Disproportionate representation is fair (only) if the criteria of discrimination is justifiable.
An obtuse example: Gifted & hardworking athletes are disproportionally over-represented at the olympics, vice gifted + lazy, non-gifted + lazy, and non-gifted + hardworking ones.
In either case, how is what the woman did with this conference a good thing? On the one hand, she categorized people as "male or female" and on the other she created a situation where there were a higher proportion of women speaking at the conference than were even in the field.
No, I am talking about the disproportionate representation at the conference itself, because the field itself is what lacks diversity. Fix the diversity problem within the field, and if after that the conferences lack diversity, we can fix that problem too.
Disproportionate representation is fair (only) if the criteria of discrimination is justifiable.
An obtuse example: Gifted & hardworking athletes are disproportionally over-represented at the olympics, vice gifted + lazy, non-gifted + lazy, and non-gifted + hardworking ones.