Article: 5 Reasons There Aren't More Women in Atheism

[Captain Colostomy]

Atheism is the lack of belief. Doesn't matter if you tell people about it. How does someone even quantify how many people don't believe in god? Find that odd. Some people talk about it when they become atheists, some people don't. I never did, even now, IRL I barely mention religion.

So less women have devoted their careers to this cause. What's the big deal about that?

Yeah... actually, maybe that women rarely devote their careers to it is a sign of restraint on the part of females.

Shoot, the idea that guys 'make a career of it' makes me think they have a wife/mommy doing the actual breadwinning. Heh...career atheist.

[Slave]

It could be. In fact it probably is a defining reason for at least some women with the potential to form careers out of popularizing atheism in the media. But I think this would be a fatal mistake to make given the age we live in now. Of course sexism is still rampant, from both sexes, and it is an unavoidable part of life. But to allow something so benign as your gender prevent you from pursuing whatever career you desire out of fear of judgement or dismissal by the opposite sex is just a shame. I am sure that Chrisopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris didn't care that they were males entering into their respective careers.

Perhaps it's time for women to just get on with it and stop using sexism, misogyny and patriarchy as an excuse to hide behind a veil of victimhood. Women are just as capable as men are in matters of intellectual pursuits. The only people holding them back are themselves. Having said this, I don't see why achieving the level of fame and recognition as that of the celebrities I mentioned above is important. Grassroots movements have countless unsung heroes that never achieve the limelight and they do more for their causes than a few figureheads can do. They all play a part, of course, but like a machine, no one part is more important than the other if they can't all work together towards the same goal.

I read a few interesting comments on various articles such as that in the OP and others I searched after reading it. There are many women in the comments sections speaking of their careers in atheism, and how they have been doing it for 10, 15, 20 years. They don't seem to complain about a lack of female atheist icons. Maybe because they're too busy working their butts off to notice.

[Red Celt]

So many flavours of bullshit wrapped up into a single article.

Atheism: the lack of belief / belief in the lack of god(s).

That's it. It doesn't have, nor need leaders. The whole fucking point about atheism is that it isn't a lead-ideal. Do we need leaders of amorality, or apoliticalism too? I'm so sick of the number of morons that I have to share this planet with. Atheists and theists alike.

As for female atheists... the number of females who are atheists isn't necessarily indicative of the number of female atheists who give enough of a fuck to make it a key point of their online lives. I know plenty of atheist females (whether family or friends) who have been nowhere near online atheism. Perhaps it's more of a male thing... much as more males tend to be interested in trainspotting. Who knows? Who cares?

This is all about feminism trying to invade atheism. Vocal atheists tend to be fairly skeptical, too, or embrace scientific reasoning. As such, when looking at this feminist invasion, they're saying "hold the fuck up" and making life much more difficult for this narrow-minded self-interested group of extremists to take a significant hold. But that doesn't stop them trying.

Here's a very short breakdown of the "reasons" for Women In Secularism:-

1) Gender-neutral atheistic conferences (open to all) exist.
2) Feminist warriors (who nobody knows) want to be known.
3) They complain about sexist behaviour (with zero evidence, which doesn't go down well with most skeptics)
4) Claims are then made that the conferences are unfriendly towards females.
5) Many online arguments ensue.
6) Female-only conferences are then formed.
7) Unknown feminist warriors are now famous. And they want to keep it that way.

So... a once gender-neutral conference system that had no recognisable (or reported with any shred of evidence) problem with sexism (other than exists in society at large) is now divided into MF conferences and F conferences.

Division rules. Fuck egalitarianism. Fuck humanism. Feminism yay!

No.

Fuck feminism and fuck all of the morons who buy into all of the shit that's been thrown our way.

[Faith No More]

Well, her example of sexism in the skeptic community was a link to Rebecca Watson's evlevator fiasco. While I don't doubt there is sexism within that community, it's hard to take seriously the idea that it is an important issue to be addressed when the women advocating for such are citing examples of being asked to go back to a hotel room for coffee in an elevator as proof.

[Kayenneh]

Women are just as capable as men are in matters of intellectual pursuits. The only people holding them back are themselves

This! Sure, there is most probably some women (and actually men, for that matter), who have been bullied into submission, but I am of the opinion that shifting the blame onto others is a cop-out. Everyone meets resistance at some point of their lives, regardless of gender.

Nah, I'm sorry, but the article smells like A+ bullshit to me.

[Creed of Heresy]

First, women are more devout because they have to be. Women’s religiosity is directly related to economic security. The lack of a social safety net means that women, who are still responsible for the bulk of elder and child care, often need to rely on religious organizations to support themselves and their families.

I started calling "Bullshit!" right here and immediately lost interest in reading any further. The writer clearly makes unfounded presuppositions. Women are not fucking helpless little dolls that without a rich husband cannot fend for themselves, and in fact given how many single mothers there are out there powering on and doing what they do and succeeding at it, I'd say that a woman left to fend for herself will do just as well as a man left to do the exact same thing.

Then I read this.

Second, sexism is real and has an effect on women’s participation and leadership within the atheist community. Rape jokes and sexual harassment, as penalties and tools to silence women, exist in atheist and secular groups as well as religious ones.

Who the fuck wrote this, Atheism+?? Atheist groups? What fucking atheist groups? Writer does not cite sources, so I'm going to assume this is also a presupposition. Secular organizations? Well, there's American Atheists, and in my time with them I sure as fuck haven't seen much, if any, sexual harassment (and then it was done in mutual jest as opposed to creepy advances and the other saying "no"), and I sure as FUCK don't see rape jokes in atheist groups as much as I do in ones that are largely comprised of religious or semi/pseudo-religious groups. If by secular the poster means like Xbox Live or internet gaming, yeah, sure, because there are terms that exist involving "rape" typically meaning the unmitigated annihilation of opposition, but that's a fucking gaming community. SOURCES OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Third, men of all ideological persuasions are overrepresented in media — why should atheists be any different? There are prominent, activist secular and atheist women in the United States.

Yes. We're over-represented. That's why there's dozens of shows out there that are expressly focused on female protagonists, right? Weeds is the first show that pops into my mind but there are others. But since the writer provides no sources other than conjecture, then I will provide no further sources and instead conjecture that the writer is a butt-hurt feminazi who is just mad that her attempts to sell novels have come up short because she's a dreadful writer with a terrible grasp on the technical usage of the English language, which this article clearly demonstrates.

I didn't read any more. This article is full of whiny, unfounded, hysterical "THE UTERUS IS BEING OPPRESSED" shrieking and in many cases merely puts women down rather than empowers them. It bitches and moans and pisses about and cries about the plight of women in atheism but doesn't actually make any suggestions. It paints women as inferior and being PUT DOWN BY THE MAA-YUUUN without providing any examples, and provides NO solutions or answers other than to bitch and whine.

That's the article, really. Bitching and whining and sobbing and bitching some more. Claiming to elucidate wrongs being made and then doing nothing to even SUGGEST possible means of solving those issues is just whining. Cry me a fucking river.

Now I feel the urge to go finding links on these problems from articles that actually posit solutions, just to show the writer how it's done.

[rexbeccarox]

Now I feel the urge to go finding links on these problems from articles that actually posit solutions, just to show the writer how it's done.

DO IT! I want to see you take 'em down!

[ITChick]

Meh. There are sexists atheist.... Off course there are. In my experience they tend to be much fewer than the sexist religious foks.

Making a sexist joke <> being a sexist. It actually shows that you find the idea so redicilous that you can joke about it.

[Michael Schubert]

Interesting article, but I'm not sure I agree with it one hundred percent.

Women and Atheism

Some points might be valid, but it's hard for me to relate. I think it's because I've never really given a crap about gender "roles", so to speak.

Rebecca Watson made a great speech at Skepchick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W014KhaRtik

[Red Celt]

Rebecca Watson made a great speech at Skepchick.

Really? You should have linked it. What you actually linked was 4 panelists talking about atheism, with 1 of them talking about feminism, instead.