Bradley M. Kuhn

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The Everyday Sexism That I See In My Work

Thursday 21 June 2018 by Bradley M. Kuhn

My friend, colleague, and boss, Karen Sandler, yesterday tweeted about one of the unfortunately sexist incidents that she's faced in her life. This incident is a culmination of sexist incidents that Karen and I have seen since we started working together. I describe below how these events entice me to be complicit in sexist incidents, which I do my best to actively resist.

Ultimately, this isn't about me, Karen, or about a single situation, but this is a great example of how sexist behaviors manipulate a situation and put successful women leaders in no-win situations. If you read this tweet (and additionally already knew about Software Freedom Conservancy where I work)…

… you've already guessed that I'm the male employee that this executive meant. When I examine the situation, I can't think of a single reason this donor could want to speak to me that would not be more productive if he instead spoke with Karen. Yet, the executive, who was previously well briefed on the role changes at Conservancy, repeatedly insisted that the donation was gated on a conversation with me.

Those who follow my and Karen's work know that I was Conservancy's first Executive Director. Now, I have a lower-ranking role since Karen came to Conservancy.

Back in 2014, Karen and I collaboratively talked about what role would make sense for her and me — and we made a choice together. We briefly considered a co-Executive Director situation, but that arrangement has been tried elsewhere and is typically not successful in the long term. Karen is much better than me at the key jobs of a successful Executive Director. Karen and I agreed she was better for the job than me. We took it to Conservancy's Board of Directors, and they moved my leadership role at Conservancy to be honorary, and we named Karen the sole Executive Director. Yes, I'm still nebulously a leader in the Free Software community (which I'm of course glad about). But for Conservancy matters, and specifically donor relations and major decisions about the organization, Karen is in charge.

Karen is an impressive leader and there is no one else that I'd want to follow in my software freedom activism work. She's the best Executive Director that Conservancy could possibly have — by far. Everyone in the community who works with us regularly knows this. Yet ever since Karen was named our Executive Director, she faces everyday sexist behavior, including people who seek to conscript me into participation in institutional sexism. As outlined above, I was initially Executive Director of Conservancy, and I was treated very differently than she is treated in similar situations, even though the organization has grown significantly under her leadership. More on that below, but first a few of the other everyday examples of sexism I've witnessed with Karen:

Many times when we're at conferences together, men who meet us assume that Karen works for me until we explain our roles. This happens almost every time both Karen and I are at the same conference, which is at least a few times each year.

Another time: a journalist wrote an article about some of “Bradley's work” at Conservancy. We pointed out to the journalist how strange it was that Karen was not mentioned in the article, and that it made it sound like I was the only person doing this work at our organization. He initially responded that because I was the “primary spokesperson”, it was natural to credit me and not her. Karen in fact had been more recently giving multiple keynotes on the topic, and had more speaking engagements than I did in that year. One of those keynotes was just weeks before the article, and it had been months since I'd given a talk or made any public statements. Fortunately, the journalist was willing to engage and discuss the importance of the issue (which was excellent) and the journalist even did agree it was a mistake, but neverthless couldn't rewrite the article.

Another time: we were leaked (reliable) information about a closed-door meeting where some industry leaders were discussing Conservancy and its work. The person who leaked us the information told us that multiple participants kept talking only about me, not Karen's work. When someone in the meeting said wait, isn't Karen Sandler the Executive Director?, our source (who was giving us a real-time report over IRC) reported that that the (male) meeting coordinator literally said: Oh sure, Karen works there, but Bradley is their guiding light. Karen had been Executive Director for years at that point.

I consistently say in talks, and in public conversations, that Karen is my boss. I literally use the word “boss”, so there is no confusion nor ambiguity. I did it this week at a talk. But instead of taking that as the fact that it is, many people make comments like well, Karen's not really your boss, right; that's just a thing you say?. So, I'm saying unequivocally here (surely not for the last time): I report to Karen at Conservancy. She is in charge of Conservancy. She has the authority to fire me. (I hope she won't, of course :). She takes views and opinions of our entire staff seriously but she sets the agenda and makes the decisions about what work we do and how we do it. (It shows how bad sexism is in our culture that Karen and I often have to explain in intricate detail what it means for someone to be an Executive Director of an organization.)

Interestingly but disturbingly, the actors here are not typically people who are actually sexist. They are rarely doing these actions consciously. Rather these incidents teach how institutional sexism operates in practice. Every time I'm approached (which is often) with some subtle situation where it makes Karen look like she's not really in charge, I'm given the opportunity to pump myself up, make myself look more important, and gain more credibility and power. It is clear to me that this comes at the expense of subtly denigrating Karen and that the enticement is part of an institutionally sexist zero-sum game.

These situations are no-win. I know that in the recent situation, the donation would be assured if I'd just agreed to a call right away without Karen's involvement. I didn't do it, because that approach would make me inherently complicit in institutional sexism. But, avoiding becoming “part of the problem” requires constant vigilance.

These situations are sadly very common, particularly for women who are banging cracks into the glass ceiling. For my part, I'm glad to help where I can tell my side the story, because I think it's essential for men to assist and corroborate the fight against sexism in our industry without mansplaining or white-knighting. I hope other men in technology will join me and refuse to participate and support behavior that seeks to erode women's well-earned power in our community. When you are told that a woman is in charge of a free software project, that a woman is the executive director of the organization, or that a woman is the chair of the board, take the fact at face value, treat that person as the one who is in charge of that endeavor, and don't (inadvertantly nor explicitly) undermine her authority.

Posted on Thursday 21 June 2018 at 18:40 by Bradley M. Kuhn.

Submit comments on this post to <bkuhn@ebb.org>.