Open Mic: The Field Glass Ceiling

At the Mic: Brooke McDonald

Brooke McDonald is a technical editor for an environmental consulting firm in Northern California. In her free time she birds, gardens, plays with her dogs, and researches an obscure Calvinist sect.      

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Most birders are women. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2007 report, “Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis,” 54% of birders are women. At the Space Coast Birding Festival in 2011, 69% of attendees were women; at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in 2010, 60-65% of attendees were women; and at The Biggest Week in American Birding, around 60% of attendees have been women. Tropical Birding estimates that two-thirds of their American clients are women, VENT estimates that 60% of their clients are women, and another leading tour company said that 54.6% of their clients booked for upcoming trips are women.

However, by any measure, women are poorly represented in the upper ranks of birding. 

• Women have 11.2% of the top ten eBird state lists for each U.S. state.
• Women are 9.3% of all state bird records committee members—a number that drops to 7.8% if the committee secretaries are excluded.
• There are eight women out of the American Birding Association’s top 100 ABA-area listers.
• Women are 3.6% of California county big day record holders.
• Finally, there has been only one woman out of the 35 current and former members of the American Birding Association’s Checklist Committee.

    This disparity was explored in a paper by Caren Cooper and Jennifer Smith titled “Gender Patterns in Bird-related Recreation in the USA and UK” published in 2010 in Ecology and Society. Cooper and Smith classified birding into four categories of increasing difficulty: Supportive, Participatory, Competitive, and Authoritative. They found that women’s participation decreased at each successive level. For example, membership in the National Audubon Society, a Supportive activity, was 63% female; Project FeederWatch and the Christmas Bird Count, Participatory activities, were, respectively, 66% and 37% female; inclusion in the ABA Big Day and ABA List Report, a Competitive activity, was 20% female; and service as an eBird state editor, an Authoritative activity, was 7% female.

    Unlike the challenge of bringing people of different races and ethnicities into the birding community, this is not an issue that can be resolved by simply introducing more women to birding. Women are already here, but they are not attaining high status in the community.  

    Authority in the birding community is a function not only of one’s skills but of confidence in one’s skills. According to Cooper and Smith, men are more likely to be overconfident in rating their own birding skills while women are more likely to be under confident. But what factors are responsible for this difference in confidence levels? 

“A lot of women tell me that they’re glad to see a woman taking the lead in the birding world.” — Debi Shearwater 

Most of the women I spoke with said that some male birders either ignore women entirely or are crushingly dismissive, patronizing, or condescending towards them. 

    “A lot of men just won't take a woman seriously,” said Susan Myers. “I get it all the time—people walk right past me. I'm the only one carrying a scope and I'm standing out front calling the birds and I’m magically invisible.”

    One woman who wished to remain anonymous told me about a female friend of hers who had rediscovered a bird that had been presumed extinct. A meeting was held to discuss the status and conservation of the bird, and during this meeting, the woman in question was totally ignored—until one of the men asked her to make coffee.

    Sheri Williamson said that some men have displayed outright incredulity at the fact that she wrote a field guide. She went on to say, “It's hard to get into a position of influence if you're not accorded the respect you deserve.” 

“It’s so much harder when you’re dating a birder to get taken seriously.” — Catherine Hamilton (left, here with Starr Saphir) / photo from The Central Park Effect

Many women in the birding community are treated as the lesser half of a couple, coasting on their partner’s superior ability and only faintly reflecting their partner’s superior skills. Even women who were serious birders before they met their partners are often treated as if any birding ability they have was gained just by exposure to the rarefied air surrounding their partners. Women who actually were introduced to birding by their partners are treated as though this somehow cheapens and invalidates their interest in birds. If a younger woman is single, she’s often treated as a groupie and a follower, and not a serious birder in her own right.

    For example, the new film A Birder’s Guide to Everything is about three young birders who take off birding for the weekend… and a girl who goes along for the ride. As Next Magazine put it, “the group sets out for Connecticut with Ellen, a fetching photography lover from school, in tow,” while Variety said, “Pretty young shutterbug Ellen tags along to record their finds.” 

    Donna Dittmann said that when she was 19 or 20, a top ABA-area lister told her that she had a large California list only because she “hung with the big boys,” an accusation that never would have been leveled at a young man with her skills and experience.

    Sheridan Coffey said, “If we are together, most people will talk to my partner first, asking him questions and ignoring me.” She went on to say, “I am sometimes treated like his secretary, getting emails asking me to ask him if he will lead a group, or go to a festival, while not inviting me.”

    Catherine Hamilton, in a blog entry in 2011, wrote that she was called a harlot at an AOU meeting just for having the audacity to date another birder. “I stand here, with a small army of presumed Hester Prynnes behind me, wearing their binoculars in lieu of a letter, and I call you out, in the names of sexism, chauvinism, and tawdry pettiness. You know who you are. You know it is not just about one comment, one reputation. Is there really any question why there are so few young and youngish women in the birding world?” 

“If you play down your own knowledge and skills consistently enough, you can't blame people for buying into it.” — Sheri Williamson / photo by Laura Kammermeier

Women are often afraid to bird in some areas, but strong field skills are developed in part by birding in a variety of places. Debi Shearwater brought up the fact that women venturing into secluded areas do face real threats. Phoebe Snetsinger was gang-raped in Papua New Guinea, and many excellent birding spots have a reputation for being unsafe. These fears can keep women from birding alone, and bolster the stereotype that women view birding primarily as a social activity.

    Women are less likely to assert themselves in the field, more likely to admit mistakes, more likely to take their cues from other birders, more likely to use a querying tone when “calling” a bird, and more likely to discuss birds after they have been identified, all of which may be interpreted as evidence of poor birding effort and weak field skills. Women are less likely to report suspected rarities and are more likely to qualify their sightings, probably for fear of being publicly eviscerated by other birders, but bird reports that don’t sound confident are unlikely to be accepted.

    One of the women that I spoke with even qualified her own excellent birding skills, weakly stating, “I feel like I know my stuff.” As Susan Myers observed, “We are taught right from the start to qualify everything.” Julie Zickefoose said, “I think that as women we are trained from an early age to always defer to men. I'm trying to turn that ship around in my own mind.” Lynn Barber said, “I think many new women birders are hesitant to ask questions, especially of males, and may have difficulty in getting a mentor.” 

“It is hard for men to mentor women.” — Shawneen Finnegan / photo by Dave Irons

Lack of mentorship is a serious problem that holds female birders back. Birding with elite birders is how most people develop elite skills themselves, and men may simply have access to a larger pool of potential mentors. Mentors also introduce people to birding culture, teach field etiquette, and prevent new birders from making blunders that undermine their credibility. Women are major community builders and organizers in the birding world, but as far as field experience goes, Jennifer Rycenga said, “Women don't get a lot of mentoring, but give a lot of it.”

   “I enjoy helping others learn,” Julie Zickefoose said. “In fact, I'd rather go birding with a newcomer, because it's fun to be able to impart information and watch someone grow in confidence and ability.”

    “Mentorship is an area where I think women have an edge,” Sheri Williamson said. “We just need to connect more young female birders with female mentors. Giving special encouragement to young women in birding can only help birding, birds, and society at large.”

    If there were more women in mentorship roles in the birding community, women’s confidence in their own field skills would be improved and there would be more women inspired to ascend to the upper ranks. As it stands, however, most of the strong mentors in the birding community are men, and there are social factors that keep men and women apart, especially men and women of differing ages and relationship status. Some men who would otherwise be mentors can thoughtlessly destroy the confidence of less skilled birders.

    “Being a phenomenal birder doesn’t give you the right to be a complete asshole,” Catherine Hamilton said. 

“Generational links between women are missing.” — Jennifer Rycenga / photo by Bob Droege

The age structure of the birding community may also partially explain the absence of high-profile women. Older women are often dismissed as “kitchen window” birders. Shawneen Finnegan said that while becoming a top-notch birder is far easier when one begins watching birds at a young age, many women begin birding later in life. Jen Brumfield observed that men were the default leaders in previous generations, and Jennifer Rycenga pointed out that girls have historically been discouraged from cultivating interests in a single-minded manner, pursuing the sciences, and playing outside.

    Will a change in generational attitudes naturally result in more women gaining leadership roles in the community? Another hobby that is nerdy, intense, and male-dominated—but young—is video gaming, and gamers have had a great deal of productive discussion recently about how some men not only insist that women demonstrate extensive gaming credentials before they’re grudgingly accepted as fellow gamers, but also see some women as “imposters” who are only feigning interest in gaming. Within the last few weeks, I observed an exchange on Facebook where several young male leaders in the birding community made harassing comments in response to a picture of a young woman wearing binoculars, indicating that even though more overt forms of sexism may vanish, there are still ongoing subtle forms that need to be addressed.

    “I doubt any of us are totally innocent, having grown up in a culture where women are still struggling to be taken as seriously as their male counterparts in virtually all aspects of life,” Sheri Williamson said.

“I think anyone, male or female, is capable of developing extreme field skills.” — Julie Zickefoose / photo by Nina Harfman

Birding can be a fraternity in the best or the worst sense of the word. One woman I spoke with seemed to accept as the natural order of things that there’s a “pecking order” in birding that men suffer under too, but most of the women I talked to maintained that women birders get the worst of it. There is a lot of cliquishness in birding, and while men who get into birding are often quickly accepted into the group, many women are treated as outsiders even after years of birding.

    There may be excellent women birders out there who have become so frustrated with the hazing and casual sexism that they have rejected the birding community entirely, and there may be many women who are overlooked in a birding culture that considers the size of one’s list as an important measure of one’s worth.

    “Some of the top listers are not necessarily the most skilled birders in the state,” Jen Brumfield said. Shawneen Finnegan concurred, saying, “A big list doesn't equal a high level of birding expertise.” 

 

“I think a lot of birding is a boys’ club and women may feel excluded.” — Susan Myers / photo from Oriental Bird Images

While several women that I spoke with alleged that women just aren’t as motivated as men are to make a name for themselves in the birding world, this comes uncomfortably close to the specious argument that there are few women CEOs and corporate managers because women just aren’t interested in corporate advancement. That said, men and women may well seek different things from birding, although whether those differences are innate or a product of culture is impossible to determine.

    Gender Patterns in Bird-related Recreation in the USA and UK qualified it thus: “…Our results suggest that males are more likely to be achievement-oriented in their motivation, seeking to meet some standard of performance, whereas females might be more likely to be appreciation-motivated, participating to reduce stress or gain a sense of connection with nature.” 

    “I probably have a pretty huge life list, because I seek new birds avidly wherever I go, and I go to a lot of cool places,” Julie Zickefoose said. “But what lights my fire is having a good close encounter with a bird—any bird—that teaches me something about how it lives, thinks, reproduces, feeds.”

    “I think it's the nature of women to have a more holistic approach to things,” Susan Myers said. “There is nothing less like hunting than keeping a list. A lot of these hardcore listers have no interest in the behavior of the birds. They want to see it, tick it and get the hell out of there. It's the women who behave more like hunters. They want to understand the birds, know the behavior, know the environment.”

    Ultimately, women in the birding world need to have more confidence in themselves.

    “We should learn to trust ourselves and not always go running off to find an ‘expert’ to confirm what we probably already have figured out for ourselves,” Julie Zickefoose concluded. “If female birders frustrate me, it's because so many of them never allow themselves to arrive.”

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References:

http://www.cawatchablewildlife.org/pdfs/2011%20Space%20Coast%20Festival%20Economic%20Report.pdf

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss4/art4/

http://digitalmedia.fws.gov/cdm/ref/collection/document/id/176

http://jezebel.com/5922961/the-fight-against-misogynism-in-gaming-enlists-some-big-names

http://mydogoscar.com/birdspot/2011/08/09/h-is-for-harlot/

http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/film-review-a-birders-guide-to-everything-1200442639/

https://www.nextmagazine.com/content/tribeca-film-festival-birder%E2%80%99s-guide-everything

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Thanks:

(Special thanks go to Lynn Barber, Jen Brumfield, Sheridan Coffey, Donna Dittmann, Shawneen Finnegan, Catherine Hamilton, Laura Kammermeier, Susan Myers, Jennifer Rycenga, Debi Love Shearwater, Sharon Stiteler, Sheri Williamson, and Julie Zickefoose. I had additional discussions with Jennifer Schramm Cutillo, Liz Deluna Gordon, Noah Gaines, Jeff Gordon, Clay Kempf, and Clayton Tschudy. Some numbers and details were provided by Iain Campbell, Victor Emanuel, Marci Madsen Fuller, Kenn Kaufman, and Kim Kaufman. Finally, Dave Irons, Dave Moseley, and Rick Wright provided feedback on various iterations of this piece.)

 

Comments

[Katrina]

This is such a big topic. There's a lot I could say about it but I'll try not to write a book here. I think that part of the problem is the standards used to measure the top ranks of birding. I think women, regardless of skill level, tend to be less competitive. Men tend to be more into the whole "mine is bigger than yours" thing, leading to them being more inclined to really competitive listing. I don't care about competing with anyone. I'm not good at submitting listing numbers when I bother to add them up at all. The competitive spin that some local birders (all men I might add) have put on eBird has really turned me off of using eBird.

If we measure the "top ranks" by who is involved in running local bird clubs, who is editing and writing for local and state publications, who is leading field trips locally, and who is teaching and mentoring new birders, I think we'd find a much higher percentage of women. The numbers might still be uneven but I think they'd be more representative. These are things that I find more important than who has enough money to run around getting the biggest list.

I started birding as a teen in the mid-seventies. All of the people I can remember birding with until I finished high school were men. I can't remember any of them ever being anything but welcoming to me. I do remember asking about local bird clubs and getting told that the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club was an old boys club that didn't allow women. That's the only discouragement I ever got and it was clear at the time that the men who told me about that didn't approve. What I thought at the time was that birding was simply something that interested more men than women. Several of my interests are like that. It never bothered me.

From a more experienced viewpoint, I think that part of the reason that girls weren't more interested in birding is that little boys at the time got more encouragement to go out in the woods and play while little girls tended to be discouraged from getting dirty and running around in the woods. (Now kids don't seem to be allowed to run off to play in the woods at all.) Plus there was the whole notion that watching birds wasn't a respectable hobby at all. I remember the neighborhood kids making fun of my father for watching birds. I mostly tried to hide what I was doing from them.

When I went away to college I found a couple of bird clubs to join and met plenty of women, some of whom taught me a lot. I always felt welcomed by pretty much everyone but part of that may be that I already had a lot of experience and knowledge before I got involved with the clubs.

I think another part of the problem is that women tend to be more sensitive to a lack of support from people with more experience. When experienced birders belittle them or fail to be helpful, I suspect that women tend to feel more influenced to give up the hobby than men. Too often people who are just starting out or who've been interested for years but haven't advanced very far in their knowledge get treated poorly by people who regard themselves as more knowledgeable. There may or may not be sexism involved in this. The people doing it may not even intend to do it. Simply ignoring beginners or talking over their heads makes them feel discouraged. A number of years ago someone said something to me that really made me take notice. I was helping to lead a tour in the Dry Tortugas. At the end of the trip, two of the women came up to me, gave me a tip, and thanked me for not having made them feel stupid. I was flabbergasted. To this day I wonder what had happened to them on tours they'd been on previously that they'd be so grateful that I hadn't made them feel stupid.

[Mary]

Very good point, Sam. But the study was done on "recreational" birding, and this blog references activities that are a blend of (mostly) recreational activities with a few professional ones. Even those in positions of authority are by and large volunteers.

Defining "professionally" involved with birding in such a narrow way is a swipe of the hand towards the 100s and thousands of us who go out as volunteers and contribute vast amounts of time to defining the parameters of the status and distribution of birds in our areas, an activity that is vital to conservation efforts.

[Mary DeLia]

The very first sentence of the blog is, "Most birders are women." It's not about getting more girls interested.

[Jennie Duberstein]

With all respect Mary, although 54% of people identified by the FWS survey may be women (and it is important to note that their definition of "birder" is NOT the same as the definition being put forth by the author in this blog post), I can say from my own years of experience working with young birders that the percentages are not the same for that age demographic. There are far, far fewer girls involved in birding than boys in the young birder world (and by young birder you could say 25 and under; I'd be willing to bet the same holds true for up to age 45 or so. At last year's Camp Colorado we had three girl participants (out of about 17 total) and at Camp Chiricahua we had two (out of ~12 total). I have been doing young birder programs since the mid 1990s and the numbers have always been similar to this; the boys outnumber the girls. I very strongly believe that we DO need to get more girls interested, and work to keep them involved.

[Mary]

Also, Sam, I want to clarify that my chosing not to let sexism be a barrier to my birding experience does not mean that I "can simply ignore the negativity" as if I'm off in my own little world of birding wonder never letting anything interfer.

This is my 11th comment on this blog, when I have never posted a comment on any ABA blog before. Certainly it has struck a chord.

Please re-read my reply to you. You will see how off the mark you are. Few people here are in "disbelief" as you stated. Sexism is the least of my worries when I leave the house at 5am - alone - to go off traipsing through some secluded area. Maybe you don't relate because you have a *male* birding partner. My husband does not wish to get up very early to see birds. So should I only go birding with him, like a timid little creature from a Jane Austin novel? Hell no.

Re-read my reply. I do not wish to restate all of it.

Attention to detail is not just a great skill for birders to have. Though a lack of it could cause people to not seek out your advice in the field, regardless of how long you've been birding.

[GemmaM]

In situations where women are perceived to be less competent, gender and skill discrimination go hand in hand. Imagine your typical "skill discriminator" -- in any context, be it sports or science or whatever. He (or she) likes to be rude to people that he (or she) perceives to be less skilled. Now, does the skill discriminator always know how skilled the person they are dealing with is? Of course not. So how does the skill discriminator deal with the lack of certain knowledge? Does he (or she) treat everyone similarly until such time as he (or she) has amassed enough knowledge to be able to judge, without prejudice, whether this person is worthy of their rudeness? Of course not! Don't make me laugh. No, I'm going to go right out there and say that skill discriminators are always prejudiced. If you're spending that much time judging people on very little information, prejudice is going to creep into your judgements all the time.

Relatedly, a (true) joke:

Q: What's the correct answer to the question "Is he sexist or is he just an asshole?"

A: Well, it sounds like he's definitely an asshole.

[Jensen]

I don't know birding, but I imagine the solution is the same here as everywhere else: If women spent less time complaining and more time working they might amount to something.

[Sam]

Mary, I'm lost as to how my answer to you was interpreted as anything other than offering another point of view in the great discussion that has grown following Brooke's blog post. The "disbelief" I have observed originated not only from comments on this blog but also from various conversations on FB (another site of great contributions thus far), I should have been more specific. I'm not sure how I narrowly defined anything by opening another avenue of thought and least of all do I understand how I took a massive swipe at volunteers. I've volunteered my whole life at countless bird projects, I wouldn't dream of belittling the work volunteers do.

As for the personal attacks, thanks, they don't merit any further response.

[Nate Swick]

If this comment is any indication, I imagine birding is hardly the end of things you don't know, "Jensen".

[Ken Archambault]

A couple of things that could have been addressed in the article, but were not: 1. A very low percentage of professional birding guides are women; 2. Women's purchasing power remains significantly lower than that of their male counterparts, which reduces their ability to travel, among other things; 3. Female birders tend to talk more than male birders while in the field, in my experience -- something which is occasionally noticeable when a bird is vocalizing; 4. Women tend to be smaller in physical stature than their male counterparts, which triggers in some males an innate domination of the physical space (however, IMHO this makes shorter women preferable to tall men who get in the way); 5. Male birders tend to be more confrontational than female birders; 6. Male birders tend to be more aggressive when pursuing birds, especially when photographing birds. Just a few points as food for thought and to stir the pot. Thank you.

[Sheridan Coffey]

Ken, as a woman who has done some leading, I will say I have had to say something to a few men about talking. I think talking in the field, particularly in a group, may relate to whether the talkers are there more for social reasons than birding. This can happen with either sex.

[Martin Reid]

The last post I am seeing is from 4 days ago: has this blog entry been terminated? has it hit some kind of system maximum? surely there are some replies to the last comment that I can see - the one by Ken Archambault on 6.20.13 - ?

[Anya Auerbach]

Pretty much everything has already been said in some form or another, but I thought I'd offer my perspecitive as a 16 year old female birder.
I've attended at total of 4 birding camps over the last three years, all of which are attended by a male majority. This is something the young birder community is well aware of; we've discussed it at camps and online. Personally, I've never been dismissed by other young birders, and I've never seen misogynistic comments on the young birders facebook group. Non-birding peers, however, are more dismissive of female birders, along with female scientists in general, than male. I don't want to assume for the guys out there, but I think it’s more accepted for guys to have birding as their slightly quirky hobby than it is for girls, and so girls are less likely to stick with birding, or will get less "seriously" into it. I like studying odontids and nesting behavior when I’m out birding, and also chasing rarities several states away. It’s in the latter peer group that I find the dismissive adults, mostly older males who simply make the wrong assumptions. On my first CBC I arrived at a seawatch and had an experienced, respected birder begin to explain how to distinguish gannets from gulls, I guess assuming that I couldn't possibly know this. Maybe it was the Nikon monarchs, maybe it was my being 14, but I don't think this happens to teenage boys. I waited a few minutes, then called out some distant scoters in flight. The birder apologized for his assumption.
The birding community can’t change how highschoolers treat each other, but I think if our more competitive side was more actively welcoming, especially to girls, we would see a rise in big name women, which seems to be where we’re still lacking. Since Starr Saphir died I've been looking for a new mentor, you could start there.

[Alan Wormington]

Well I am totally confused by these references to "national" field guides for all North American bird species that need to be written buy women.

What would be the guide title?

Birds of the United States?

Birds of Canada?

Would Jen B. be the author of the "Birds of Canada" edition?

[Alan Wormington]

"It is very sad to hear that women birders are devalued in so many parts of the country."

Ned, what country are you talking about?

[Michael Retter]

You've got me. I didn't use that term.

[Alan Wormington]

I know, I was referring to that long post 5 posts up on the screen.

[Gloria Nikolai]

Excellent point and well-stated! What a great article to heighten awareness of what many female birders have observed.

[Gloria Nikolai]

While I appreciate and respect any personal concerns that women have about their safety while birding, this is simply not an area of concern for me. A male birder once asked me if I felt safe passing by a group of men who were congregated by a city lake in a park, I was a bit startled initially by the question. My answer was, "Not at all." I often go out birding in a variety of locations in my state (Colorado) and other states by myself. I love the solitude, the chance to watch bird behavior extensively without needing to "move on" to the next bird and the peacefulness. It is also just frankly easier to work with my available schedule and not other people's - and it helps me hone my own skills.

I am also a sociologist in my paid work and appreciate all attention to gender-related issues as people are often blind to them. My concern is that we restrain women's independence by teaching them from the earliest ages that they are at risk when we know women's greatest risk is from people they know, not strangers. Teaching safety skills and defense skills may be helpful but also urging women to embrace all opportunities to grow and learn is necessary to break through these stereotypes and glass ceilings.

[Gloria Nikolai]

Excellent points about how we categorize good birders or birders with high status - because field work and conservation work is extraordinarily important. I think we should keep an eye on both areas (authoritative and more) in basically assessing gender issues over time.

[Gloria NIkolai]

Thank you for all that you have done and all that you continue to do!

[Gloria Nikolai]

I am with you in never having participated in a blog comment line (and have done so several times now) but I am thrilled the conversation is happening. I too have a male partner who enjoys birding but isn't as skilled in ID and bird behavior simply because he has many other pursuits that take up a lot of time. He clearly matches me for his appreciation of the beauty and variety of birds when we go on birding trips or go out birding together. I do not wait for him to have time to go, however, because then I wouldn't be out nearly as often as I am!

[Gloria Nikolai]

I loved your point about names that are assumed to be male- it completely confirms the assumptions people make about listers being male in the first place. And kudos to you for your life list full of grand experiences and dedicated efforts (not luck!). I keep a list of birds I have seen, work hard for some of them and dismiss opportunities for new lifers sometimes because I am entranced by a "common" species. I have no idea who else is on the "grand list" because I simply don't care at this time of my life - birding is for me, my sanity and my purposes. Thanks for all you contributed to the discussion!

[Julie Zickefoose]

Checking to see if I'm a guy...nope, still female. I've been fortunate to give keynotes at many festivals across the country. It's how I make my about half my living. And the Midwest Birding Symposium, which will be held again at Lakeside, Ohio in mid-September 2013, counts many female speakers among its keynotes. Huzzah!

[Dave Irons]

Did Louise Zemaitis "have" to share a square with Michael O'Brien or was that their/her choice? The other two women were Sophie Webb and Julie Zickefoose, who didn't share a square with her husband Bill Thompson III. I suspect that if Louise had wanted to have her own square, she could have. It would be hard to argue that birding is gender balanced, but there are many aspects to the equation that can't be neatly explained by simple sexism. Assigning the blame for all aspects of this imbalance to sexism defeats the purpose of having a meaningful dialogue in my view, because over-simplified answers tend to end discussions or at the very least drive away those who prefer to think a bit more critically. I have started out with multiple attempts to respond to this article, but each time deleted what I've written because there are so many variables that have gone into producing the current dynamic.

[Dave Irons]

Based on your first name, I'm going to guess that you are closer to my age (53) than the age of the "young boys club." Donna was a common girl's name when I was a kid, but like many of the popular names of my youth (Mary, Susan, Cheryl, Sally, Steve, Jim, Bill, and even Dave), it has fallen out of favor with young parents. I have three kids in their 20s and they tolerate doing things with me because I'm their dad. Otherwise, they do not share hobbies, outdoor activities, or general discretionary time with men or women who are old enough to be their parents. Of course these young people appear to be clique-ish and exclusionary to us. Why? Because that's what late-teens and young adults do. I used to be one of those "young boys." My birding contemporaries and I branded ourselves as the "young guard" in stark contrast to the "others" who made up the rival "old guard." It should be noted that some in the old guard were no more than 7-10 years older than us. These young guns avoid hanging with us for one simple reason...we are OLD. It has nothing to do with our gender. I can assure you that me and my mates of yore would have gleefully welcomed some like-aged female birding compatriots back in the day. Oddly, we couldn't find too many respectable young women who were clamoring to spend a long weekend bouncing down dusty backroads in a rank car full of 18-22 year-old guys who badly needed a shower. That said, it was precisely the competitiveness and synergy of those times that resulted in all of us in our core group (me, David Fix, Steve Heinl, Matt Hunter, Dennis Rogers and various others) honing our skills and becoming influential and leaders in our respective local birding communities. When I encounter today's birding young guard I often see young men and women birding together and more importantly working side-by-side on bird-related research projects. Perhaps the paradigm shift is farther along than we think.

[Deb Grove]

I am happy to say that I have never encountered this with the men of the State College Bird Club of Central PA. I guess these men are NOT threatened by women birders ans thus treat them with respect. Perhaps it may have something to do with being at an academic center as well as being a town where there are more transients, people coming and going. Beginners are also accepted and sincerely welcome on field trips.

[Kate StJohn]

Excellent, excellent article. Thank you for writing it!

Yes indeed there are more women birders than men. Yes indeed many women, myself included, take a wholistic approach and enjoy watching bird behavior more than ticking them off a list, though I do keep a list on every outing. I think the 'status' thing is related to who's in charge of determining status. Men are in charge so what they find important is what confers status.

In all my walks of life I have encountered dismissive men. It hurt more when I was young because our culture was worse (remember Anita Hill?) and I was less self-confident and it mattered more to me. (No one will ever again ask me, "Aren't you just going to get pregnant and leave this job?") I have lived through some big changes but they're not over yet. We need more. Birds, and the world, need a wholistic approach as the climate changes. Ultimately this will change who's "the tops" and who's in charge of birding status.

p.s. Most of the time I bird and hike alone for the solitude, the ability to watch birds at my own pace, the ease of scheduling, and the silence -- especially the silence. I was correctly afraid to do that when I was a young woman. Back then I experienced men making lewd comments on the street. No way was I going to hike alone.

[Madeline]

Edge,
I too started birding "late" and I have severe hearing loss. I now have Oticon hearing aids (Audigy group), which have 4 "programs", 2 have been tailored for me by the audiologist. It took many visits (free) and birding every day for me to learn what to ask him to modify. Not cheap but definitely worth every penny. Run Run to the nearest audiologist that offers free weekly visits to tailor the programs and is willing to let you be a member of the team. Don't settle for less!

[Chukar]

Birders aren't sexist, humans are sexist; birders aren't ageist, humans are ageist; birders don't form cliques, humans form cliques; birders don't compete, act superior, preen, condescend, and suspect others of innate inferiority, it's humans who do all those things.

These are fundamental, and fundamentally annoying (or infuriating) human characteristics, particularly when you are on the receiving end. It's good to point them out, as Ms. McDonald does: we need to remind ourselves and each other that we all possess these characteristics to one degree or another, and that our species will likely continue with them into the indefinite future. These human foibles and/or features aren't merely a matter of bad upbringing, but are largely "built-in" aspects of human nature. If we "learn" such behaviors at all, it's because we are predisposed to easily learn them, just as we are predisposed as young children to soak up a language or to get up on our hind legs and walk. So consciousness raising such as Ms. McDonald supplies is a necessary and unending task.

[Matthew]

Really interesting. We shouldn't be surprised that birding, or any part of a deeply sexist society, manifests sexism. I'm male and think the listing thing is akin to comparing you-know-what size, and I think a lot of woman recognize that and thus have no interest in the silly competition. Birding needs to be about birds and the habitats they live in, with all the treats therein, and not some pitiful egos. BTW, who wouldn't rather bird with women than with boys-of-all-ages who parade their a-social a-holeness consciously or unconsciously?