I think people need people from a background close to them to really feel like 'yeah, that could be me on stage'. I don't think that's good or bad, just how it is.
I don't think people need someone with a relatable trait to believe they can also accomplish audacious goals. However, I am convinced that it provides disproportionately more inspiration.
Is it easier for people to identify with gender than ethnicity?
Let's say a conference has speakers and attendees that are predominantly white men. Should I relate because I'm a man even though I'm not white? Should a white woman relate because she's white even though she's not a man?
It just seems weird to discuss disproportionate representation through only one lens.
I think both. For some background to the following: I'm male, live in the UK, and am from Australia.
I've been inspired a book on id software and a Sarah Chipps talk on failures - both showing that with all the people who are well known for making something awesome, there are a bunch of things you never hear about they made that didn't work out. I relate to it because I've made a lot of stuff that doesn't work out. I'm not American (like the id guys), and I'm not female, but the story of struggle resonates with me.
I've been inspired by all the node people, because they were all just friendly people in 2011 and now it seems like they're all running node companies doing huge things. I feel inspired because they treated me like equals then, and I think I'd like to join them one day in having successful business.
I've been inspired by Xero, because I met their founder at a conference once, and he was a nice person from the same part of the world as me, and now Xero are huge, despite being from New Zealand (which is even more remote than Australia).
Maybe this is too idealistic, but I would hope that conference attendees could relate because they are interested in the subject of the conference. It's disturbing that in practice, being a bird of a feather is exclusively defined in demographic terms. I have very little in common with most other people of my demographics, especially as pertains to my interests.
I want disproportionate representation - by people who are interested in the subject and are not just there to sell something or whatever.
> I think people need people from a background close to them to really feel like 'yeah, that could be me on stage'.
I don't think people inherently do. I think that lots of people actually do, and that this is a socially taught and reinforced trait just as much as sexism and racism are (and, in fact, I think it, insofar as it operates on the basis of sex and race, is a form of sexism and racism -- as it is tied to the individual judging themselves primary by the same kind of attributes -- but, unlike more external sexism and racism, isn't actively combatted because its not seen as negative, even though, in addition to its direct harms, it may serve as a foundation for the more external forms of sexism and racism.)