Re: Thinking of organising a special mini-debconf

['lesleyb' <lesleyb@herlug.org.uk>]

On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 08:33:23PM +0200, Margarita Manterola wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 5:47 PM, Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@debian.org> wrote:
<snip>
> 
> > - at each conference edition, communicate about the percentage of women
> >   speakers *at* the conference *and* on official project media, e.g.:
> >   "this year we have X% women speakers, that's an increase of +Y% over
> >   last year"
> 
> This is good, but we definitely need to actively recruit more female
> speakers, otherwise the Y% might not be so nice.

I prefer authenticity to nice.  I see no problem in being absolutely honest
about the number of women speaking at any DebConf.  In fact I would say it is
paramount to be honest, so that we can all face how good/bad the figures are.

Any attempt to rectify the situation in future DebConf's places a huge burden
on those women who are at a DebConf, where the program isn't finalised
beforehand, who suddenly get the proposal they should speak.  If anything would
have me howling and hoping for the ground to open up and swallow me up, room
that might just about be the thing to do it.

I hate the fact we haven't got past the problem surrounding female speakers at
any conference let alone a DebConf.  Plus I'd hate the fact that any
presentation any of us might give at any conference is highlighted not for any
technical or major contribution merit but purely on gender.

It would be great to see some heavyweight stuff coming from women in a DebConf
or a d-w miniConf.  

Kind Regards

Lesley