1. Tech has always been pioneered by women then taken over by men as soon as it becomes prestigeous. Early days of ed-tech were much more balanced when ed-tech was the cinderella, now its a hot topic with corporates interest and money attached, so now time for us to leave it to the grown ups

2. Tech moves at such a rate that it is very expensive to keep up – men tend to have more disposable income, and new tech is heavily marketed to men rather than women, who get sold it once the pink version comes out. As the focus is always on the newest innovation rather than implimenting what we have, men get more attention.

3. Men almost universally value men’s contributions more than women’s. As men organise these conferences, they naturally select men. You see the same in race – look at the whiteness of the brightest stars…White men make up around 6% of the world population but over 75% of the keynotes at this conference. Nothing particularly unusual tho.

I’m interested in your comment, Paul about
“attracting more female keynotes”

Keynotes are usually invited rather than attracted. Are you getting a high rate of women turning down your invitations?

Interestingly this blog post sparked a long and involved discussion on facebook. For whatever reason people chose to comment over there rather than here!

Incidentally I am attending LWF and will provide a briefing