[Inpycon] Encouraging women developers to join PyCon

[Bibhas Ch Debnath]

Hi Priya,

On 30 March 2013 13:51, priya iyer <wordsofagirl at gmail.com> wrote:

> >How about we decrease ticket price to some amount or maybe waive it
> totally for them?
>
> Umm... I am kind of taking offence at this.
>

Sorry, but I didn't mean any offence. The sole reason behind this proposal
was that I want to have more female developers to join PyCon, and have
faced couple of friends who said that cost is an issue for them because
they are from other cities. I always encourage my friends to join
conferences like this, and have faced the same argument more than once. I
know it's not a good option, but it's a starting point to think how we can
go about it. Because now we have some feedback on why it won't work. Let's
get more views on what will work.
Maybe other members of this list who are more experienced will be able to
share their views.


> If we girls want to attend, we can pay too. The only way to increase the
> female attendees is to go pitch a demo of python at a girls only college.
>
> I remember that girls from my college had a tendency to 'flock' and if a
> few key people go, I am sure the rest would too. Secondly accommodation for
> outstation girls. It may also be just a room at the girls hostel for 4
> girls at a time, but even as a girl developer staying was my first
> challenge.
>
> Another challenge is transportation. If you talk in the college to give
> their transportation to and fro after the evening time with drop off at key
> places in the city, I think it would personally help.
>
>  I personally remember my mother being all anxious to let me attend
> conferences that are in different cities or requiring a travel in the
> evenings. I had to find some good male community member support to travel
> 'with him' after telling about him to my mother and assuring I was not
> alone.
>
> Anyway, this was my two pieces of personal experience wishlist items.
>
> Best,
> Priya
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 9:47 AM, Noufal Ibrahim <noufal at nibrahim.net.in>wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm not sure if decreasing ticket prices is sending the right
>> message. It's kind of condescending. I've always thought that the idea
>> is equality in the domain rather than special treatment.
>>
>> However, initiatives like what the pyladies group does are useful. I'm
>> just not sure how to go about this. It would be nice if there were a few
>> active female members in the organiser group.
>>
>> Bibhas Ch Debnath <me at bibhas.in> writes:
>>
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > We have been talking about encouraging women to join PyCon and start
>> > working on python. Why not take a step towards it? How about we decrease
>> > ticket price to some amount or maybe waive it totally for them?
>> >
>> > This could bring some questions like how'd we know that the ones joining
>> > are bringing some value to the conference. Well, if more women are
>> > attending, that's already a plus. To ensure even more, we could start a
>> > program, like, ask them to create a github account, create 2-5 repo,
>> show
>> > us and they get a free ticker. Sounds odd and silly, but this will also
>> > encourage them to start using git or any VCS. And this also shows us
>> that
>> > those participants actually made some effort to join the conference.
>> They
>> > are not just drove by the offer of freebies.
>> >
>> > I haven't seen many girls take up the initiative to become a developer,
>> > only couple of my college friends did. They have no one to encourage
>> them
>> > in becoming developers. So to do that, we might have to put some extra
>> > manual effort. But it should be overall good for the community.
>> >
>> > PS: Should have put the gender field in last year's feedback form. Could
>> > get a statistic. This year will definitely do it.
>> >
>> >
>> > ----
>> > Bibhas
>> > http://bibhas.in
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > Inpycon mailing list
>> > Inpycon at python.org
>> > http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
>>
>> --
>> Cordially,
>> Noufal
>> http://nibrahim.net.in
>> _______________________________________________
>> Inpycon mailing list
>> Inpycon at python.org
>> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
>>
>
>
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