Men Tried To Turn a Tech Conference for Women and Nonbinary Folks into a Mojo Dojo Casa House

Once again, men have ruined an event intended for people other than them. The Grace Hopper Celebration (named for a woman who made advancements in computer technology) is a conference designed to help women and nonbinary people gain jobs in tech industries. The conference was even more important this year as the tech industry has been going through major layoffs. For clarity, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, women hold only 26% of jobs in STEM fields and 24% of computer jobs. However, The Women Tech Network said that 69.2% of recently laid-off workers are women.

The four-day event took place last week in Orlando, Florida. With a limited amount of attendee space (roughly 300,000) and the opportunity to meet with large tech companies, tickets are already competitive. But this year tickets seemed to go faster than usual, even with admission prices ranging from $649 to $1,298. According to conference organizers, numerous men lied about their gender and claimed to be nonbinary to gain entry. Thanks to the tech bros, things just got worse from there.

This is why we can’t have nice things

NPR interviewed several attendees to see what the atmosphere was like. Multiple women said it is usually a really fun event, but there was a total shift this year. “I heard it was like the Coachella of tech for women,” said Morgan Young. “It’s supposed to be fun and collaborative. But the vibe was so different. You could feel the cutthroatness in the air.” Instead of the roughly 1% of men who usually attend, it was more like a “40/60 ratio of men to women.”

The men who came brought stacks of résumés with them to force onto reps from Google, Amazon, and SalesForce. According to attendees, the men would swarm tables and cut in line. One woman said she heard a group of men using misogynistic slurs. Of course the guys who lied about their gender identities are the sames ones who wouldn’t respect the space for what it was. The president of AnitaB.org, the conference’s organizer, said “We tried to create a safe space. And this week, we saw the outside world creep in.” These party crashers “robbed the conference of the joyous and supportive atmosphere that had previously helped women grow.”

(via NPR, featured image: Warner Bros.)