[ripe-list] Gender politics at RIPE

Hi Malcolm,

> To the female speaker who said she would feel more welcome if there were
> more female participants, I say this: I hope you feel welcome already.
> You are very welcome, as is everyone. And I hope nobody would judge how
> welcome they are as a zero-sum game in competition with some other group
> or tribe.

There's no assumption of a zero sum game here. The aim that Shane articulated is to attract more participants, not different ones; and to choose the best content from that expanded set.

I understand the fear that the box ticking could take over, and you'd be quite right to be diligent to make sure that the result is indeed to expand, not divide, the pool of participants. But if we start from the point of view that roughly matching the industry as it exists is good enough... then we will never accomplish this.

Malcolm, forgive me for making an assumption, but I have the idea that you think we need to work from first principles here, with all the risks inherent in that. Like the code of conduct, though, other areas of the industry are doing this first, and showing how to do it right. We can follow their example.

All the best,
Anna

p.s. For those not at the RIPE meeting, here's Shane's talk that stimulated this discussion. https://ripe73.ripe.net/archives/video/1246/
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