5 ms·
As of today, women can attend the Software Circus conference for free
- ferrantim 11y agoNice work Mark. I fully support your approach. I hope it's successful!
- mrmrcoleman 11y agoThanks Michael!
- dudul 11y agoI don't understand the rational for the free tickets. Are we saying that what's keeping women out of conferences is the price? I thought it was the unwelcoming atmosphere and sexist behaviors. If you have the CoC and work on creating a good ambiance, how is a free ticket meaningful? Even worse for the opposite: if the atmosphere is not welcoming, how is a free ticket making it any better? You get harassed but at least you save $200?
- sethvargo 11y agoHey there. You have a very valid point, but it looks like the conference does have a strict code of conduct and explains a bit more about their rationale for free tickets in the post http://softwarecircus.io/diversity/ http://softwarecircus.io/diversity/. I think the conference organizers are trying to eliminate any barriers that would limit women or other unprivileged groups from attending, some of which might be financial.
- mrmrcoleman 11y agoThat's a much more succinct version of what I was trying to say Seth. Thanks.
- mrmrcoleman 11y agoHey dudul, Thanks for your feedback. You mentioned ambiance and I think that's the correct thing to focus on. You can find out Code of Conduct here: http://softwarecircus.io/code-of-conduct/ http://softwarecircus.io/code-of-conduct/ That's one way that we're trying to create the right ambiance. The free tickets are another attempt at the same goal. If we increase the number of female attendees, the chance of an unwelcoming ambiance for female attendees is further decreased. You asked whether or not the ticket price was keeping female attendees away and that's an interesting question. We've been in discussions with various other conferences and it seems that there is evidence to suggest that women can earn less in tech than their male counterparts. By removing money as a blocker for potential attendance, we hope to address this problem too. If you have any suggestions for creating the right ambiance at the conference, we'd love to hear them as we mentioned in the blog post: http://softwarecircus.eu/diversity/ http://softwarecircus.eu/diversity/ Thanks.
- duarte_vasco 11y agoGreat way to support the development of our profession! Awesome initiative.
- mrmrcoleman 11y agoThank you Vasco.