.. title: Growth in Diversity
.. slug: growth-in-diversity
.. date: 2013/01/16 09:00:00
.. tags: python,pycon,diversity
.. link: 
.. description: 

Tarek Ziadé recently
`announced <http://blog.ziade.org/2013/01/15/fosdem-amp-python/>`__
the schedule for the
`Python track <https://fosdem.org/2013/schedule/track/python/>`__
at FOSDEM 2013, where he’s one of the organizers. They have some
interesting talks lined up by some excellent speakers, so if you’re
going to FOSDEM, be sure to check them out.

The bigger part of the post is about a complete lack of women speakers.
Namely, it’s about how I edited his blog post before publishing it
on the PyCon blog.

Jumping ahead to the last sentence in his post gets to the answer of
why I did what I did. With PyCon, we’ve diversified our speaker list through
a lot of effort, and a great set of allies.

There’s a reason we went from one woman on the PyCon 2011 schedule
to six in 2012. There’s also a reason we went from six
to at least 22 for 2013. We didn’t do it through words, but through actions.

We experienced that growth thanks in part to the proliferation of
women’s technology groups and the relationships we’ve built with them.
By reaching out and involving these groups, we’ve seen
not only a rise in women on stage, but a noticeable increase
in women in the audience.

Rather than saying “everyone is welcome, specifically women”,
we’re trying to achieve an environment that is fair and equal.
To do that, PyCon has been consistent in targeting an audience
that includes *everyone*. I went back through many pages of posts
on the PyCon blog, to early 2011, and we’ve stuck to this stance.

Even though 22 speakers sounds so much better than 6, read that again,
only with more detail: 22 women on a schedule of 114 talks and 32 tutorials.

That really sucks. We’re not going to see that number increase to
35, 40, 45, or hopefully higher in 2014 by mentioning “women, too”.
We’re going to see that growth by ensuring women feel like first class
citizens in our community. That goes for within PyCon, Python,
all of technology, and on and on.

On one hand, it’s great that we’ve seen this growth in PyCon.
I’m happy for what the community has done to welcome this growth,
and I’m happy for the people who helped achieve this growth.
Most of all, I’m happy for the individuals who are a part of this growth.

On the other hand, what the hell is wrong with us that we can only get
22 women on the schedule? The answer has roots in a lot of stuff
far away from and a lot earlier in the process than conferences come in,
but *we can and will do better*.

We will continue to push for diversity by engaging groups that work with
underrepresented areas of our community. As these partnerships blossom and
new groups sprout, we will continue to engage them in hopes of
realizing further growth. All the while, we will continue to market
our conference to everyone.

I think I speak for the organizers in stating that while we’re happy
with the growth trends we’re seeing, we’re not going to be satisfied
until we’ve reached and maintain equality. Our community deserves it.

----

One thing I will apologize for is that I did not notify Tarek
of the change to his post. I did it on my own because I had that change
made to my posts years ago, and I’ve learned what I think are better ways
to reach and incorporate women. I should have communicated my thoughts
and worked with Tarek, but I did not. For that, I’m sorry.