Never saw it, so it doesn't happen

Uff. Faculty board meeting. We had a radical notion presented to the board, one cohort of students to study a program that is just to be for women. The university president is excited, we have all sorts of money lined up, but we have to get the program approved.

And there was a lot of wind came our way today.

1. "It's like remedial courses for women." No, actually, once you get the still-teenage guys out of the women's hair, they can really excel. We will not be the first with a program like this.
2. "You will take away the few women we have in our mixed program." Okay, I understand your pain. You just realized that our program is more interesting than yours. But not all women are willing to study in an all-women program, so not to worry.
   
3. This is the drop-dead argument: "I've been a teacher for 30 years and never seen a woman be discriminated against, so all this female didactics is just crap". Um, right. Looks like we have a lot of work to do. This is like arguing: I have never seen a fox in Berlin, so they don't exist. And it is just soooooo classic - compting is so highly gendered, and the men are so intensely convinced that it is not gendered.
   

We beat a retreat and have to have some more talks with people over the next few weeks. This is going to be a tough one to get approved. Wish me luck!