Second opinion?

[sheenaghpugh]

From a Guardian article on Eastercon: "I think we've sorted out the gender thing," says John Medany. "Look around. Half of the attendees are female."

Now for all I know, he may be right; I haven't been to the con. But that isn't the way to judge it. If half of the speakers are female, then yes. Anyone know if that's so?

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Discussions about gender parity on panels have been central to the conversation throughout the weekend. A live issue!

[matildabj.livejournal.com]

And now there's a lovely comment on the article saying 'why are things dominated by white men automatically bad?'

*stabstabstabstab*

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I don't see the comments on the article, but the obvious answer is that anything dominated by a minority is automatically bad.

[sheenaghpugh]

You can see the comments here - I don't know why they don't show on the other version.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Most of the panels I went to had a preponderance of women, rather than parity. Annoyingly, the only panel I knew anything about, the lone male was the only one talking sense - the women were clearly there as 'makeweight' (and not only for gender but also age - you really should not put people on a panel about 1970s SF if they were not born then).