The Vanity of Diversity

Let's not talk around the subject here... women are under represented when it comes to speaking or participating in tech conferences. It's a male dominated culture. When I saw Lani Rosales had published, "The Ultimate list of Austin women who can speak at your tech event" in response to the complaint that there are no women speakers available in the tech industry, I called her right away. As co-founder of the world's largest DevOps conference, All Day DevOps, and as one of the core organizers of the global DevSecOps Days series of events, I wanted to hear how the list came together, her motiviation for creating the list and how the tech community has responded to an overt call for women speakers. One of the most surprising topics during our conversation was the continual reference to "the vanity of diversity". Lani is opposed to replacing males speakers just for the sake of having a token female speaker or panelists. As she says it, "Let's not remove male speakers, let's add female speakers." When she said that, it resonated with me. That's how true diversity works: add women, don't subtract men. Lani's vision is to make attendees, all attendees, feel welcome, represented and given the feeling that their way of thinking is welcome in the room, in the conference, and in the community. That's the true reason for diversity, and that's what we'll be talking about today. The Ultimate List of Austin Women Who Can Speak at Your Tech Event https://theamericangenius.com/tech-news/austin-women/