On 7/10/2015 5:14 PM, beliavsky--- via Python-list wrote:
On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 2:58:18 PM UTC-4, Chris Angelico wrote:
On Fri, Jul 10, 2015 at 10:01 PM, beliavsky--- via Python-list
<python-list@python.org> wrote:
On Friday, July 10, 2015 at 7:21:14 AM UTC-4, M.-A. Lemburg
wrote:
With Mandy Waite we have announced all keynotes for EuroPython
2015: 5 keynotes, 6 speakers, 4 women and 2 men.
Your mentioning these numbers makes me wonder if the organizing
committee is using gender preferences in its selection of keynote
speakers.
I am sure they did, just as most organizing committees have been doing
for decades, though in the opposite direction. However, 2 of the 4 women
are the founders of PyLadies, who I presume will talk about the
successes and lessons of their work. Eliminating them, we have a
balanced 2 and 2. About time.
If 80% of Python programmers and potential speakers at a Python
conference are male, the chance of 4 out 6 speakers being female is
fairly low if gender is ignored. Some people think gender diversity
in tech is so important that there should be gender preferences --
see for example this post by a Python blogger
http://ilovesymposia.com/2015/04/03/calling-out-scipy-on-diversity/ .
It is a real fact that some members of the tech community have tried to
make people with female bodies feel unwelcome. (Hardly unique, the same
is true of the academic community, for instance.) I strongly feel that
all Python programmers who respect others should be respected and welcome.
It is plausible that the organizers preferred female keynote
speakers.
Assume so and don't go if it bothers you. Let us hope that this is a
non-issue within a decade.
Can the OP comment on this?
Mark has better things to do, like continuing preparing for the conference.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
--
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