[marquis]

I recently attended 2 birthday parties for young kids, one on a weekday and one on a Saturday afternoon. The first, was mostly mothers, immediate family and their kids. For the second, the couple went out of their way to make sure that men could come to the birthday party. They send out adult invites encouraging alcohol beverages to be brought, and called all their women friends and asked them firmly to bring their boyfriends. I brought mine, who was begrudgingly included because of his perception it would be full of kids and women but he ended up having a wonderful time talking to other men (as well as hanging out with kids and their toys and of course some classic kids party food). Is this discrimination on the couple's part to try and reach past a culture of birthday parties full of just mothers and their kids?

[betterunix]

See, the difference there is that the kids parents are already half men, half women. Professional technology workers are not half women, and unlike a child's birthday party, being invited to speak at a conference is a career-boosting event.

If disproportionate representation is not discriminatory, what exactly is it?

[jb17]

> Professional technology workers are not half women. > If disproportionate representation is not discriminatory, what exactly is it?

You seem to answer your own question.

[betterunix]

Hm...

51/49 ratio among the population -> 5/95 ratio in tech fields -> 50/50 ratio at tech conferences.

Problem solved? Or did we just skip solving the problem and direct the audience's attention to the sparkling fire?

[jb17]

OK.. It wasn't clear to me from what you said before that you even viewed disproportionate representation in tech as the problem. I agree with that.

However, as I said below, I think having tech conferences with women present might be more than just a trick to pretend that the problem is solved, but actually be a tiny part of the solution.

[marquis]

> the kids parents are already half men, half women.

Biologically yes, but there is a wide range of single/mixed parent families and I disagree that the similarities are far different in terms of the need to make an emotional call for attendance.

[betterunix]

So you are saying that this child's friends were mostly from single-parent homes? Are you denying that most of the child's friends had both a mother and a father?

Can you claim that the demographics here are even remotely close to the demographics among tech workers?

[marquis]

>Can you claim that the demographics here are even remotely close to the demographics among tech workers?

For voluntary attendance of a 2-year old's birthday? Yes, I'm claiming that the demographics are close, in the opposite.

I'd also like the add that the demographic of thinking people is equally balanced in terms of gender, and only culture tends to swing males and females different ways. I applaud the actions of Courtney to positively encourage women to present and thereby improve attendance levels by women.