[autobahnjpr]

Dear Fellow T-Bhpians,
On this International Women day, let us try and make our forum more gender inclusive by getting more women drivers and travelers to join our forum and participate in the discussion.

Most of the contributors and viewers, I feel, are testosterone fed alpha kind who have a particular viewpoint of things and life in general. However viewed from the other gender eyes, the same situation can offer a very different perspective.

Let us ask our spouses, sisters, mothers, co-workers, friends, neighbors to celebrate the International Women's Day by joining this unique forum and make it more richer by their posts, comments and contributions.

My wife is going to apply for membership today as a contribution from my side. Maybe our mods can open a some special member scheme for the fair sex to join by giving some relaxation in the "test" of writing a review !

Lets celebrate diversity and inclusiveness !

Mods: Kindly move the thread to appropriate forum if this is not the correct one.

[Jeroen]

Excellent idea. I'm a great believer in diversity, be it gender or any other kind.

I'm fairly active on about 6-7 car forums across the world. UK, USA, the Netherlands, India. Fact remains that with the odd exception it's a blokes world out there. Very few woman about.

But then again, my wife is active on a number of forums across the world that hold zero interest to me!

Jeroen

[theexperthand]

Let me politely disagree to this (relaxed norms - special membership scheme). Do we really need to see everything through gender-biased lenses?

Team-BHP is an enthusiasts forum and the quality of the content (and the strict moderation process) is an integral part of Team-BHP. Let us not dilute it for any purpose.

Let us ask our spouses, sisters, mothers, co-workers, friends, neighbours to celebrate the International Women's Day by joining this unique forum and make it richer by their posts, comments and contributions.

Yes, a very welcome idea indeed and I also will be doing same. But -Team-BHP is always open for all - there is no race\gender\caste\demographic bias. Let us keep it that way and welcome all with open arms, but not at the cost of relaxed norms.

--Anoop

[hemanth.anand]

Being Gender Inclusive? that's like saying that we are a gender biased Forum! I'd say that it's an incorrect observation/remark.

Have the forum or the mods been biased towards men? NO
In fact I have seen that anybody making a general sweeping statement against women or women drivers have been warned by other members and Mods alike.

Has any female been declined membership just because she is a female? NO
Just take a look at the member list and you can see that there are many women members.

Relaxation in the test!
Sorry If I sound harsh, but this is not a political party to run special reservation schemes. All are treated equally and hence there must be no change to the "TBHP Test" IMHO.

Everyone irrespective of their Gender, Location, Language, Age and any other parameter is free to apply for a TBHP Membership and once the Mods approve (Without any prejudice), get into the forum and start contributing to the forum.

Your thoughts are wonderful and your wife applying for a TBHP membership on Women's day is a nice way to celebrate the day. But I feel the Forum is already unbiased and inclusive.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Let me politely disagree to this (relaxed norms - special membership scheme). Do we really need to see everything through gender-biased lenses?

Absolutely.

None of the rules of this forum are gender or male specific. There are a couple of active ladies participating as well, and others will join when they feel the need for it.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

Maybe our mods can open a some special member scheme for the fair sex to join by giving some relaxation in the "test" of writing a review !

This along with the smiley conveys just the opposite message of what your original intention says.

So you don't think women are capable of passing the small test without some sort of relaxation? If anything, this is the real bias we need to avoid. Its like saying all women don't drive well. Some drive bad, but not all women do. Not all men are good drivers either.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

.
Let us ask our spouses, sisters, mothers, co-workers, friends, neighbors to celebrate the International Women's Day by joining this unique forum and make it more richer by their posts, comments and contributions.

If we ask them to join the forum or do something as per our version of how women's day celebration means - how's it going to be promoting equality?

Equality IMO means 'live and let live'. Let them participate as per their own interests and we can do best to just be neutral and stay out of the way.

[avisidhu]

Would be good to know the perspective of the female members we already have:

Do they really feel that there's a 'male perspective' to most discussions which needs course correction?

Consequently, should the admission standards be lowered (a little) to have more females contribute here?

Meanwhile, what can be done is to use this occasion and raise awareness among any female spouses/relatives/colleagues who are auto enthusiasts, encouraging them to join the forum.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

Maybe our mods can open a some special member scheme for the fair sex to join by giving some relaxation in the "test" of writing a review !

But I was always told as women to be equal. So why this bias? And then we won’t be neutral? I personally don’t approve of this.

I would love to see them earn their membership. Even on track, even in India, few ladies are right there with men as far as lap times go.

On women’s day, I will ask my society to be more caring towards them, to be more sensitive, to provide them with equal opportunities be it education or career.

[KPS]

Originally Posted by hemanth.anand

....... I feel the Forum is already unbiased and inclusive.

+1 to that

There are so many different section in this wonderful Forum, which cater to very diverse subjects and interests of the members. In the New Member Introductions, it not uncommon to see that the newbie was following TBHP for sometime before he/she took the plunge for membership. Hence anyone wanting to contribute can decided to join. I would like to believe there a lot of people who surf TBHP regularly, without wanting to take up the responsibility which comes with its membership.

TBHP has its own magnetism as it is perceived that there is zero tolerance for anything which negatively impacts this community.

Cheers

KPS

[gtonsing]

I agree with many of the members who already commented. This forum is free for all, highly moderated for anything sexual, demeaning, alcohol related or gender biased. Which is why Team-bhp is where it is today. lets keep it that way.
However, I do feel, like one member mentioned, it is sometimes a good idea to look at it from another POV. Would the women members here feel this forum is male-oriented? Can they tell us where we could be less male-oriented, if at all?
Last week, as a youth group we had a small meeting. One of the ladies there mentioned that most of the topics and agenda we had were very male specific (women are about 1/6th of the group). So while we were unaware, let alone want it to be male oriented, the women in that group felt it was male-oriented. Maybe such a thing could be possible here too - albeit unconsciously/unknowingly?

[alpha1]

Happy Women's day to everyone in this world.
However, I agree with below:

Originally Posted by theexperthand

Do we really need to see everything through gender-biased lenses?

Team-BHP is an enthusiasts forum and the quality of the content (and the strict moderation process) is an integral part of Team-BHP. Let us not dilute it for any purpose.

Yes, a very welcome idea indeed and I also will be doing same. But -Team-BHP is always open for all - there is no race\gender\caste\demographic bias. Let us keep it that way and welcome all with open arms, but not at the cost of relaxed norms.

--Anoop

We don't want to end up with the "diversity" being rammed down our throats which is happening in corporates (especially the American ones).

The enthusiasts of the motor world (even from abroad!) are coming together on this forum. That is enough. Perhaps you may want to market out more so that TBHP name spreads across and more people from female/other genders join in.

But conscription should definitely be avoided.

[roy_libran]

I think the OP has suggested an excellent idea, but it needs some work in defining how we might want to do this.

My few cents:

1. Do we presently have a gender balance in the forum? - Absolutely Not!

2. Is it natural NOT to have a gender balance in a predominantly automotive forum? - Yes

3. Is not having a gender balance in the forum a problem? - May not be an immediate problem, but women do bring their own unique perspective to things and as a community we are losing out on that different set of views. All of us have, at some or the other point of time, had a choice of car or bike, trashed by the women in our lives, because of reasons we couldn't fathom...

4. Are the Mods selective/discriminatory? - Absolutely not! I do know of a few women who have made it here successfully, despite not being absolute petrol-heads or the like.

5. Do we need to do something specifically for women then? - Possibly...how about -

a) Try and put up women-centric sections and/or articles, that promote female readership, and ultimately membership.
b) Relax the screening mechanism a wee bit for women, while making the relaxation explicit for some time.
c) Appoint women Mods, who can then act as ambassadors themselves.
d) Explicitly celebrate successes of women in the automotive field or otherwise, especially on the Home page.
e) Behavioural - All of us to avoid and obstruct, 'hitting on' the few women who come on board here, and make this forum a safe and inviting world for them.
f) Include a Woman member for all Official Reviews and Test Drives and do include her perception and opinion with the rest of the narrative.

6) Should I get brickbats for suggesting this here? - I would much rather get a few flowers from the other set.

[V.Narayan]

Thank you for bringing up this topic. Timely.

We do need more diversity on T-BHP to make a great forum even richer. But I would not box diversity into the politically correct American definition of just women (and in their case colour too). The diversity we need is of having...

- more members from smaller towns, North East
- more members with a slightly more grey profile, like me
- members from diverse professions (I get the impression that the IT industry is over represented; my perception might be wrong - sorry guys no offense)
- members whose interests may lie beyond vehicles other than cars and two wheelers. (Tractors?, Utility trucks? Military vehicles - that gives me ideas on a thread to write on)

More women will come eventually as more women drive but their will be a natural limit set by interests of the genders. My wife is actually very active on certain very professional forums in fact her social media footprint is about 100X mine but I can't see her for the life of me ever having anything to do with a car site. Honey we have a free membership for you. Seriously she would feel insulted I suspect.

I second roy_libran's suggestions above of inviting a women member to give her views on each official review and have that be a core part of the review. And he makes a great point on behavior. Mentally we are all college boys on this forum. In ways we cannot see we can be off putting to a lady.

[five46]

At the outset, I would like to appreciate the sentiments of the OP, and also wish all the women a blessed future ahead. However, IMHO the pure form of this platform will be deviated. The forum's unabated pursuit to be caste/color/sex/creed independent shouldn't get diversions.

I would prefer more commitment on this sensitive matter of gender equality and diversity in real life actions rather than keyboard entries and swipes. No offence meant!

[Sawyer]

IMO, the women are not here because they have no desire to be here; they see cars as appliances and not as love objects.

Ditto for audiophile forums, all they care about is the music and not the equipment.

[vibbs]

Although I am all out for diversity. I am not in favour of relaxing the rules for this effect. Team-Bhp is Team-Bhp because of these rules in place. Women are less represented but surely not because they are women. On the international women's day if we speak for relaxing rules for women, we do exactly what should not be done. The fight is about equality and not about leniency for women.
I know, my wife would not want to be part of this forum if it were to take her just because she is a female.

I am dead sure any woman who wants to be a part of Team-Bhp has EQUAL (apologies for the caps) probability of being a part of this forum as a male aspirant.

That in my opinion is enough and the need of the day.

Thanks