> This is something I discussed with lots of people in Europe.
> Where are all the women? Why don't they like CPs as much as us men? I was
> told it's pretty much the same in other plants societies, with only a
> minority of women. Why do they seem to only *like* plants, but do not
> cultivate them obsessively like men?
>
All:
In my own personal opinion, the women are out there. I for one am not as
vocal on the listserver about these plants. Now I will grant
you that I do not have the knowledge that others have, but by the same
token, I have the desire to learn more about the plants. Personally, I enjoy
growing the small but varied assortment that I have, sharing the little
bit of knowledge that I have with others that don't and are interested,
and especially incorporating these extremely interesting plants into my
future classroom, where the children of tomorrow can learn about plants
that most people don't know about. Frankly, that may be the problem.
The ignorance on the subject by the vast majority of people may be
excluding those women (and men) that in their experiences in life have
never run across ANYONE who knows ANYTHING about them. Therefore, they
remain a mystery unless someone does a great deal of research. As a
parting thought, keep in mind where society has kept women for the majority
of history. We certainly weren't allowed to go out exploring and tromping
through bogs to find cool plants! (Which I have actually done - This past
summer my boyfriend and I travelled through North and South Carolina
photographing CP after the Northeastern CP Convention. VFT's in
the wild are really beautiful!!) Slowly, but surely, we are becoming
knowledgeable and more interested.
Take care and keep on growing,
Krissy Mott