Why was I not the sort of person people would see as a natural ally here?

I’ve known women who’ve had stories like this for years and they’ve said nothing to me. What is wrong with me? What have I, how have I presented myself in such a way as to not give confidence, or why was I not the sort of person people would see as a natural ally here? …

Don’t have the porn industry sponsor your tech event redux.

This is part of an ongoing series called So you want more women at your tech event? This past week I published a blog post on how having the porn industry sponsor tech events leads to decreased participation by women. A large number of people read the article, and left comments. Many of the comments were …

So you want more women at your tech event? Don’t have the porn industry sponsor your event.

This is part of an ongoing series called So you want more women at your tech event? If you are going to run a tech conference with fewer than 5% women speakers, you probably want to avoid additional criticism about your lack of inclusivity. But if you also have the adult entertainment industry sponsor your event, maybe you’re not really …

So you want more women at your tech event? Say it out loud.

This is Part 3 of an ongoing series called So you want more women at your tech event? One of the biggest mistakes I see conference organizers make is not making a public statement on gender equality. It’s a very small thing to do, but the effect can be huge. I had been meaning to write this post …

On hidden bias

At that same dinner, one African American woman summed up progress in this way: “We’ll know we have parity when mediocre black women get funding for bad ideas at the same rate as mediocre white men.” Fraeda Kapor Klein On TechCrunch Thanks to Cindy Gallop for drawing this to my attention.

So you want more women at your tech event? Make it cheap.

This is Part 2 of an ongoing series called So you want more women at your tech event? One of the easiest things you can do to get more women at your event is to make it cheap to attend. Women have lower salaries and less disposable income than men. They are more often single parents. And …

So you want more women at your tech event? Put a woman in charge

This is Part 1 of an ongoing series called So you want more women at your tech event? One of the first things you should do if you want more women at your tech event, is put a woman in charge. Tech events usually have an organizing committee and there should be at least one woman …

So you want more women at your tech event?

This is what a tech event looks like when women are welcome. This is a photo of me, taken by the talented Eva Blue at PodCamp Montreal 2010. I also brought my baby to WordCamp 2010 about two weeks before this photo was taken. There were at least two other babes in arms at that …

The price of admission

After I wrote my last blog post on women in tech (or more accurately the invisibility of women in tech), both organizers of Startup Fest emailed me. They weren’t happy with the article. And (surprise!) they wanted me to MC the Granny Den. They offered to let me help organize the Granny Den, make it …