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.
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