Re: [Gendispatch] New Version Notification for draft-knodel-nomcom-gender-representation-00.txt

[Christian Huitema <[e-mail]>]

> On Nov 21, 2023, at 8:37 PM, Martin Thomson <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> On Wed, Nov 22, 2023, at 15:25, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
>> Yes, but if (hypothetically) we had four possible responses: Male,
>> Female, Other, Prefer-not-to-say,
>> I really don't know what to do with Prefer-not-to-say.
> 
> I have no strong preference here, but it could be reasonable to treat other and pnts as distinct categories.  Or both together.  Based on my understanding of demographics, it is unlikely that either (or both) would be selected for more than 8 or 9 out of 10, so while we need to write up firm rules, that would be the only reason we'd need that level of precision; it's unlikely to be a problem in practice.

Prefer-not-to-say amounts to opting out of gender based selection. That means the candidate would be selected based on random ranking only, and should never be selected based on "reserved for minority" preferences.

There are many reasons to prefer not to say anything. One is a general aversion for keeping personal preferences in databases, based for example of the history of repurposing such databases for other purposes, like the Gestapo did 60 some years ago. Another is because the participant would prefer to keep private details hidden. Yet anther is to introduce enough noise in the system to provide cover for those participants who want their private details hidden. These are all very good reasons, but they should not provide any priority in nomcom selection.

-- Christian Huitema