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CV Harquail: Separate Still Isn’t Equal: Sexism Among TED Conferences

Posted: August 1st, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Briefs | Tags: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The influential TED conference recently announced a one-off event called TEDWomen after mounting criticism that the TED stage is overwhelmingly male-dominated. CV Harquail says only 17% of TED speakers are women, and calls the TEDWomen conference a display of "simplistic, outdated, and unenlightened thinking." With a separate conference for women, she says TED "demonstrates the very discrimination it is supposed to address."

Indeed, separatism can easily be viewed as segregation. According to Harquail, "Once upon a time, it made sense to create separate conferences for women. Women thinkers and activists were so marginal, so subordinated, and so far from the public platform that separate conferences were virtually the only way to create space for women to present, discuss and promote their ideas." But for TED, she says it's inappropriate.

The root issue of gender inequality of TED speakers remains, but women-only spaces can still be valuable. Can TED have the best of both worlds?

Read brief source…

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3 Comments on “CV Harquail: Separate Still Isn’t Equal: Sexism Among TED Conferences”

  1. 1 Nio said at 5:46 pm on August 2nd, 2010:

    Hey guys, great show!

    One question, I might be blind but I can’t seem to find that Indian sex workers bill of rights draft written down anywhere. I thought it was utterly fantastic and would like to put it up on my blog. Is there somewhere I can find it already written or would it be ok if I transcribe it to my blog?

    Thanks!

  2. 2 maymay said at 6:42 pm on August 2nd, 2010:

    Thanks, Nio.

    I can’t seem to find that Indian sex workers bill of rights draft written down anywhere.

    This post is unrelated to what you want. Instead, see this brief about SANGRAM.

  3. 3 Nio said at 2:04 am on August 4th, 2010:

    Opps, sorry about that. Serves me right for secretly listening to Kink On Tap and trying to post here from work. Thanks!