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Encouraging Diversity At Tech Events
Recent years have seen a push for more inclusivity in the technology space. But has it been enough? (Spoiler: no.)
Let me begin with a caveat. This article was originally written for a publication which later made the decision—one I agreed with—that an article about diversity written by a straight white male might be a little on the nose. I sought (and obtained) their permission to post it here instead because I consider myself an ally and wanted to share some of the stats/orgs I found during my research.
Lately we’ve seen more and more event attendees, as well as organizers, push for diversity at tech events. Recent statistics, however, suggest that we still have a long way to go.
In 2016, 21% of attendees at tech events in Europe were female. In 2018, despite diversity and inclusion being cited increasingly as key issues, that number rose by just 1%. (I wasn’t able to find a comparable stat for 2019.)
Unfortunately, this isn’t the most depressing thing to come out of this study.
The same survey found that 50% of women working in tech had experienced discrimination in the industry. Meanwhile, 55% of black respondents said that they felt discriminated against. In 2019, that number jumped to 80%.
