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CES 2018: Why no women speakers?

CES

In this opinion piece, Pip Wilson a tech entrepreneur, angel investor, and co-founder and CEO of amicable, a legaltech service operating in the family law market, highlights the sexism row, which ensued following the beginning of CES.

It’s a shame to kick off 2018 with sexism in tech (once again) in the news. The CES, the world’s largest tech show, opened in Las Vegas this week but by the end of the first day, the event was already under fire–and rightly so. For the second year in a row, no women would be giving the major ‘keynote’ presentations.

The Consumer Technology Association, which produces and owns CES, said, in the wake of a flurry of criticism, that it would “redouble efforts to expand women’s voices throughout the conference and as featured speakers”. But it also complained about the “limited pool when it comes to women in these positions”. To keynote at CES, the speaker “must head (president/CEO level) a large entity who has name recognition in the industry,” the organisation’s vice-president said in a blog post. Not only does the CTA define the criteria for CES (and therefore has the power to change its own rules), but it also pointed to another pervasive problem by lamenting the “limited pool”: the lack of women in senior positions at tech organisations....