But that’s exactly what I say! You are engaging in magical thinking. Wishing the problem to go away won’t make it so! Really not, that’s not how the world works

But that’s exactly what I say! You are engaging in magical thinking. Wishing the problem to go away won’t make it so! Really not, that’s not how the world works and that’s not how past oppression extends into the now. You have to care about this and think about this deeply. I also agree that quotas are a dirty and inelegant solution and I always love to hear alternate approaches (e.g. two-phase selection process including first a call for papers plus targeted outreach followed by a blind review phase), but the point is you have to think deeply about the problem and actually engage with it deeply. It’s a hard problem – just wishing it to go away won’t make it so. That’s magical thinking. You have to think about it more not less. Also, quotas, while a very dirty solution, are to my mind a hell of a lot better than status quo. But as I said, I’m sure it’s possible to do better than quotas – but not by just ignoring the problem.