Secular Woman Offers Grants for Skepticon 5

Remember Secular Woman? An organization dedicated to supporting the interests and work of women in the secular movement, they made a splash right out of the gate, appearing in Glenn Beck‘s The Blaze, listing a Speakers Bureau, offering memberships, and advertising the wares of their members.

Now, just two weeks after launching, Secular Woman has announced a partnership with Skepticon 5 to offer travel grants to women who would be otherwise unable to attend. At least ten women will recieve the money — to be used for travel or lodging, since Skepticon is free. If donations exceed predicted levels, additional grants will be provided.

Kim Rippere, president of Secular Woman, said in the Thursday press release:

Skepticon is a natural partner for Secular Woman’s first disbursement of travel grants. We’ll be able to help more women atheists and skeptics experience a major secular event, thanks to Skepticon’s free registration and its track record of high attendance and engaging speakers.

The application system has not been set up yet, however you can donate here if you’d like to help with this cause!

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From the Blaze comment section:

DanMan2012
Posted on June 28, 2012 at 3:33pm
No problem!
Secularists on average believe there is nothing wrong with birth control, abortion, or homosexuality.
They’ll eventually die off. Who will be left? Christians.
Oops! GUESS I LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG!
Larry Meredith

what happens if a transexual applies and gets rejected?
Juju

what happens if a man applies and gets rejected?
Larry Meredith

what happens if a woman applies and gets rejected?
Katie Hartman

Secular Woman’s offer is in conjunction with Skepticon’s own (new!)
travel grant program, which will be available to all current students. We’ll be using both fund sources to serve the same group of applicants. It’s likely to be a gender-diverse group – nobody will be declined on the basis of gender, and the recipients will probably be fairly representative of the overall applicant pool.

Anyone wanting a grant should apply early and take plenty of time to fill out the application. Details about the application will be posted at skepticon.org this coming weekend. Applications will be accepted with registration starting July 31st.
Russ Painter

Giving grants based on gender? How is that not sexism?
Bridget Gaudette

The grants will go to people that identify as women.
Bridget Gaudette

The goal is equal participation at events. Grants, scholarships, etc. often discriminate based on sex, grades, college major. It doesn’t mean there is anything inherently wrong with the system it just means there is a more narrow the focus.
Ibis3

Hmm. I think that would be a good discussion to have when there’s no more gender pay gap, when wages and salaries are equal work for equal value, when there’s no more glass ceiling, when women are not unequally burdened with child care costs and domestic labour. Mitigating those imbalances by helping each other out in the mean time is not sexism, it’s a necessary response to sexism. Necessary, that is, if your goal is to not allow systemic sexism (with its roots in religious, patriarchal culture) to dictate attendance at secularist events.
Russ Painter

I just happen to think that attempted solutions to problems of sexism should not include more sexism.
Patterrssonn

Russ I hope that someday your dreamworld comes true, untill then we’ll just have to use the strategies that work towards making it happen.
Patterrssonn

So the comments on Blaze are as moronic as the host. Who would have seen that coming?
Ibis3

So how do you suggest we enable more women to participate?
enuma

Leveling the playing field ≠ sexism
julie

If you had money to donate to a group of people, would you make sure you gave an equal amount to rich people and poor people? After all, you wouldn’t want to discriminate against rich people by giving to the poor.
It is impossible to take care of everyone equally, but the best you can do is make sure that groups that need more help than others get that extra help.
Larry Meredith

Evening the gender ratio in the community is a good thing. You may not realize it, but the demographic of atheists being old white guys is actually not a good thing. The more we diversify, the better. So giving minorities in our group better opportunities should be regular practice. Personally I think there should be more attempts to reach out to poor people. I’ve been to some atheist groups and just about everyone is middle class and pretty well off.