New Glass Ceiling?

I was researching the winners of the Benjamin and Naomi Wishnietsky Champions of Champions Award given at the annual APS Stamp Show for the best exhibit from the 30+ APS accredited shows here in the United States of America and discovered that only two women have been awarded this since its inception over 45 years ago. And there has been no female winner since 1980. Is there a new glass ceiling that women need to break? I'll leave it to you to find who the two women were.

Glenn Estus

I think that Lynn Warm Griffiths might have been one of them. Can't think of who the other was. It started in 1968 I think and the first winner was Robert Cunliff's amazing exhibit of First Issue Revenues. I saw it at the first COC which I think was in Rochester/NY(?). (Somewhere in NY!).

Sure enough Bill, it was in Rochester.
http://www.rpastamps.org/archives/1...owawards.jpg

Here is a link with pic of attendees.
http://www.rpastamps.org/archives/1...ttendees.jpg

It does seem to be a fact that women are less active in the hobby than men. I think using the term Glass Cieling might be a bit more dramatic than might be called for. Everyone says that you don't have to spend lots of money to have a really good exhibit, but it seems in every field of philately there is always that one or three rare items that would always be out of my price range that would be expected in an exhibit. It has been a few years in the making but I am planning a thematic exhibit which will be more about me having fun than winning an award.

Smauggie:

A good headline catches the reader's attention and draws them into the article. That's why I used "Glass Ceiling"!

Glenn Estus

There are a lot of disinguished phlatelists in that picture! Thanks for posting it. We did not attend much of the events at shows and, in fact, this was the first big show I ever attended, and the main reason we were there was to accompany and drive Maryette B. Lane from the show to visit a man named Worden who had a fabulous Black Jack collection she (and I) wanted to view. Which we did. I did manage to view Cunliffe's exhibit, which was absolutely stunning!

I do agree with smauggie that - especially back then - there were very few women exhibitors. Just look, for example, at how few women are in that picture! There were very few women (exept non-collecting wives) even in attendance at shows.

One other woman exhibtor I remember from back then was Rae Erenberg (last name could be misspelled) who had a great collection of United States Departmental Issues (Officials).

I wouldn't call it a glass ceiling either myself. We're a much smaller number than men as previously pointed out. Plus it seems that we're not exhibiting nearly as much to top it off. It also seems we women tend towards topical collecting in a more generalized way compared to specialized.

Interesting insight, BettyAnn.
Thanks for posting.

Stamp collecting also seems to have ethnic or cultural barriers as well. For instance, have Black collectors ever won a major award?

Asians and a few other non-European groups seem to collect and compete in exhibits, but Blacks not so much. In fact I don't know a Black collector. Does anyone else?

Don

Don, I've known only two. They were a friend of mine and her brother. I posed this questions ages ago in High School when I knew them and she mentioned noticing it as well. Her theory was that it's mostly modern black culture's need to dictate money and social influence above intellectual pursuits. Led to a wonderful conversation on stereotypes and social expectations, social standings.

I think we need to be careful not to confuse causality with coincidence. Our modern society has an annoying tendency to impute bias, racism, discrimination, etc. where it doesn't necessarily exist. The premise that females or minority members are automatically the "victims" of a glass ceiling or other prejudice makes for nice talking points and agendas, but if they don't exist in the exhibitor population in percentages matching the population as a whole, you cannot simply draw that conclusion.

As mentioned above, if women and/or minority groups don't participate in exhibiting (as a general rule), then the lack of awards is not only not surprising, but should be expected.

It would be akin to claiming that racism is the cause for blacks being undrrepresented in the roles of Stanley Cup winners or whites being underrepresented in the NBA hall of fame. Just because there are low numbers of one demographic or another does not automatically mean there is bias in play...

I remember reading about a group of Women Exhibitors who formed a club called "WE" or Women Exhibitors. There was an article about them in the APS if I remember correctly. The focus of the group was to encourage women in this area by mentoring, but I'm not sure if the group is still active. Does anyone have any current info about the group?

Here is a link to an old newsletter - http://www.aape.org/we/Newsletter_Vol_1-4.pdf

Very well said, Revenue.

I myself will always be a stamp collector and slowly struggling up the mountain to proper philatelist no matter what my sex is. My being a woman has nothing to do with anything in my collecting habits...well outside of taking breaks for housework and the such lol.

I personally don't exhibit because I don't yet have the knowledge needed to present, the budget to afford the pieces I'd like to, I don't yet specialize (tho I do find some specific areas pulling my attention of late) and I just don't have the time right now. I've never been excluded from any philatelic circles or shunned for what's between my legs. Really, I find other collectors far LESS concerned with political correctness for truly why do we need it? We're in a hobby (passion and addiction,really) that understands diversity and culture so why push it with societal pressure?

The current President and Vice President of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (AAPE)are both women. 'Nuff said.

I agree with that post completely, and with revcollector's observations. In fact, I am not aware of ANY current exhibit collection of a specialized subject (not topical), other than Janet Klug's Tonga collection. But let me hasten to add that I haven't studied the AAPE to try to find others, so there could be more I am not aware of. While there is indeed a women's exhibiting society/group, I think the vast majority are topical collectors.

I'm more curious how many exhibitors there are, any race, any gender, under 30. Or 40. Or 50. It seems to me that the last BIG influx of collectors was in the 1970s. That puts the youngest of that group at 55 or so.

I know there are younger collectors, including some here. However, not even close to as many as there have been in the past, let's say the 30s (FDR) to the 70s (Dag). It will be interesting to see what happens to the hobby when the last of the baby boomers are gone. Well, it would be interesting, but at a 54 year old tail end baby boomer, I might not see it. :)