I must say as an (AFAB) non-binary person in tech, the title of this article makes me uncomfortable as it obscures the fact that this event was for both women and non-binary people.
The article notes that Cullen White, AnitaB’s chief impact officer (AnitaB ran the conference), said that “some registrants had lied about their gender identity when signing up”. I would appreciate more detail on how they determined whether people were lying or not, especially considering there would be no advantage to lying since the article mentions that self-identifying men were permitted to attend the event.
However, I’m not confident that women and non-binary folks arent getting misgendered as cis men here. What about trans women or non-binary folks who are still in the closet? What about AMAB non-binary folks who are comfortable presenting as their AGAB? What about AFAB nonbinary folks who pass as cis men?
It gives me the impression that this event is only really meant for AFAB people who present femme enough rather than really including non-binary folks (which is something I encounter a lot personally in my tech career) and trans women. It makes me uncomfortable to think I would only be an acceptable person to attend if I present femme, or because I’m clearly AFAB.
Just to clarify I’m sure that many cis men attended this event in bad faith, which is certainly an issue which warrants discussion, I am just focusing on on one part of this debate and raising my concerns as a non-binary person.
Adding this as a reply since it’s a completely separate point but:
The idea of gender-specific events (as a generalization) is one that is conflicting to me. I certainly understand their value and importance, and as it stands today they are probably necessary. I, personally, am someone who benefits from them and enjoys them.
In the long-term though, as this event shows, it’s difficult to actually confirm that someone is the specified gender without being extremely invasive or excluding folks who aren’t performing the specified gender enough (whatever that would mean). The only unproblematic way to run an event like this would be to assume the good faith of the attendees, I think.
To me, in this situation, having a gender specific tech job fair feels like a bandaid solution to a wider issue that needs tackling: which is that we need to make tech recruitment less intimidating and more inclusive of women and non-binary folks in the first place. For example, how can we improve the existing mixed-gender job fairs?
I’ve also been seeing discussions that job adverts for tech jobs themselves are often worded in a way which is intimidating to AFAB folks. And I certainly feel like this is true based on my personal experiences.
I would appreciate more detail on how they determined whether people were lying or not, especially considering there would be no advantage to lying since the article mentions that self-identifying men were permitted to attend the event.
Yeah, that’s extra sketchy. Gives me more of the impression that by “female and non-binary” they meant “cis women and some enbys & trans women IF they dress up feminine”. In an event that doesn’t bar men from entering, why would any guy lie about their gender identity? What’s the prize, getting to enter a convention that you could have entered if you didn’t lie anwyays? As a trans woman that still presents masculine and has not started any HRT, it wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed I was just lying about my identity to… I dunno, score brownie points I guess?
“There were just a lot of men in the comments on anonymous profiles being like, ‘Well Don’t hate the player, hate the game,’” Barman said. “Basically proving that they are men, they’re not actually non-binary, and that they very much came [to the conference] in an aggressive nature to take space.”
And according to people on Twitter and TikTok, women were literally being shoved out of place and jumped in front of in lines, and lots of these men had “he/him” on their badges as their pronouns. These were cis men being jerks.
Thank you for linking an additional article. I’m going to be focusing in on some particular parts of this article which relate to my original concerns, though certainly reading this article and getting more detail about what exactly transpired at the event was distressing. The behaviour demonstrated is completely unacceptable, and would have definitely made me feel unsafe, especially the physical shoving.
I am going to be arguing again that I’m worried that some trans and nonbinary folks are getting misgendered as cis men. However, even if some of these folks were trans or nonbinary, if they were partaking in the behaviour that was detailed in this article, then what they were doing was still completely unfair.
many reported seeing male-presenting attendees with he/him on their nametags
This doesn’t mean for a certainty that these individuals are cis men. Nonbinary folks don’t exclusively use gender-neutral pronouns or neopronouns, many nonbinary folks are comfortable presenting as their AGAB and using those respective pronouns. These people could also be closeted trans women or nonbinary folks.
“There were just a lot of men in the comments on anonymous profiles being like, ‘Well Don’t hate the player, hate the game,’” Barman said. “Basically proving that they are men, they’re not actually non-binary, and that they very much came [to the conference] in an aggressive nature to take space.”
These people were commenting on anonymous profiles. How do we know that these people were lying about their gender identity? They could have very well just be the attendees who self-identified as male.
I must say as an (AFAB) non-binary person in tech, the title of this article makes me uncomfortable as it obscures the fact that this event was for both women and non-binary people.
The article notes that Cullen White, AnitaB’s chief impact officer (AnitaB ran the conference), said that “some registrants had lied about their gender identity when signing up”. I would appreciate more detail on how they determined whether people were lying or not, especially considering there would be no advantage to lying since the article mentions that self-identifying men were permitted to attend the event.
However, I’m not confident that women and non-binary folks arent getting misgendered as cis men here. What about trans women or non-binary folks who are still in the closet? What about AMAB non-binary folks who are comfortable presenting as their AGAB? What about AFAB nonbinary folks who pass as cis men?
It gives me the impression that this event is only really meant for AFAB people who present femme enough rather than really including non-binary folks (which is something I encounter a lot personally in my tech career) and trans women. It makes me uncomfortable to think I would only be an acceptable person to attend if I present femme, or because I’m clearly AFAB.
Just to clarify I’m sure that many cis men attended this event in bad faith, which is certainly an issue which warrants discussion, I am just focusing on on one part of this debate and raising my concerns as a non-binary person.
Edit: Grammar
Adding this as a reply since it’s a completely separate point but:
The idea of gender-specific events (as a generalization) is one that is conflicting to me. I certainly understand their value and importance, and as it stands today they are probably necessary. I, personally, am someone who benefits from them and enjoys them.
In the long-term though, as this event shows, it’s difficult to actually confirm that someone is the specified gender without being extremely invasive or excluding folks who aren’t performing the specified gender enough (whatever that would mean). The only unproblematic way to run an event like this would be to assume the good faith of the attendees, I think.
To me, in this situation, having a gender specific tech job fair feels like a bandaid solution to a wider issue that needs tackling: which is that we need to make tech recruitment less intimidating and more inclusive of women and non-binary folks in the first place. For example, how can we improve the existing mixed-gender job fairs?
I’ve also been seeing discussions that job adverts for tech jobs themselves are often worded in a way which is intimidating to AFAB folks. And I certainly feel like this is true based on my personal experiences.
For example: https://www.stemwomen.com/the-importance-of-inclusive-job-adverts
Yeah, that’s extra sketchy. Gives me more of the impression that by “female and non-binary” they meant “cis women and some enbys & trans women IF they dress up feminine”. In an event that doesn’t bar men from entering, why would any guy lie about their gender identity? What’s the prize, getting to enter a convention that you could have entered if you didn’t lie anwyays? As a trans woman that still presents masculine and has not started any HRT, it wouldn’t be the first time someone assumed I was just lying about my identity to… I dunno, score brownie points I guess?
Never underestimate the pettiness of entitled, generally conservative, men. Plenty would do it even just to mock the event or “for the lulz.”
From another article on this:
“There were just a lot of men in the comments on anonymous profiles being like, ‘Well Don’t hate the player, hate the game,’” Barman said. “Basically proving that they are men, they’re not actually non-binary, and that they very much came [to the conference] in an aggressive nature to take space.”
And according to people on Twitter and TikTok, women were literally being shoved out of place and jumped in front of in lines, and lots of these men had “he/him” on their badges as their pronouns. These were cis men being jerks.
Thank you for linking an additional article. I’m going to be focusing in on some particular parts of this article which relate to my original concerns, though certainly reading this article and getting more detail about what exactly transpired at the event was distressing. The behaviour demonstrated is completely unacceptable, and would have definitely made me feel unsafe, especially the physical shoving.
I am going to be arguing again that I’m worried that some trans and nonbinary folks are getting misgendered as cis men. However, even if some of these folks were trans or nonbinary, if they were partaking in the behaviour that was detailed in this article, then what they were doing was still completely unfair.
This doesn’t mean for a certainty that these individuals are cis men. Nonbinary folks don’t exclusively use gender-neutral pronouns or neopronouns, many nonbinary folks are comfortable presenting as their AGAB and using those respective pronouns. These people could also be closeted trans women or nonbinary folks.
These people were commenting on anonymous profiles. How do we know that these people were lying about their gender identity? They could have very well just be the attendees who self-identified as male.