Women on Stage – Changing the Ratio
Kate Bristow, Chief Strategy Officer
One of the most galling things about attending conferences is the lack of diversity usually seen on stage. The people invited to speak are invariably white men, and while that may not seem surprising to half of the audience, I can tell you it is painfully apparent to those of us in the other half.
So how refreshing it was to sit down to watch one of the first sessions at the TED conference last week, and to realize as speaker after speaker stood up that I was witnessing the most diverse line up I have ever encountered at such a high level event. TED Fellows is a program TED initiated a few years ago to find young game-changers from across the planet and provide them mentorship, resources and support to get their ideas out. These Fellows are invited to give a talk at the TED Conference, allowing them another opportunity to be seen and heard by an influential community.
This year’s Fellows include Jedidah Isler, an African-American astrophysicist, Patience Mthunzi, a South African laser physicist, and Trang Tran, a Vietnamese agriculture entrepreneur.
As each got up to speak, the women sitting around me became noticeably more excited and engaged. As the session ended, it was all we could talk about.
“Did you see how many women there were?”
“Did you see how diverse that group was?”
One of the most inspiring sessions of TED this year was entitled ‘Just and Unjust.’ Just as compelling as the talks was the fact that the line up for this session was so diverse – again, noticeably so.
