> I find it surprising that people here are defending an all-male speaker line up at a conference as being ok because "it's just about tech".
Not because "it's about tech", but because selecting speakers based on their sex would be ... well ... sexist?!
> Further, if your tech group isn't actively working to bring people from other backgrounds into it then it becomes an echo chamber.
So, what exactly do you know about the backgrounds of any of the other speakers, other than that they are male and 'white'? Have you read their CVs? You know how they got into php, why they choose IT/CS, what drives them? Or what their parents went through to pave way for their children? Did they fight in Kosovo? Did their parents get detained while trying to leave East Germany? Are they refugees from any of the numerous inner-European conflicts? Or if their grandparents have been killed in WWII?
Please, learn that Europe is not the US of A. Diversity in Europe does not related to skin color or sex. People can look somewhat similar and still have entirely different backgrounds.
> Echo chambers are the worst, because people don't realise that's what they are in.
I'll just leave your own words here for you to read again.
Not because "it's about tech", but because selecting speakers based on their sex would be ... well ... sexist?!
> Further, if your tech group isn't actively working to bring people from other backgrounds into it then it becomes an echo chamber.
So, what exactly do you know about the backgrounds of any of the other speakers, other than that they are male and 'white'? Have you read their CVs? You know how they got into php, why they choose IT/CS, what drives them? Or what their parents went through to pave way for their children? Did they fight in Kosovo? Did their parents get detained while trying to leave East Germany? Are they refugees from any of the numerous inner-European conflicts? Or if their grandparents have been killed in WWII?
Please, learn that Europe is not the US of A. Diversity in Europe does not related to skin color or sex. People can look somewhat similar and still have entirely different backgrounds.
> Echo chambers are the worst, because people don't realise that's what they are in.
I'll just leave your own words here for you to read again.