Recently, the subjects of feminism, International Women's Day, Witnesses and voting for them has been making the rounds. @beanz brought to our attention, and reinvigorated, a discussion about Feminism, and International Women's Day. @ancapbarbie reminded me and I suspect many others, of the issue around voting for Witnesses.
For me, something has been rattling around my pea brain and I need to suss it out here.
We had a discussion on the Steemit Ramble Discord about the lack of voting for Witnesses. A recent post struck a cord, and out of that, a popup podcast came with 50 or so attendee's, and by show's end, some 18 or so Witnesses, at one time or another, with most being present for the entire day, stopping by to join in.
For those of you who are not sure, or simply do not know, Witnesses play an important part in the Steemit ecosphere, by validating every move on the blockchain. Each Comment, Post, Edit, upvote, and transaction on the blockchain doesn't truly exist or happen, until a witness validates it. I won't go into the back end of the how's and why's, as so many others have said it much better than I have. Suffice to say, we all need to go, check out https://steemian.info/witnesses (rather than embed, I've included the link, so people can see, it truly does take you to steemian.info and not phishing), understand that there are quite a few who are inactive (AND slowing Steemit down) and vote for more witnesses. Like an election in your own country, it is important to participate, and to be part of choosing the ones who help guide Steemit.
As we discuss Witnesses, we also need to remember our discussion of Feminism, too.
Do they sound related? Maybe not on first blush, but consider this:
If we truly want a Steemit where all of us are treated fairly, where all of us are treated with respect, I believe we need more female Witnesses.
Currently, There are only TWO Female Witnesses known of the 400 or so on the list.
Sure, a few of the Witnesses joining the discussion on Steemit Ramble mentioned that women were a part of their Witness Projects, but, still, only 2 known? Only 2 out of 400 or so?
... and why is it important?
Steemit Witnesses are more than simply admins for a Linux server, running in some icy cold data center somewhere at the end of some fiber optics. Witnesses are the ones who vote for the direction of Steemit. they particiapte in proposals, they vote for the hardforks that happen. In essence, they are the Congress that provides a check and balance on the senior leadership team at Steemit.
Lacking a viewpoint of half the population is obscene. No other way around it.
Now, there's no denying that women are a diverse group: No one woman speaks for all others.
But it's also true, that men are not even remotely capable of knowing, of understanding what it is to be a women, to grow up in the perceived role society paints them with. To experience the prejudices, the harassment, to be overlooked, or to be dismissed, like women have been for most of history.
Again, why does it matter?
How can we know what policies are inbred, are in place within Steemit, that subconsciously or overtly, make it harder, or more for women? Maybe it exists, maybe not.
I don't know.
But I do know, with women being roughly equal to men, why isn't leadership within Steemit roughly equal to men?
I will ask this, as a final note:
The women I know on here are smart, confident, and preeminently qualified to be witnesses.
They are tech goddesses, such as @techslut and @sykochica
They are strong, vocal leaders, such as @beanz and @shadowspub
There are dozens more I interact with daily, and hundreds more I connect with at some point during a week, online here.
I am sure I've made assumptions that are wrong, and for that I apologize. I am also sure, I ahve included some who prefer to be left nameless, or to not be named, and am definitely sure I have forgotten to mention many women in my steemit world who have guided me, kicking and screaming, on here. I'm not sure whether to kill you? or kiss you @thekittygirl?
Asked, and answered:
Maybe they're smarter than the rest, and know, being a Witness is a thankless job, requiring an investment not just in time, and money, but in the game of politics, and who knows, maybe NOT being the Witness is the right move after all?
Vote for the two known female witnesses: @crimsonclad who votes as a witness as part of @followbtcnews and @patrice by going here to Witness Voting On Steemit
There's ONLY TWO female witnesses?!
TBH, I am new here and just starting to appreciate the value of witnesses, and I know it runs deep.
Thank you for posting this, I'mma do more research.
Xx
There are only two that I know of who are publicly known among the 400 or so: @patrice and @crimsonclad is a partner in @followbtcnews
@lilycampbell there are at least 4 more women, who are working on projects as part of groups, but prefer not to be named.
Even if it were 6... that's still under represented, out of 400 plus. 1.5%? Dammit, that's still way wrong!
Wow, yeah- that's way low. Am glad to hear about @crimsonclad and @patrice!
I don't see the surprise in the numbers ... most Steemit users are men, so that shows on witnesses too...
2 out of 400? It could have been zero...
I don't know if you heard me talk on shows or on discord about that, but the reason I started @steemsugars was because the analogy during SteemFest was just sad...
Thinking of a witness as well, but we'll see about that - too early for now...
Thanks for that !!!
I'd agree that the majority are men, but 0.5% (two out of the top 400)? I'd say there must be much higher percent of women on Steemit.
Well that's the purpose of @steemsugars - hopefully, we'll make it!!!
Do it!!!!!!
You think...? I might! ;)
Thanks for writing this! :-)
It's tough to see the statistics so skewed.
Just adding this because it might play a role in the Steemit witness statistics too ;-) These systems influence our thinking and it's a shame Steemit is following the same path.
Much of what drove me to write this, is summed up in your comments.
I firmly believe having only a paltry few women as witnesses introduces unknown biases in the community.
Fully agree on all points. Witness is too important a position to be left in the hand of dudes only. Steemit is very international, which helps diversity of race in witnesses and in general (although I wouldn't mind knowing those stats as well), but we definitely need more diversity of gender.
Many thanks.
Although, as a guy, I admit a certain amount of trepidation saying Women should do this!
I'm really glad you wrote this post despite your trepidation, it's much needed and frankly I needed to read it. I have voted for witnesses and yes it's sort of vaguely occurred to me that I only know of 1 female witness (patrice and yes I had voted for her) but this puts into perspective the necessity of voting AND encouraging other women to take on the role of witnesses! (I'm far too clueless with tech even I wasn't eaten alive already by my art life). Thank you!!
Hey, I'm a Photographer and Production manager in special events: whaddo I know from tech?
Definitely kiss @thekittygirl! We need her so please don't kill her!
In my case, I passed my witness votes on by proxy to someone I trust with them as keeping up with the comings and goings of witnesses is beyond my Steemit time allowance. It is also beyond the amount of block chain politics I care to deal with. I feel the proxy is a responsible way to use my votes - some may disagree?
I agree with you on all points (except, of course, on the idea of bringing any harm to @thekittygirl)
In the immortal words of Shania Twain "Lets go girls!"
I knew @thekittygirl from somewhere else.
She brought me here, and while I joking say things, she's absolutely the coolest on the planet, so no. No harm will come to The Kitty!
Kisses?
I believe it is best to vote for witnesses based on merit.
I know 100s of good male computer techs and a handful of females.
Thus, when you get a system like the steem block-chain, and to run a full witness is complex and expensive. It takes a good deal of computer know how.
Thus, speaking of "equality" in such a situation is going to shoot yourself in the foot. You are now speaking of voting for the women, because they are the only women.
I will keep an eye on them as witnesses. But only vote for witnesses that i have a good knowledge of there technical expertise and their level headedness concerning politics.
I absolutely agree, Witnesses should be based on merit.
AND there are plenty of Women who are running current tech projects, coding on the blockchain and can comfortably admin a Linux server, with MadTech skillz that far outdo many males, who are currently on the top 50 Witness list. INCLUDING some males who continue on the list, and are inactive, yet, seem to be making money or taking up spots.
We might ask, given the Steemit often has slowdowns, related to the time it takes to validate blockchain, why are current witnesses, or anyone for that matter, voting for Inactive Witnesses?
The best men far outdo any women programmer that i know.
Sorry, this is a field that is loved by men, and so has a lot of very strong men. Yes there are women who can program well. However, of the ones i know, i would only put 2 into the top tier. That's less than 2%.
It is what it is. Look at fields like elementary school, where you have the opposite demographic.
Voting for witnesses is actually a pain in the butt, requiring you to get out your keys.
Most people set them and forget them.
You have to go to a completely separate site to get good technical data on what each witness is doing.
And, often, you have to type the name of the witness you want to vote for. You cannot just click. You cannot just choose your top 20 and press confirm.
So, there's your reasons.