel assignments for individuals who identify as other than their biological gender), without treating them differently (or giving the appearance of such)?