I really liked what you wrote here. If you *have* to speak on a gender issue, why not use this post as your speech? It has to be personal, otherwise it won't 'sing' and have your passion behind it. Sure, you can talk about others encountering glass ceilings, but only in the context that you HAVEN'T (as far as you're aware -- sometimes it's more insidious than obvious, like being rejected at resume time before you can even get your foot in the door).
Or if the gender thing is still required (maybe you should speak about WHY they want a gender focus and WHY they chose a female to present it???), perhaps you can look at how subtle things can perpetuate gender roles (like my recent blog post on logos and fonts: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/logos-and-fonts-channeling-my-inner-feminist/ -- that still makes me angry!), or the Twitter backchannel at conferences and the like that have objectified the female speaker (e.g. http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/conferences-and-twitter-backchannels/).
But I'd be spinning it around and focusing on WHY there's no presentation on male gender issues in the tech workplace.
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Date: 2010-07-22 08:50 am (UTC)Or if the gender thing is still required (maybe you should speak about WHY they want a gender focus and WHY they chose a female to present it???), perhaps you can look at how subtle things can perpetuate gender roles (like my recent blog post on logos and fonts: http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/logos-and-fonts-channeling-my-inner-feminist/ -- that still makes me angry!), or the Twitter backchannel at conferences and the like that have objectified the female speaker (e.g. http://cybertext.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/conferences-and-twitter-backchannels/).
But I'd be spinning it around and focusing on WHY there's no presentation on male gender issues in the tech workplace.
--Rhonda