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Female-free speaker list causes PHP show to collapse when diversity-oriented devs jump ship
Under the heading, "Diversity Matters!" the website for the PHP Central Europe developer conference (PHP.CE) says, "PHP Central Europe Conference is committed to creating a conference that is as inclusive as possible."
Over the weekend, organizers of the conference, which had been scheduled for October 4-6 in Dresden, Germany, ended the event evermore after two scheduled speakers issued public statements that they would not be attending this year, citing concerns about the lack of diversity.
PHP.CE on Saturday posted a note on its website, stating "The conference has been cancelled and won't be continued*. Sorry for the inconvenience."
The asterisk points to three online posts as the reason for the decision. The first, a July 17 Tweet from Karl Hughes, CTO of educational consultancy The Graide Network, chastises the conference for a speaker list made up entirely of white men.
You can see how it was in 2018, including the list of speakers, presentation schedule, and a 9m41s "after-movie".
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday August 28 2019, @12:57PM (1 child)
The truth you seem to be working very hard to be oblivious to is this...
...which actually represents reality, whereas...
...is actually bullshit.
The problem — and certainly there is a problem — is both that the first premise is subsumed by actual unjust prejudices of various kinds, which we would be considerably better off without, and that the second premise represents a myopic and foolish attempt to remedy those prejudices using statistical parity where the problem isn't a result of, or represented by, statistical parity in the first place.
--
The gene pool is shallow. And polluted.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 28 2019, @04:09PM
Yes, but when you have people who express, "There is no problem, see! NO PROBLEM! NOOOOO PROBLEM!" then it is time to take some actions to fix the problems that many (most) do their damndest to deny or suppress. Or at least call attention to the fact that this is not true.
And yes, most places you expect some degree of statistical parity. If there is not parity, then there is a reason to question why parity is not existing and do actual research. Not jump to gender-based stereotype conclusions which is where this particular subthread began and why I chose to respond to it specifically. Flip ten heads in a row and sure you may just have gotten that lucky, but it is more than worth being suspicious that something odd is happening. Flip 24 hours worth of coins and get nothing but heads one might well question what is going on. And no, I won't buy arguments that women just aren't of quality or don't want to do presentations.
Is that what happened here? Not necessarily. Maybe it's just 10 heads in a row. Maybe nobody close by had a topic and nobody wanted to travel. And sure, maybe it was just a fluke that there only happened to be one woman who submitted a presentation that wasn't what the conference was looking for. But it is foolish to just think that it is normal just to have flipped ten heads in a row and go on one's merry way. And again, it would be interesting to see how many presenters there were going to be to have an idea of just how large an anomaly this might have been.
There is also, of course, a whole universe of meaning in TFA not replicated here. But when questions of diversity are instantly and vehemently met with, "SNOWFLAKE!!!! SJW!!!!!!!!" Then I'd say there are reasons to question the system, not just the event. Or as TFA noted, if a couple of social media posts and pulled presentations can completely derail a conference, maybe there were other existing problems with that conference that now the misogynists want to conveniently blame on calls for diversity from two presenters. Or simply recognize that there might be systemic reasons why parity isn't occurring and actually take the time to investigate them to see if there is a remedy that will work - like not being so insecure that one jumps immediately to "Nope! They don't have any obstacles!" [except that other women have already reported attending a conference is a likely way to get hit on at best and assaulted at worst if you're female... well, 25% report harassment, anyway... but those who deny this will find reasons to deny that too [chicagobusiness.com]]