Women and Security

Last night, today and tomorrow, I will be the outlier for a change.  Women in International Security-Canada is holding a conference in Ottawa, and I am serving as a discussant.  Which means that there are a whole bunch of women doing interesting work in various areas of international security and a few random males. 

It was kind of funky to look around last night at the reception at the US Embassy (my first time in the Ottawa embassy), which is co-sponsoring the event, and notice how much of a minority I was.  Even more so then when I taught classes at McGill.

Given the sexism that had been rampant in the Security studies community and that some still long for the days of the old boys network, I do think that facilitating networking among the women in this area makes sense.  I have also been a huge fan of the work women have been doing in this area.

Anyhow, I look forward to today's and tomorrow's conversations.  I will try to report in my blog tomorrow what I have learned.