A small number of female speakers at a Dell-run cyber-security conference has provoked participants from Facebook and Alphabet to arrange their own breakaway gathering with an even broader gender mix.
The RSA Conference was attacked by a lot of criticism after it scheduled a solitary female keynote speaker for this high-profile event, which attracted and brought 43,000 attendees last year, forcing some cyber-security professionals to arrange and organize an alternative one-day forum in San Francisco on the 17th of April, which was the day after RSA’s one-week-long gathering breaks up.
22 Speakers who would be sharing their views and offering their arguments have been finalized and the remaining list is yet to be confirmed. Monica Lewinsky, who is a former White House intern who was seduced by the former President of United States, Bill Clinton would be coming as a token female participant at this conference.
Curator and vice president of RSA Conference , Sandra Toms, spoken out in defense of the meeting and presented an argument in its favor by appreciating it, however, she pointed out that a final list of speakers who are to be there at the conference is yet to be revealed.
Annie Stepanovich from the OUR Security Advocates, the breakaway grouping, was not at moved by the line of argument presented, however, she was of the opinion that the least we can do and is expected of us is to just start taking some primitive and initial steps towards a greater inclusion.
Among the ones who participated in the alternative conference is a well-known personality, Alex Stamos (Facebook’s chief security officer), who moved into action opposing the backdrop of increased awareness of issues related to equality which were highlighted by the #MeToo social media movement.
Source: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03/06/breakaway-cyber-security-conference-planned-amid-gender-bias-controversy