[eDebate] Women's Debate Institute/Women's participation

[Kelly Young]

Hello,

I was just reading a fairly interesting article on diversity in debate in the Winter 2004 Argumentation and Advocacy by Mike Allen, Mary Trejo, Michael Bartanen, Anthony Schroeder, and Tammie Ulrich. If you are interested in the subject, I suggest reading it.

Because I have a dissertation that demands my attention far more right now than EDEBATE, I will just mention a couple of results from the study. Given that I check EDEBATE archives anymore about once a week, I wouldn't count on me to respond to any emails on the subject.

However, the study indicates that women are fairly well represented in forensics. In policy debate, 54% of members are female; in IE, the percentage is 58%; in mock trial, the percentage is 51%.

I realize that these numbers simply reflect the number of women participating and speak in no way to success levels or other problems that might exist. But in terms of sheer participation, numbers are fairly close. I also want to clearly point out that I don't think this refutes the need for a Women's Debate Institute.

I have no way to speak of the claim that participation was much higher in the previous decades.

Additionally, the article offers a few reasons as to why participation rates may fluctuate. I won't post them here, because y'all can read for yourselves.

Okay, now that I have included enough caveats and preempts, I can safely retreat to my dissertation writing. 

Kelly Young
Wayne State University

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