Re: Lack of diversity within selected talks

On 15 Apr 2014, at 16:23, Nelle Varoquaux wrote:

>> Not entirely fair, even for ladies awaiting for the final schedule.
>> I agree instead to set gender quotas (eg. 40% minimum for the
> less-represented
>> gender). But imho rules should be set *before* the review process.
> As a member of a "minority ", I feel very uncomfortable with such 
> quotas,
> and if you ask women in computer science around Europe, they tend to 
> feel
> the same way (this may be very different in North America, as we have 
> two
> very different cultures when coming to these subject).

I would be very careful with such blanket statements; Scandinavian 
countries had quotas for decades.

But this is an overall derailment, because there is a *huge* gap between 
“not doing enough active outreach” (and thus not getting enough 
proposals) and “setting hard quotas” (and thus accepting 
sub-standard proposals just to fulfill them).

The truth is somewhere in between.

> I want my proposal
> to be accepted for my work and not because I'm a woman, and I don't 
> think
> I'll ever submit to a conference where such rules are applied.

That would assume that being a woman is a sufficient requirement.  
Quotas *should* mean that the PC has to look harder and actively reach 
out to potential target groups.  It’s a logical “and” operation, 
not an “or”.
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