You're discounting the second half of the sentence you quoted: > but barring that, selfish as it may sound, if I could have substituted all the plain-clothes

You're discounting the second half of the sentence you quoted: > but barring that, selfish as it may sound, if I could have substituted all the plain-clothes promoters for traditional booth babes, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Of course, progress isn't a panacea, but I'd take progress over the "old days," myself. I've personally seen the number of confidently technical women at conferences increase year over year for the past decade (please note, I'm not saying that the status quo is optimal, just that, in my experience, there _has_ been progress). Moreover, the _title_ of the piece concludes with "Thanks But You sort of Made It Worse" which contradicts what you said.