Distributive Justice and epistemic inclusiveness, primarily a male thing (I kid you not)

(To my Russian friends) I had kind of decided to keep quiet about this issue for a few weeks. But I couldn't resist this headline given the following two conferences:

1. Conference on Distributive Justice in Health, at the Centre for Humanistic Studies, University of Minho (CEHUM), Braga the 6th and 7th of October 2011. 11 invited speakers. Possibly one or two not male.

2.Copenhagen Conference on Epistemic Inclusiveness and Trust; 3RD COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE IN EPISTEMOLOGY, THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, AUGUST 15-17, 2011. Five invited speakers; all male.

In both cases significant Euros are being spent to fly in the boys. No doubt some irate folk will write me (or my friends) that some women were invited, but declined, or are still welcome as a contributing paper. No doubt others will note that there are larger issues in the discipline with gender balance. But this is not mere symbolism. These conferences exhibit how power (and networks of power) works in our discipline. If one tracks how money is spent then there is no other conclusion that the discipline favors men. So, spare me your outrage and your noble but fruitless intentions, and start thinking about creative ways how you can be part of the solution (which will require a lot of hard work for all of us)!