Can you elaborate on this? IMHO women should be treated equally when it makes moral sense. I.e. women's bathrooms need to be larger because of the various things they need to do in there, not just societal norm things but things like changing tampons, pads.
The menstrual cycle also affects productivity and is essentially a reoccurring medical issue that needs regular treatment.
As for the greater issue being discussed about the male centric nature of hackerspaces and hacker houses, alot of this has to do with proven social psychology facts about how the average man reacts to women that don't fit societal stereotypes. Lots of papers on that.
The whole point is the original claim that men don't know how to act around women, as if there was some special way of dealing with women that makes them inherently different from men in a way that could go against the expectations of modern gender equality politics.
>The whole point is the original claim that men don't know how to act around women, as if there was some special way of dealing with women that makes them inherently different from men in a way that could go against the expectations of modern gender equality politics.
This is a general statement, there are deviations of course: Men tend to (often aggressively) challenge each others ideas, building off of the criticism. Women prefer a more nurturing approach. Hell, I would prefer a more nurturing approach :)
Do you get out much? Honestly as a guy I'd never want to sit down in a men's public restroom (unless it is an extremely well kept place).
That's not to say any public restrooms are generally good, but the idea that women are somehow cleaner than men really needs to die.
The assumption I've always been given is that women are more prone to hovering (germs!) along with the obvious biological differences that allow for more..erm...variety in terms of mess making. Seemed a sensible enough explanation to me, but it's very possible that there's more to it.
Another note, I remember reading somewhere that the amount of bacteria found in bathrooms is much higher in ladies-rooms than mensrooms. May or may not be the result of overall messiness, though :-)
Pretty brilliant logic, there. You missed OP's point entirely.
I interpreted it as "The reason women want to be treated differently [from how they are NOW] is that the world is a sexist place." Not, "The reason women want to be treated differently [from MEN] is that the world is a sexist place."
Even those who advocate for affirmative action generally do not deny this. You are behind the times.
"some guys don't know how to act around women", it was said. Well, people should know how to act around people, no matter gender or race. This statement does not collaborate to end with any kind of discrimination: it is already discriminating.