I would like to add my thoughts. Best wishes,

Isabel

1-   I appreciate Eddy Snell is raising an issue that is real and I would like to thank him for it.

2-   I feel the discussion should be separated from this particular workshop in Montevideo. In the recent workshop in Shanghai I was the only female speaker. Is it that different? Would it have been different if I had been able to accept their invitation to this edition of a workshop I regularly attend? There have been quite a few more women in their program in past editions of the South American workshops and it would be extremely unfair to pick on them rather than valuing their role advancing science and education. I am indebted to Brazil and CCP4 for funding my research and for the opportunities their education and support constantly open.

3-   As a developer, I appreciate being involved in the decision of who represents my methods, I expect my male colleagues will feel the same way, so having a parallel detached pool of female tutors is problematic from the onset and places such tutors in a vulnerable position, open for criticism. I would welcome offers of such cooperation and I am open to work with volunteers.

4-   I have thought for a long time on why it is that we (women) lag back in our careers and for me the deepest insight came reading the homework of a 14 year old girl. School assignment for sports: the composition and strategy of a football team for her class. “And myself I would place as a defender because I want to play and I will have far better chances taking the ball from my opponent than expecting any of the boys in my team to ever pass it to me.” To me this is the essence. Anyone who is different from the pre-conceived role model has to fight for opportunities, if you conform to what people expect, you still need to make the best of your opportunities but they will arrive repeatedly.

5-   We need to create (early) opportunities for those who do not conform to the norm because they get too few. In the school story, the teacher reacted issuing a rule that for two weeks only goals scored by the girls in the teams would count. This prompted a change. So, positive discrimination is necessary where it will make a difference. It is even a misnomer; there should be a mechanism to correct the existing negative discrimination. Some environments that do not find suitable women to appoint would find some if pushed by funding. As research directions are picked when there are grant opportunities.

6-   Gender is just one aspect of diversity, there are others: nationality, accent, education background… having a comprehensive look the statistic is far more narrow than male-caucasian. The principle of looking away from the obvious expectation is general.

7-   This edition of the school in Montevideo will have a speaker who 10 years ago was a student in the course. Would a South American student relate more to a role model with the same background or with the same gender? To my former student-self Eleanor Dodson was as much of a mythological creature in the Olymp as George Sheldrick.