Action Alert | Yays and Nays… Intersectional But Not Gender Balanced
We were so excited when we landed on the 2022 MIT FinTech Speakers and Moderators web page. The first two lines had outstanding intersectional gender representation, and we thought, “This may be it! The first GA Stamp of Approval for 2022!”. But as we scrolled down, we continued to tally man after man.
Of the 56 speakers and moderators we tallied, 61% were men, and 39% were women, with 21% of all speakers being women of color. Over half of the women speaking at MIT FinTech were women of color! And although we did not tally the racial breakdown of the men, we could see that the conference organizers paid great attention to who they invited to speak. For a technology and finance conference, that’s a big deal.
GenderAvengers are motivated by the question, “Where are the women?”. We want to make sure that as we think about equity and push for diverse experts, we continue to consciously push for the intersectional representation of women and nonbinary folks in public dialogue.
Student volunteers from the MIT Sloan School of Management organized the MIT FinTech conference. We applaud these students for their exceptional attention to racial diversity across gender. 🔥YES! Keep that up! We challenge them to work on gender balance for 2023 because we want to give out these stamps, ya’ll!
Community Action - Time to Take Action - 🧰 Let’s Fix This, Together
We know that conference and event planning can be challenging, and oversight is often inevitable. Have you shared our checklist - 5 Tips for Conference Organizers? Spread the love and learning!
Know a conference that deserves a GA Stamp Of Approval for gender balance? Nominate them!
Light the Flame with Inspiring Reads
How can we challenge ideas about gender and authority so that women can claim their place at the table, take their time at the mic, or rise to power and influence? We hope this week’s reads empower and inspire your advocacy and thinking.
The Winter Olympics have had their share of drama this year. With 45.4% of competing athletes being women, there’s much to celebrate, but so many other alarming stories have emerged too. Women are the stars (and the victims) of the Beijing Olympics.
New America's New Models of Policy Change Initiative and Women of Color Advancing Peace, Security, and Conflict Transformation (WCAPS) present a set of eight essays exploring what a U.S. national security strategy focused on racial equity, and justice could look like at home and abroad.
Where are the women on the editorial boards of the top 50 globally respected journals of psychology and neuroscience?! An editorial analysis finds that more than 50% of editors were male for 76% of the reviewed psychology journals and 88% of the reviewed neuroscience journals.
The lack of access to formal financing institutions and collateral for loans often keeps women from entrepreneurship opportunities. Learn how South Asia Regional Trade Facilitation Program (SARTFP) is a pioneering trust fund under the World Bank to support women’s economic empowerment through trade.
Japan’s academic world was shaken in 2018 by revelations that several medical schools had deliberately marked down female candidates. Now, more women outperform men in Japanese medical school entrance exams for the first time since universities admitted to intentionally failing female applicants.
Psst… Sharing is caring! If you enjoy our weekly love letter to gender equality, pass it on to a friend, colleague, organization, or event planner you know!
📣🚨We love to see the inclusion of women of color at conferences, but we’d love to see a gender-balanced event, too. Just a few more women and @MITFinTech would have earned a #GAStampOfApproval! 🥲