American Physical Society drops the W for women in physics conference branding

[HelenaRavenclaw]

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse with women being replaced by womxn or women*, the asterisk denoting "minority gender identities". American Physical Society (APS) has decided to change the acronym for Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics (originally CUWiP) to CU*iP, deleting the letter W entirely and replacing it by an asterisk! The conference name has been changed to "Conference for Undergraduate Women and Gender Minorities" as well. https://www.aps.org/initiatives/inclusion/gender-inclusive/undergraduate-women-minorities

So that's where we are these days...a conference dedicated to young female physicists in a heavily male-dominated field has simply erased women from its official acronym and branding (it'll be CU*iP on all flyers, pens, bags, etc. given to attendees) I thought stand-alone asterisks in common usage denote wildcards and the possibility of the space being filled by any letter? Move over women physicists...and let your spot be filled by any bloke who wants it!

If anyone wants to complain, their contact info is [email protected]

Thanks for the heads up, I'm currently not free to give it the attention it deserves but as soon as I am, I will be. FFS. 🤬

That’s shocking. What on earth is a ‘gender minority’ when it’s at home?

Well, whatever a 'gender minority' is - and I think I'm in one, or possiblyeven am one- let them organise their own CU*iPing conference!

I wonder if the APS would like to replace Lise Meitner, Chien-Shiung Wu, Rosalind Franklin, Nettie Stevens , Vere Rubin and others with an *.

Brilliant women have for century's been denied the recognition, the support, the funding, the pay, the prizes, for their outstanding contributions to science just because they were women, but only now in the Century Of The Fruitbat have they been reduced to just an *. 🤬

Looks like the British one is sticking with CUWiP+, so far, though they include the special male women. They've just had their conference at Birmingham Uni.

Edited to add the all important + 🙄

Looks like the + got added to the British UK & Ireland CUWiP when the conference was held in Limerick in 2024

I wonder if there is an equivalent conference for undergraduate women in biology (a quick google search didn't show one) -- would they also reduce women to a * in the name of "inclusivity"?

If anyone wants to complain, their contact info is [email protected]

I wonder how long the email address itself will last. Perhaps they haven't noticed.

Good point! I suppose they would have to change it to *@aps.org to be consistent? (not a valid email probably)

So they keep the ‘i’ for ‘in’ but lose the W? Ffs, what are they thinking?

Well 49% of Americans are male, so a "gender minority" would be male I guess.