The author embraces the fallacy that there are clear and objective "best" people to hire for a job or to invite to speak at a conference. Very rarely that may b

The author embraces the fallacy that there are clear and objective "best" people to hire for a job or to invite to speak at a conference. Very rarely that may be the case, but in general that is a false idea, and a poisonous one. It's an excuse for being lazy, and it continues the cycle of discrimination that keeps gender ratios so wildly skewed. There's value in the perspective from the outside, there's value in being challenged by new ideas, there's value in developing the next generation of top speakers and workers, there's value in taking a risk on someone new, there's value in working on new problems with people who've lived a different life than you have. In terms of conference speakers in particular, you send a message to your audience with your choice of speakers and panelists. You are saying "this is who we are". And if no one on the stage looks like me, I might start to think I'm not welcome as an audience member either.