Congratulations, TU Delft, on your all-male panel. The Jane Jacobs 100 conference, to be held here on campus, was recently featured on a popular Tumblr which calls out events with all-male panels or speakers, called ‘Congratulations on your all-male panel’.
The conference is to be held May 24 – 25 in the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (BK). It will celebrate the contributions of renowned urban thinker Jane Jacobs, and all four of the key-note speakers are men – although women may submit an abstract, and pay for the privilege of presenting. The conference claims to celebrate her legacy and relevance in the 21st century, however the Tumblr post questions whether her legacy really consists of all-male experts. Professor Marja Elsinga, chair of Delft Women in Science (DEWIS) and professor at BK called this panel “a bit embarrassing”. Dr. Saara Särmä, feminist researcher and founder of the Tumblr which featured the conference told Delta that a conference celebrating the legacy of a woman with an all-male panel shows that “something has gone terribly wrong”.
Could it be that there is a dearth of qualified female academics? Simply put; no. Särmä explains that there are “plenty of talented and qualified women whose work and experience is not recognized”. Elsinga believes this often happens when organisers, often male, invite their colleagues or ‘known’ experts, also often male. She spoke about how people’s unconscious biases (the implicit assumptions made based on one’s gender), a topic discussed at the DEWIS symposium earlier this year, may play into this. Särmä also refers to our gendered notions of expertise, stating, “I like to draw from Sara Ahmed’s arguments and claim that expertise seems to ‘stick’ to the body of middle aged (and older) white men and slip away from the rest of us.” She emphasizes that no-one, herself included, is immune to internalised assumptions about gender however this type of thinking needs to be addressed and challenged to allow any real change.
Both women firmly believe in the importance of having women represented at such events not only to recognize their achievements, but because of the message it sends other women. Särmä believes all-male panels send out the message to women that “you are not welcome in this space and your work does not count”. Elsinga also told Delta that having women represented at events encourages female students, PhDs and junior staff members to think “well, I can also do it!”
Elsinga believes discourse on campus around the issue could help stimulate change, and Särmä said, “We need to see beyond the usual and broaden our notions of whose expertise counts.”
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