That crazy combination of letters stands for "Third World Organization of Women in Science". Before you pounce on me for calling it crazy, let me add that it is a fine organization, but it is just that the acronym somehow sounds so, ..., un-okay. However, this post is not about how TWOWS sounds.
Now, TWOWS will have its Third General Assembly, together with an international conference on 'Women's impact on science and technology in the New Millennium'. Are you impressed? Yet, this post is not about the impressive Assembly and Conference.
The impressive Assembly and Conference are going to be held in an auditorium that resides inside the IISc campus. Since we are all on the faculty of IISc, sometimes we get invited to such impressive conferences to the inauguration of these impressive conferences. This is one such occasion. Are you impressed? And yet, this post is not about the impressive fact of an impressive conference sending an invite to me.
Now, here is the list of people that will be sitting in the dais during the inauguration ceremony. Please bear with me while I type it all out: Prof. V.S. Ramamurthy, Shri Kapil Sibal, Dr. M.H.A. Hassan, Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Prof. Lydia Makhubhu, His Excellency T.N. Chaturvedi, His Excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and Prof. V. Krishnan.
Ha! I made you go 'WTF?', didn't I? Now that you have noticed the presence of just one woman in that list, that is what this post is about!
Why in freaking hell are so many men occuupying the prime seats in an event that's meant to celebrate women's contribution? Whose bright idea was it? Do these people -- er, the organizers -- have no shame? Even the local organizing committee's chair'person' (Prof. V. Krishnan) is a man!
Unbelievable, no?
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