Timkins,lighten up.I'm just having ago at the whole stupid argument.Women are good at multi tasking and men are good at doggedly pursueing a problem to the end.Our minds are wired differently both intellectually and emotionally.As David said," it's horses for courses," and there is no one sterotype of either sex that best fits any situation.Think tanks are only effective if the participants have real life experiences in the fields they are exploring.I think male and female complement each other and being male think that most women are pretty exciting to be around in an intellectual,emotional and physical sense.

Arjay,
I would mostly agree. I have worked with many different teams or groups of people, and most of the males I have worked with have had little opposition with having women on the teams. However it is people like the Professor who are now coming the “heavy”.

As an academic, she would readily know of the innumerable number of women's organisations in Australia that exclude men, and “The National Committee of Women in International Security Australia “ (which she is the chairwoman of) would be just one of those groups. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of others.

But the Professor finds a group that has currently fewer women in it such as the Lowy Institute, makes inferences about that group, tries to extrapolate it to make it seem that it is representative of all groups, makes a series of negative unsubstantiated comments about males, turns a blind eye to all the women’s organisations that exclude men on the basis of gender etc, etc, etc.

As well as that she should be abiding by the Australia Public Service Code of Conduct and Set of Values http://www.apsc.gov.au/conduct/

The Bureacratic Head of Planning in NSW has been held by women for over 10 years - some situations/problems can't be overcome, irrespective of gender, no matter how bright or meritorious your selection may be.

Having worked for the defence department for about ten years I can assure you that its not sexist.

It is totally blind to ALL talent, completely fails to appreciate how good existing staff members are, hires new, and often totally inept staff from outside rhather than promote what its got, and in general, treats everybody like dirt. Regardless of gender.