A common theme across many a convention, summit or festival is the panel of speakers. And just as common a theme is that panel of speakers fulfilling one, very slender demographic of society.
It’s something we at Siliconrepublic.com have noted in the past, but never had we discovered such a fine resource to document this ‘professional’ reality as what lies below.
It’s an issue that’s actually so important to us that we’re running Inspirefest 2015 in a few weeks’ time, an event that connects professionals interested in the future of STEM, with speakers representing not one, but two genders.
All Male Panels is a brilliant Tumblr that’s been going on for a while now. It essentially allows users submit their photos of all male panels, covering any topic whatsover, all with a David Hasselhoff thumbs up ‘Hoffsome’ stamp of approval.
There’s no points system or ways to rate the different panels, although one or two do stand out as clear winners.
For example, this Manel – see what they did there? – discussing women in Buddhism:
Or how women can get ahead in tech:
There’s the common global problem of society being unable to find women who can speak, with authority, on wine:
There’s the panel on ontology, which I like purely because it made me look up ‘ontology’. It’s the philosophical study of the nature of being, becoming, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations, according to sources. Someone should probably explain the way humans reproduce to these champs:
And finally an almost all-male audience, watching a man, discuss women. Because gender:
As a way of comparison, here is just a short selection of those speaking at Inspirefest next month. The ones with female names are actual real-life women:
Male speaker illustration, via Shutterstock
Inspirefest 2015 is Silicon Republic’s international event running 18-20 June in Dublin that connects sci-tech professionals passionate about the future of STEM with fresh perspectives on leadership, innovation and diversity.
