UPDATE 2014/17/01 1:54pm NZDT:

The content of the page has now been updated for the better, although its title still says “Telescopes for astronomy or land viewing; a great gift for him”.

Over the summer holidays, for the first time ever I took some binoculars outside on a clear night and looked up at the sky. I had some idea of what I could expect to see, but still the number of stars I could see surprised me. It was marvellous and elating, and settled my resolve to (finally) take up amateur astronomy as a hobby instead of just an idle interest. As a first step, I plan to buy a telescope. Earlier today, I searched online to see what was available and was very disappointed by something that I found.

The New Zealand website telescopes.net.nz sells telescopes, which is all well and good, but they have decided to market them as a “gift for him”. The title of the page is “Telescopes for astronomy or land viewing; a great gift for him.”, and the content advertises them like this:

A telescope makes the perfect Christmas gift for him and we have picked the best brands available in the market today. Whether you want a gift for your Dad, the man in your life or you just want to indulge yourself, you will find it here.

I was thoroughly disappointed and, horribly, not particularly shocked to see such sexism regarding this. As a white straight male, I have tremendous privilege; my male privilege would let me simply ignore this if I wanted to, as it’s not an affront to me. However, I follow various fantastic (I cannot stress that enough) female astronomers, astrophysicists, and astronauts through Twitter and blogs, and have long been aware of the existence of sexism in STEM fields. In fields such as astronomy, there is a large gender gap – these fields are dominated (in terms of numbers) by men – and this is only made worse by commonplace sexist attitudes. Even if some of this behaviour is entirely innocent, it still does active harm by excluding women and girls from astronomy. Although my privilege gives me the option to ignore this, I consciously choose to be a feminist and fight these attitudes. Telescopes are for everyone.

I shared this page on Twitter, and the great Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) sent them an email. Seeing this, I also sent an email to telescopes.net.nz, which I include in full below, urging them to change the content of their website and the attitude from which it sprang. If you would like to do the same, you can contact them at staff@telescopes.net.nz. Here is the email I sent them:

Dear Telescopes New Zealand,

I’m interested in amateur astronomy, having for the first time viewed the night sky through binoculars over the summer holidays and marvelled at how many stars I could see. I decided that in the new year, I would like to buy a telescope and take up amateur astronomy as a hobby. I found your website when searching for a telescope online.

However, when I came upon your telescopes page I was very disappointed to see it advertised telescopes as a “gift for him”, casually excluding all the women and girls that are interested in astronomy. Unfortunately, women already face significant sexism in STEM fields, including astronomy. Attitudes such as the one shown on your website only encourage this hostile environment, and harm astronomy as a whole.

I hope that you will revise the content of your website. I’m sure you can see that its current content, however innocent your intentions may have been, contributes to a harmful atmosphere of exclusion. Taking a more positive attitude toward women in astronomy will only benefit yourselves, amateur astronomers, and the field of astronomy itself.

Sincerely,
Mark Hanna

I’ve set up a change detection service monitoring the page, and hope to see it change for the better soon. If it doesn’t then, needless to say, I certainly won’t be buying my telescope from telescopes.net.nz.