EA - Things that can make EA a good place for women by lilly

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Things that can make EA a good place for women, published by lilly on April 6, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.IntroductionMany people, including me, have criticized EA for being a subpar place for women in certain ways, including: women are underrepresented (which contributes to various problems), there are few mechanisms aimed at preventing sexual harassment before it occurs, there is limited guidance regarding appropriate behavior, the criteria for evaluating misconduct are questionable, and existing systems may be ill-equipped to respond to allegations of abuse.At the same time, I think EA does well on certain gender issues relative to other communities. My aim here is not to make a substantive feminist case for EA, respond to critiques in this vein, or argue that being involved in EA is on balance good for women, but to describe features of the EA community that may be good for women (or, at least, have been good for me). Several of the features I'll highlight are good for everyone, but contrast with features of the wider world that are often bad for women.My goal in writing this is threefold. First, as EA works to fix certain gender issues, it’s worth considering what to preserve. Second, I want to highlight practices and behaviors that I’ve appreciated in the hopes of others emulating them. Third, and most importantly, I want women who are considering whether EA is a community they want to be a part of to be aware of both the good and the bad.Eight features of EA that can make EA a good place for womenIn the remainder of this post, I'll describe features of the EA community that I think can benefit women. This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, nor are these things listed in any particular order. I'll also highlight how a few of these features can cut both ways.(1) People defy conventional social normsWhy this can be good for women: EA has less gendered expectations regarding behavior and appearance, which can be good, because such expectations often serve to oppress women.Example: EA is famously not into wasting money and time on unimportant stuff. In other spheres, women face pressure to invest in makeup, nails, hair, clothes, Botox, buccal fat removal, BBLs, and lots of other stuff you probably shouldn’t Google. I enjoy doing my hair and makeup sometimes, but it matters to me that I feel basically no pressure to do this in EA spaces.Why this can be bad for women: At times, EA may also subvert certain norms that are good for women.Example: I still think it’s a bit weird that a post that says—based on scant evidence—that “if I could pop back in time to witness the [interactions reported in the TIME article], I personally would think in 80% of cases that the accused had done nothing wrong” has 349 upvotes. One reasonable, good-for-women social norm that is being questioned here: believing most women who make accusations of sexual misconduct.(2) People value things about you that are important (e.g., how kind you are, how hard you work, how good your work is)Why this can be good for women: Society tends to value people for the wrong reasons (e.g., thinness), but often applies these standards more stringently to women (who are more affected by, e.g., weight discrimination). By contrast, many EAs and EA organizations make an active effort not to unfairly discriminate against people (although, of course, bias that exists in the outside world will invariably exist within EA, too).Example: Many EA organizations are intentional about not letting bias and discrimination influence their hiring practices. Last year, I applied to a job at an EA organization. This was the first job I had applied to in years where things that have no bearing on my work quality were intentionally excluded from the application process. The organization did this by revie...