Bingo
And courtesy of @KdotCdot on Twitter, we have discovered this wonderful Female Conference Speaker bingo card. Have it at the ready the next time you ask a conference organiser why there aren’t more women giving speeches or presentations at their event, or taking part in their
discussion panels.
There are 24 (or ‘Knock at the door!’ in bingo lingo) replies on there, including:
- hackneyed old excuses (“There aren’t enough qualified speakers”)
- defensive protests (“Fine, YOU tell me who they should have invited”)
- blithe sexism (“Women only ever want to talk about woman-stuff”)
- downright idiocy (“Trying to get more female speakers is sexist”).
If anyone tries to pawn you off with one of these, try not to laugh and then explain politely that it’s just not good enough. There’s no excuse for men-only conference panels, no matter what the field.