For what feels like forever, smart women in tech have been talking and writing about their frustration with the fact that women are so often underrepresented at tech conferences. Yes, it's true, women are underrepresented in the computing fields, as well...but that number tends to be in the 20-30% range, which is *far* below what most tech conferences sport in their speaker lineups.
But it's not just women who have been pointing this out, and explaining why this is a bad thing not just for the women, but for the industry as a whole.
Given that this argument has broken out anew on Twitter over LessConf 3010, it seemed worth gathering up some of my favorite posts by men on this topic and providing a set of links back to all of them. Everything that Anil, Jason, and Chris said in these posts apply to today's conferences, and I can only hope that the organizers of LessConf will stop lashing out defensively (which is nothing new...see this post by Blogher co-founder Elisa Camahort, or this Geek Feminism wiki post on Silencing Tactics), and instead think about how they might make different choices if they're ever involved in organizing a conference again.
I'm highlighting the posts by these men because I think they provide a view into the issue that can't be dismissed as a function of "sour grapes"--there are far more posts, as or more compelling, written by women. I'll try to spend some time this weekend collecting and annotating those. But as Chris Messina says in the last post I link to here:
"Why should it only be women who raise their voices on this issue? This isn't just "their" problem. This is all of our problem, and each of us has something to do about it, or knows someone who should be given an audience but has yet to be discovered."
Anil Dash:
- The Old Boys Club is for Losers (02/07)
- "That brings me to my final point, which I'll explain more in my next post: Those of you who are defending this status quo are defending a culture of failure."
- The Essentials of Web 2.0 Your Event Doesn't Cover (02/07)
- "But in 15 minutes, I was able to construct a set of theoretical sessions that you won't see at events that specifically exclude women, or that make sure not to reach out to them."
Jason Kottke:
- Gender Diversity at Web Conferences (02/07)
- "From this list, it seems to me that either the above concerns are not getting through to conference organizers or that gender diversity doesn't matter as much to conference organizers as they publicly say it does."
Chris Messina:
- The Future of White Boy Clubs (09/06)
- "So let me be bold: the future of the white boy club is in inclusivity one-upmanship. Not just because it benefits everybody, but because it benefits us. We simply can't stay hidden in our isolated little geek enclaves and plead ignorance or expect things to get better by themselves; there's too much at stake, too much to gain and too many interesting voices out in that great bazaar that we're missing out on that we must do more to encourage, support and welcome them where in the past we have failed."
- Future of White Boys' Clubs Redux #fowaspeak (02/09)
- "The question is no longer "where are all the women?" -- it's why the hell aren't white men making sure that women are up on stage telling their story and sharing the insights that they uniquely can provide!
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