Not very urgent compared to some things, but okay:
MathOverflow is a website for asking and answering math questions. Very few women participate. After hearing some women discuss the reasons why, I asked what has been done to make MathOverflow more welcoming to women:
https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/6367/what-is-being-done-to-make-mathoverflow-more-welcoming-to-women
Answer: something was done once, but nothing is being done now.
But some preferred to argue against the very question. And now I see that someone has posted a followup, proposing that
"questions that invite general discussion about how to address the gender imbalance on MO are off-topic and should be closed/locked/deleted"
https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/6390/proposal-free-floating-discussions-of-things-like-women-and-mo-should-be-bann
The reason, supposedly, is that my question started a conversation that "did not reflect well on MathOverflow".
Personally I think the solution is not to shut people up, but to start doing things to make MathOverflow more welcoming to women. Some women say this is hopeless - they'll just ignore the place and/or hope it dies. I hope people who think that start up a new site. But I hope people who like MathOverflow try to improve it.
(For nonexperts I should clarify that I asked my question on MathOverflow Meta. This is precisely the place to talk, not about math, but MathOverflow policies. So it's not as if I were interrupting math conversations with "off-topic" discussion of policy. The objection was solely that I started a conversation that became unpleasant in some ways. By now the moderators have deleted the most obnoxious comments.)
MathOverflow is a website for asking and answering math questions. Very few women participate. After hearing some women discuss the reasons why, I asked what has been done to make MathOverflow more welcoming to women:
https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/6367/what-is-being-done-to-make-mathoverflow-more-welcoming-to-women
Answer: something was done once, but nothing is being done now.
But some preferred to argue against the very question. And now I see that someone has posted a followup, proposing that
"questions that invite general discussion about how to address the gender imbalance on MO are off-topic and should be closed/locked/deleted"
https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/6390/proposal-free-floating-discussions-of-things-like-women-and-mo-should-be-bann
The reason, supposedly, is that my question started a conversation that "did not reflect well on MathOverflow".
Personally I think the solution is not to shut people up, but to start doing things to make MathOverflow more welcoming to women. Some women say this is hopeless - they'll just ignore the place and/or hope it dies. I hope people who think that start up a new site. But I hope people who like MathOverflow try to improve it.
(For nonexperts I should clarify that I asked my question on MathOverflow Meta. This is precisely the place to talk, not about math, but MathOverflow policies. So it's not as if I were interrupting math conversations with "off-topic" discussion of policy. The objection was solely that I started a conversation that became unpleasant in some ways. By now the moderators have deleted the most obnoxious comments.)
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