The Grace Hopper Celebration, which bills itself as a the world’s largest conference for women in computing, was recently swamped by men. The influential career fair for women opened itself to disaster by welcoming “non-binary” attendees to be inclusive of the LGBT community — an invitation men accepted in large numbers. Event organizers became frustrated by the sea of men, accusing male attendees of “lying” about their gender identities, with the event’s chief impact officer complaining, “Unfortunately — some of you are taking interview slots right now, from women who need them. Some of you are standing in line, talking to recruiters, instead of letting women speak. All of those are limited resources to which you have no right.”
This year’s Grace Hopper Celebration, an annual conference and career fair for women in tech, was swamped by men who arrived at the event with their résumés in hand, in search of tech jobs, according to a report by Wired.
Watch Below:
Holy sh*t
Grace Hopper is a job fair meant to help women in the tech industry.
GHC decided to be non-binary inclusive.
This year, the event was overran by men. pic.twitter.com/0Xw4I0bQGL
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 3, 2023
The conference, which is sponsored by companies like Apple and Amazon, bills itself as the largest gathering of women in tech worldwide, with a mission to unite women in the tech industry for nearly 30 years. In-person admission costs between $649 and around $1,300.
But recently, the career fair has been advertised toward both women and so-called “non-binary” applicants. Men are not banned from attending the conference, as organizers believe it is important for there to be a sense of “allyship” from males in the tech industry.
This year, however, there was “an increase in participation of self-identifying males” at the job fair, AnitaB.org, the nonprofit that runs the conference, said.
Event organizers reportedly became frustrated, with Bo Young Lee, president of advisory at AnitaB.org, saying that past conferences have “always felt safe and loving and embracing,” but, “this year, I must admit, I didn’t feel this way.”
In a video posted to X/Twitter, Cullen White, AnitaB.org’s chief impact officer, can be heard lecturing male conference attendees and accusing them of “lying” about their “gender identity” when they signed up for the event.
“This is supposed to be a joyous event,” White said. “Yesterday, it became clear that there is a far greater number of cisgender men attending and participating.”
“Simply put, some of you lied about your gender identity when you registered,” White added, which elicited booing from members of the audience.
Watch Below:
A message to cis men attending #GHC23 from Cullen White, Chief Impact Officer at https://t.co/t5BIqtZFZc. pic.twitter.com/HX6sU8uafp
— AnitaB.org (@AnitaB_org) September 27, 2023
“It is evidenced by the stacks and stacks of résumés you were passing out,” he continued. “You did so because you thought that you could come here and take space to try to get a job.”
“We need male allies. We need men who want to celebrate women, who want to work with, and for, women,” White proclaimed.
“Unfortunately — some of you are taking interview slots right now, from women who need them,” White complained. “Some of you are standing in line, talking to recruiters, instead of letting women speak. All of those are limited resources to which you have no right.”
White then demanded that all the men “stop, right now.”
“Stop!” White declared.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.