Speak easy diversity
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The document discusses the challenges of achieving diversity among speakers at testing conferences, particularly focusing on the underrepresentation of women. It highlights various reasons for this issue, including societal perceptions of merit, the lack of applications from women, and the desire to avoid tokenism. The authors propose solutions such as mentorship programs, female organizers, and a proactive approach to encourage diverse speaker participation.
Speak easy diversity
- 1. Diversity at Testing Conferences 1 Diversity at Testing Conferences Fiona Charles & Anne-Marie Charrett
- 2. Diversity at Testing Conferences 3 Previous Experience We both had worked on the program committee for CAST2012 and so had personal experience of the difficulty in sourcing speakers for Conferences. When it came to Let’s Test Oz in Australia, Anne-Marie worked hard to encourage female speakers and inexperienced speakers to try their luck speaking with limited success
- 3. Diversity at Testing Conferences 4 But is this true?
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- 5. Diversity at Testing Conferences 6
- 6. Diversity at Testing Conferences 7 Perhaps program committee?
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- 8. Diversity at Testing Conferences 9
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- 11. Diversity at Testing Conferences 12 REASON 1 It’s a reflection of the number of women in IT
- 12. Diversity at Testing Conferences 13 Vizuri 2006
- 13. Diversity at Testing Conferences 14 REASON 2 Women don’t want to speak
- 14. Diversity at Testing Conferences 15 REASON 3 Conferences try but Women don’t APPLY to Speak
- 15. Diversity at Testing Conferences 16 REASON 4 Women don’t want tokenism
- 16. Diversity at Testing Conferences 17 Reason 5 We take people on merit only
- 17. Diversity at Testing Conferences 18 What is Merit? • You have spoken before? • You are known by the community? • You are a member of the program committee’s tribe? • You are good at speaking? • You have speaker credibility? • You have a reputation as a good tester? • You are entertaining? • You are loud and noisy?
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- 20. Diversity at Testing Conferences 21 Moving Forward • The way to improve the pool of women speakers is through personal one on one mentoring. • The program integrated with conferences so that women being mentored had a specific goal in mind. • We wanted conferences to secure a speaking spot – (inspired by the Yow! Women in Tech competition)
- 21. Diversity at Testing Conferences 22 Ways to increase Female Participation •Female Organisers •Female Program Committees •Strong Presence in Female Community •Conscious Effort by Program Committee to encourage Diversity (CAST2014) •Early Action (CAST 2015)
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- 24. Diversity at Testing Conferences 25 ‘if you are going to wait until you feel like you are an expert, you are never going to do it’
- 25. Diversity at Testing Conferences 26 One thing I know for sure, I would not have done that first 5 minute lightning talk at CAST weren’t for the support of some amazing people.
- 26. Diversity at Testing Conferences 27 What you can do • Become a Volunteer • Become a mentor • Conference allocate a Speak Easy Spot • Companies can donate and support Ru Cindrea Lee Hawkins
- 27. Diversity at Testing Conferences 28 QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?
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Editor's Notes
- #2: Ask Questions Straight away don’t wait. If you want to give an idea or a quesiton please do.
- #6: Average of 25% speaker participation. Is that a bad thing? Not sure – fluctuating experiences. CAST 2014 being highest. STARWEST2014 being the lowest.
- #14: Techwell magazine, anecdotally there seems to be a higher percentage of women in software testing, but no real stats to bear it out.
- #18: WHAT EXACTLY DOES MERIT MEAN? ACCORDING TO WHO? The subtle statement here is there is a standard and women don’t meet it.
- #19: There is no scientific way of picking people. Often its based on if that person is known and liked by the program committee
- #20: There is a perceived problem that there are insufficient women speaking at conferences. What can be done about it? One on one mentoring Integrate with conferences Allocated spot for new speakers
- #21: In a quiet pub in Dublin while Fiona Charles and I attended Eurostar 2014, the topic of diversity (in particular gender) came up. It had been a ‘hot topic’ through the year, with many tweets and blogs posts on the topic but sadly there seemed little direct action on the topic. Both Fiona and I felt that while making the problem visible is important, even more important is to do something about it.
- #23: Possible factors, not a given (as stats show). Many men are conscious of their biases and make an effort to be more inclusive
- #24: 8 new Testers speaking at conferences CAST2015, BSE 8 Conferences in 2015 2 Conferences in 2016 60 Testers signed up to be mentored 35 Mentors signed up 58 Matched with a mentor