[adonnjohn]

What a weird and frustrating circumstance to be in. It's definitely disappointing that the organizers could not work through this. I understand that women candidates may be disproportionately hard to line up, but is there any evidence that the promoters put in the extra effort to find them? More importantly, should they be obligated to do so in the first place when the aim of the conference is quality in technology: nothing more, nothing less? Optimizing for non-sex factors, you would expect the selected lineup to more or less match the proportions of notable men and women in the space. If that holds true, then the issue is much further up the line in this case: there are still not enough women in technology. Do we cancel future events solely on this premise? Seems like a terrible idea to me.

[gshdg]

Except those proportions don’t hold true.

[adonnjohn]

Agreed. And as a result, more information is needed on why that turned out to be the case.

[shkkmo]

> Optimizing for non-sex factors, you would expect the selected lineup to more or less match the proportions of notable men and women in the space. If that holds true, then the issue is much further up the line in this case

Except that is not the case. There are disproportionately more male speakers than there are male PHP developers.

> Do we cancel future events solely on this premise? Seems like a terrible idea to me.

The events were not directly canceled due to a lack of diversity, but due to a complete lack of effort to solicit a diverse range of submissions.

The organizers have committed to making an effort in future years.

[sp332]

the conference is quality in technology: nothing more, nothing less

There are things in life more important than tech conferences. Quality in tech should not override human rights, civil rights, people's health and relationships, etc. This could be a long list, tech isn't even close to the top.

The only number I've seen for this conference is one woman submitter out of 250, which isn't even close to matching the proportions of the community.

[adonnjohn]

Sorry for my lack of clarity. I believe that the ratios should align for sure, and I believe that if they don't, that due diligence wasn't done, potentially with some direct or indirect form of prejudice (which cannot be discerned without knowing the details of how recruitment efforts took place). I also don't mean to derail the importance of human rights or equality on any particular playing field, I literally just meant that tech is what people are going there to discuss and learn about. While human rights and reflecting community proportions is certainly a part of it, I highly doubt that the intent of any tech conference is to primarily give keynotes on human rights.

[sp332]

Well I could have been clearer too. Under the hyperbole, I meant that working to make sure women are treated equally to men might be more important than having a tech conference. As Mark Baker put it, "Diversity matters more to me than speaking."

[mpweiher]

Except there is no evidence here that women are treated unequally.

Well, that isn't actually true: the evidence is overwhelming that women are treated preferentially, and that this preferential treatment is now not just accepted, but actually so expected that not giving out this preferential treatment is seen as hostile.

Which is quite incredible, when you think about it.