Co-Founder Micah Sifry on 57% Women at Personal Democracy Forum 2016
Personal Democracy Forum’s inclusion of women is getting to be… "normal."
Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) Co-Founder Micah Sifry: "It is great to be in the GenderAvenger Hall of Fame for the third time, but honestly I would prefer to be known as in the Hall of Normal!"
PDF is "the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology's impact on politics, government, and society." This annual event kicks off this week on June 9th and continues its Hall of Fame streak with 57% women speakers! This is the third year that PDF has had a gender-balanced speaker ratio.
"Many great women in tech and politics are speaking at PDF 2016," says Sifry:
In fact, of our 135 confirmed speakers 77 identify as women and 19 of our 36 main hall presenters are women. We have no all-male panels.
For years, thanks to being pushed by our friends in the community (you know who you are!), we have strived to curate a truly balanced and diverse group of speakers. I think PDF 2011 was the first time where we actually hit the parity mark of 47% women, but this is the first year where we are genuinely proud to say we have a majority of women speakers.
As a feminist, I know there is much more that we must do to achieve real equity, but it is clear to me that there can be no excuse for putting together a tech conference and not having a balanced and diverse group of speakers. Plus it makes conferences so much better!
YES! We are ready for the day when Hall of Fame status is the norm for all conferences. Until then, help us spread the word about PDF’s Hall of Fame streak and inspire other conferences to follow their lead.
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#PDF16 calls this "Hall of Normal": 57% women speakers. No all-male panels. 3rd year in #genderavenger #HallofFame! http://www.genderavenger.com/blog/57-percent-women-speakers-personal-democracy-forum
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