mts (01/06/83)
I'd like to create a new newsgroup for men and women to
share experiences and support women. Whether it aid in solving
problems, or develop into a "New Woman's Network" depends on
the responses.
For the record, I'm not a man-hater(Ihave one of my own),
nor have I burned my bras(I still use one). Nevertheless, I
feel strongly about women getting ahead in the world, and about
men being the logical choices to help us.
If you have any ideas or feelings for or against such
a newsgroup, please let me know.
write --> M. T. Sarantakos
houxo!mtsken (01/07/83)
Maybe I don't understand why there needs to be special *women's* communications. I was under the impression that both sexes could benefit by discussion and mutual support, as found in net.singles.
mts (01/07/83)
Dear interested readers, As of 11:30 A.M. today, I've received 21 responses to my broadcast for a new group called net.women. I greatly appreciate the support from the 15 men and 3 women. Unfortunately, 3 men thought my idea as: - "ridiculous ... selfish, bigoted... disgusting... [and] vile" - not having enough to discuss [paraphrased] - "frivolous discussions, arbitrary chat" [I will ignore such comments, as they were in the minority, and coming from men who obviously were having a 'bad day', and totally misinter- preted my intent.] Anyway, I think such a newsgroup can greatly aid professional women at the technical, clerical, and service level, who are interested in professional and personal growth(thanks Cheryl). I also think that making it net.AA instead of net.women, we may be trying to handle too much(thanks Paul). What are your feelings? Here are some topics that I seem to hear most frequently discussed amongst women today: * eliminating sexual harassment * promoting women: seems that many women have been trained to fear the responsibilities of supervising * day-care of children of working parents to be company or federally supported * equal pay for equal worth: I understand women still, on the average, make only 59% of what men make * legalizing abortion I could go on, but I won't! NOTE: Please, if you really don't like this group, and since you're in the minority, don't clutter up the net.general files with your destructive criticism and flaming. The whole intent of this group is to build a network of supportive human beings who honestly can perceive some problems with how the world sometimes works, and to relieve some of the pain by discussing issues, sharing ideas and experiences, clearing the air, and providing necessary and vital contacts across the nation for the advancement of all. Finally, if anyone knows what requirements one must meet to create this new group, and whom to call, please let me know. Thank you. Mary T. Sarantakos (201) 922-7065
lee (01/09/83)
I (and Theresa) agree that net.singles is good enough! --Lee ..!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!lanl-a!unmvax!lee
mckeon (01/09/83)
Howdy: A news group for women / women's issues / ( supportive/interested men ) sounds good, worthy, appropriate, etc. I vote yes. The topics do not, i feel, belong in net.singles, as that seems more oriented to discussions of interactions, dating practices, and ( how shall i say ) ?older? gender-role mind-sets. Better to have a group that reflects newer mind-sets - less argument about things many of us have worked out - but that poses a problem - how to recruit/raise consciousness from the older mind-set folks. Denis McKeon ~ !cmcl2!lanl-a!unmvax!mckeon
idallen (01/10/83)
Splitting off and starting a separate news group to discuss women's issues isolates the discussion and preserves the impression that women's issues are not of general interest. Women's issues are men's issues are people's issues. Don't draw lines to separate people. -IAN! U of Waterloo decvax!watmath!idallen
dkw (01/11/83)
I agree that a news group for women's issues and as an attempt to set up an analog of an old boy's network (to be called what: an old girl's network? an old women's network?) makes a great deal of sense. While this is obviously seperate from net.singles, I'm not sure it represents a newer mind-set. As long as we no longer find it neccessary to marry as soon as possible there will be a number of unmarried people (singles) around and as it is a new phenomenom discussion of how it should work makes sense. So set up net.women, keep net.singles, and let's not worry about which is the newer mindset
pn (01/12/83)
There appears to be some confusion concerning the charter of a newsgroup called net.women. turtlevax!ken and unm-ivax!lee thought such discussions belonged in net.singles. Believe it or not, women are interested in more than meeting a "member of the opposite (or appropriate, as the case may be) sex". As Cheryl put it, net.women could help further the personal and professional growth of women (maybe men too!). Sharing ideas, that's what this network is about.
sdo (01/12/83)
Newsgroups should be formed based on how many people WANT them - not how many people DON'T want them. A previous article states: "Splitting off and starting a separate news group to discuss women's issues isolates the discussion and preserves the impression that women's issues are not of general interest." Nobody ever said that forming a newsgroup means that the subject is not of general interest. Suppose everyone reads net.games.rogue. This is no reason to put it back in net.general. As far as I'm concerned, refusing to start a separate newsgroup for women implies that they don't have important enough issues to discuss. I've said enough. Scott Orshan (Male) Bell Labs Piscataway 201-981-3064 houxm!u1100a!sdo
ark (01/12/83)
While you're at it, how about net.men?
chrys (01/13/83)
Is it very difficult to subscribe to "net.women" as well as "net.singles"? If one is interested in the specific issues generated by this group then one could quite easily subscribe to both. Chris Helmers.
gary (01/13/83)
In reply to the "Women's issues are people issues... don't
separate people", I think that a separate newsgroup is good for
stimulating discussion of women's issues. Just because you're a man
doesn't mean you can't read it or contribute!
a feminist,
gary cottrell ( ... !seismo!rochester!gary)furuta (01/14/83)
Please DON'T think of net.general as the proper place for discussions which don't have their own newsgroup. Think of net.general as a place to reach everybody. Use something like net.misc instead. Concerning net.black, net.widow, net.divorce, and net.men: There is absolutely no requirement that there exist a newsgroup for every possible division of a particular subject area. The only requirement should be that there exist enough people who want to talk about or hear about the subject to justify the group's presence. --Rick
bentson (01/15/83)
I too have been bothered by the title "net.women" (not the topics however). Perhaps a more appropriate (and general) title for the group would be "net.sexism". Remember, sexism, like most isms, is not a problem limited to just the subject group; it's a problem for all of us. Randy Bentson Colo State U - Comp Sci