> Whatever is the case, there are few women here any way...
> Where are the female partners of LBO-talk men, most of whom appear to
> be heterosexual? What are they doing while LBO-talk men are posting
> here? Doing housework that LBO-talk men are shirking? Or are
> LBO-talk men, like James Carville-Mary Matalin, mostly coupled with
> right-wing women who are hanging out at right-wing mailing lists?
>
> Or is the problem this? :->
====================
Walker (yes, her first name) Jones has a similar left-wing background to my
own, still supports the same causes, reads mostly the same online
publications I do as well as the occasional listserve posts (including your
own) which I forward to her. We discuss political and other issues all the
time. I rarely post anything without running it by her.
She has wider interests than mine - science, literature, art and music - which also occupy her time. But when I posed your question to her, she said it was mostly because she's "just not motivated enough" to participate on these lists, and doesn't particularly like the flaming. We've always equally shared the housework and child-raising, though now our son rents an apt on his own.
The issue of women's participation has been around for as long as I've been on the left. Interestingly, I found a higher percentage of women ready to participate in the NDP and in the unions than in the far left groups. We've had some thoughts on why this might be so, but would be interested in your own, informed as they are by your own experience.